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Zika virus (ZIKV) is an emerging mosquito-borne flavivirus associated with congenital Zika syndrome and Guillain-Barré syndrome in adults. The recombinant ZIKV envelope (E) antigen can be useful for serodiagnosis of ZIKV infection and for monitoring immune responses during preclinical and clinical ZIKV vaccine development. In this study, we describe production of ZIKV E using the modified polyethyleneimine (PEI) transfection in HEK293 cells to improve cost-effective large-scale production. We show that the secretion of ZIKV E in HEK293 cells is dependent on cell culture incubation temperatures where incubation at a low temperature of 28 °C improved protein secretion of both, E-CD4 and E, whereas a substantial decrease in secretion was observed at 37 °C. The resulting E-CD4 produced at low temperature yielded similar binding profiles in ELISAs in comparison with a commercially available E protein using human seropositive sera to ZIKV. We also show that ZIKV NS1 and NS1 β-ladder antigens produced in HEK293 cells, have similar binding profiles in ELISA which suggests that both NS1 or NS1 β-ladder can be used for serodiagnosis of ZIKV. In conclusion, we propose a cost-effective production of the ZIKV E and NS1, suitable for both, clinical and research applications in endemic countries.

Original publication

DOI

10.1016/j.jviromet.2021.114175

Type

Journal article

Journal

Journal of virological methods

Publication Date

08/2021

Volume

294

Addresses

The Jenner Institute, Nuffield Department of Medicine, University of Oxford, The Henry Wellcome Building for Molecular Physiology, Roosevelt Drive, Oxford, UK; Division of Structural Biology, University of Oxford, Wellcome Centre for Human Genetics, Roosevelt Drive, Oxford, UK.