C. Prehaud et al., RECOMBINANT EBOLA-VIRUS NUCLEOPROTEIN AND GLYCOPROTEIN (GABON-94 STRAIN) PROVIDE NEW TOOLS FOR THE DETECTION OF HUMAN INFECTIONS, Journal of General Virology, 79, 1998, pp. 2565-2572
After cloning and sequencing the glycoprotein (GP) gene of one of the
Gabonese strains of Ebola virus isolated during the 1994-1996 outbreak
, it was shown that the circulating virus was of the Zaire subtype. Th
is was confirmed in this study by cloning and sequencing the nucleopro
tein (NP) gene of this strain. These two structural proteins were also
expressed as recombinant proteins and used in ELISA tests. NP was exp
ressed as a His-tagged fusion protein in Escherichia coli and was puri
fied on resins charged with nickel ions. GP was expressed by means of
recombinant baculoviruses in Spodoptera frugiperda cells. Both recombi
nant proteins reacted positively in ELISAs for the detection of IgG an
tibodies in convalescent human sera from Gabon and Zaire. The differen
ce in the relative titres of anti-NP and -GP antibodies was variable,
depending on the sera. In addition, the recombinant NP reacted with he
terologous sera from Cote d'lvoire and was used successfully to detect
IgM antibodies by mu-capture ELISA in sera from Gabonese patients.