Escherichia coli-expressed near full length HIV-1 envelope glycoprotein is a highly sensitive and specific diagnostic antigen

: Talha SM, Nemani SK, Salminen T, Kumar S, Swaminathan S, Soukka T, Pettersson K, Khanna N

Publisher: BIOMED CENTRAL LTD

: 2012

: BMC Infectious Diseases

: BMC INFECTIOUS DISEASES

: BMC INFECT DIS

: ARTN 325

: 12

: 11

: 1471-2334

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2334-12-325

This study has demonstrated the expression of r-gp160 variant in E. coli, by deletion of hydrophobic regions, and its purification in reasonable yields. This underscores the potential for cost saving in antigen production. Evaluation of this antigen in a double antigen sandwich two-step assay showed it to be a highly sensitive and specific HIV-1 diagnostic reagent. The amenability of this assay to the one-step format suggests its potential utility in developing a rapid point-of-care HIV-1 diagnostic test.