Cloning and Expression of a Truncated Form of the p72 Protein of the African Swine Fever Virus (ASFV) for Application in an Efficient Indirect ELISA System

African swine fever (ASF) is a disease that affects both domestic and wild swine. It was recently reported in the Dominican Republic and Haiti (2021), representing a substantial risk to America. The goal of this study was to produce a truncated form of the ASF-p72 recombinant protein based on the AS...

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Main Authors: Julieta Sandra Cuevas-Romero, Perla Lucero Zavala-Ocampo, Sonia Pina-Pedrero, Llilianne Ganges, Adriana Muñoz-Aguilera, José Bryan García-Cambrón, Fernando Rodriguez, Aruna Ambagala, José Luis Cerriteño-Sánchez
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2025-05-01
Series:Pathogens
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Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0817/14/6/542
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Summary:African swine fever (ASF) is a disease that affects both domestic and wild swine. It was recently reported in the Dominican Republic and Haiti (2021), representing a substantial risk to America. The goal of this study was to produce a truncated form of the ASF-p72 recombinant protein based on the ASF strain genotype II (Georgia 2017) as well as to develop and validate a sensitive and specific ASF indirect-ELISA (iELISA) for early detection of ASF. The truncated ASF-p72 recombinant protein was successfully expressed in <i>E. coli</i> BL21/DE3 cells using the pET-SUMO plasmid. Bioinformatics analysis showed 100% homology among the new isolates of ASFV from genotype II. The ASF-p72-truncated protein was used to develop an iELISA, which had a high sensitivity (88%) and strong specificity (97%); the concordance index kappa was K = 0.872, indicating nearly perfect agreement compared to the WOAH confirmatory immunoperoxidase test. The validation results utilizing the reference sera panel from the OIE-ASF Reference Laboratory show the excellent detection capabilities of ASF antibodies up to a 1:1000 serum dilution. The inter-assay coefficient of variation (CV 10.4%) and intra-assay CV (2.8%) data show that the assay is precise and reproducible. This biotechnology advancement can be used to conduct future epidemiological research for ASF surveillance in ASF-free American countries.
ISSN:2076-0817