Date of Award
7-24-2008
Degree Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Science (MS)
Department
Biology
First Advisor
Julia Hilliard, Ph.D. - Chair
Second Advisor
Roberta Attanasio, Ph.D.
Third Advisor
Barbara Baumstark, Ph.D.
Abstract
B virus diagnosis presents a challenge largely complicated by the asymptomatic infection of rhesus macaques, and extremely pathogenic fatal infections in humans. Humoral detection of antibodies is generally performed using whole virus antigen for which preparation requires strict biosafety measures and specialized BSL-4 facilities. As an alternative to utilizing B virus antigen, we describe the production of a truncated form of B virus envelope glycoprotein D, gD 287, in a baculovirus expression system, and evaluate its diagnostic potential as an antigen in recombinant ELISA. After purification and characterization, gD 287 was tested using 22 negative and 72 positive macaque sera samples previously classified using the traditional method. We find that sensitivity and specificity of the recombinant ELISA are dependent on antibody titer of tested serum and gD 287 shows good to excellent predictive potential for identification of positive sera with titers higher than 500.
DOI
https://doi.org/10.57709/1059211
Recommended Citation
Filfili, Chadi N., "Production of B Virus Glycoprotein D and Evaluation of its Diagnostic Potential." Thesis, Georgia State University, 2008.
doi: https://doi.org/10.57709/1059211