MONOCLONAL-ANTIBODIES RAISED TO THE DENGUE-2 VIRUS (CUBAN, A15 STRAIN) WHICH RECOGNIZE VIRAL STRUCTURAL PROTEINS

Mouse monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) were raised to dengue-2 virus (D-2V ) Cuban (A15) strain and the cell culture supernatants were screened b y ELISA using the homologous virus. Three MAb-secreting lines were fur ther characterized using immunoblot, haemaglutination, complement-fixa tion, and neutralization assays. One of these, MAb 8H8, weakly reacted with the viral nonstructural-1 protein (NS1) but more specifically id entified the capsid protein (C), MAb 3E1 recognized in serological ass ays D-2V A15 but it had a weak reaction to C protein by immunodetectio n whereas another, MAb 4G3, weakly neutralized the homologous virus is olate and blocked the binding of specific anti-envelope (E) Mab, and i ts reaction with this protein could not be confirmed using immunoblot assays. These reagents are now being used to compare virulent plus avi rulent Caribbean viruses antibody dependent enhancement (ADE) assays.