The Epitope Recognized by the 6E3 Was Conservative among Different Strains To analyze the conservation of the epitope sequence, 24 representative ASFV strains from different genotypes were collected from the GenBank database (Table 2) and were aligned using MEGA. clinical ASFV infection and effectively monitored the Mitomycin C antibody levels in vivo after recombinant PRRSV live vector virus expressing p17 vaccination. Overall, the determination of the conserved linear epitope of p17 would contribute to the in-depth exploration of the biological function of the ASFV antigen protein. The indirect ELISA method and mAb against ASFV p17 revealed efficient detection and promising application prospects, making them ideal for epidemiological surveillance and vaccine research on ASF. Keywords: ASFV p17, CHO cells, epitope, indirect ELISA, recombinant PRRSV 1. Introduction African swine fever (ASF) is characterized by a high fever, internal organ bleeding, and other clinical symptoms [1]. Until now, no effective vaccine or drug has been available against this disease [2,3]. ASF was first reported in August 2018 in China. In recent years, the emergence and prevalence of naturally occurring, less virulent, and naturally gene-deleted ASFV strains in domestic pigs have been identified [4,5,6,7,8]. These natural mutants showed reduced virulence and high transmissibility, causing chronic and persistent infections in pigs; however, these pathogens were continuously shed via the oral and rectal routes at a low level, leading to difficulties and challenges for early diagnosis and control of ASF in China. Using OIE-recommended quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) methods, researchers can accurately judge whether pigs are infected with wild-type ASFV. Recently, a multiplex real-time qPCR was developed to provide a diagnostic tool for the differential detection of B646L, I177L, MGF505-2R, and EP402R genes [9]. For early diagnosis and the efficient prevention of circulating ASFV, antigen detection is very limited because of the marked decline in viral copy numbers. Currently, antibody detection of ASFV has become increasingly important [8]. Antibody detection methods against p30, p54, or p72 of ASFV have been the most researched and applied in clinical diagnosis Rabbit Polyclonal to OR1E2 [10,11,12], and it is still necessary to explore more ASFV antigens. The ASF virus (ASFV) is a double-stranded DNA virus and is the only DNA virus transmitted by insects. ASFV contains a 170C193 kb DNA genome encoding more than 150 types of proteins [13]. Among these, p12 (from SY18 (GenBank accession no. “type”:”entrez-nucleotide”,”attrs”:”text”:”MH766894.1″,”term_id”:”1490427943″,”term_text”:”MH766894.1″MH766894.1). The resultant recombinant virus was compared with the parental virus, vHuN4-F112. PRRSV titers in MARC-145 cells were determined using the standard median tissue culture infective dose (TCID50) following Mitomycin C the Reed and Muench method [18]. Swine serum samples of a virulent ASFV strain (wild-type ASFV) were stored until further use. Swine serum samples (= 155) were collected from pig farms. Serum samples positive for PRRSV, classical swine fever virus (CSFV), foot and mouth disease virus (FMDV), porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PEDV), type 2 porcine circovirus (PCV2), and pseudorabies virus (PRV), respectively, were conserved in our laboratory. 2.2. Expression and Purification of Recombinant p17 Based on sequence of the ASFV SY18 strain, pcDNA3.1-gene was ligated into the prokaryotic expression vector pCold-TF and expressed in BL21(DE3) using IPTG (1 mM). The truncated protein recognized by the mAb was verified by WB. Based on these results, the p17 mutant was further truncated. Primers used Mitomycin C in this study were listed in Table 1. Finally, the peptides were synthesized and coated onto the ELISA plates. The OD450 value of each short peptide recognized by the mAb was determined by indirect ELISA, and the smallest B-epitope was determined. Table 1 Primers used in this study. gene) were successfully assembled using the same strategies as previously described [19]. The parental plasmid pHuN4-F112 and recombinant plasmid pA-p17 were linearized with I, which was immediately downstream of the poly (A) tail, and Mitomycin C then gel-purified using the QIAgen PCR purification kit (QIAgen,.