Development of indirect enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISAs) often utilizes synthetic peptides or recombinant proteins from Escherichia coli as immobilized antigens. Because inclusion bodies (IBs) formed during recombinant protein expression in E. coli are commonly thought as misfolded aggregates, only refolded proteins from IBs are used to develop new or in-house diagnostic assays. However, the promising utilities of IBs as nanomaterials and immobilized enzymes as shown in recent studies have led us to explore the potential use of IBs of recombinant Epstein-Barr virus viral capsid antigen p18 (VCA p18) as immobilized antigens in ELISAs for serologic detection of nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC).
Co-existence of Japanese Encephalitis virus (JEV) with highly homologous antigenic epitopes results in antibody-based serodiagnosis being inaccurate at detecting and distinguishing JEV from other flaviviruses. This often causes misdiagnosis and inefficient treatments of flavivirus infection. Generation of JEV NS1 protein remains a challenge as it is notably expressed in the form of inactive aggregates known as inclusion bodies using bacterial expression systems. This study evaluated two trxB and gor E. coli strains in producing soluble JEV NS1 via a cold-shock expression system. High yield of JEV NS1 inclusion bodies was produced using cold-shocked expression system. Subsequently, a simplified yet successful approach in generating soluble, active JEV NS1 protein through solubilization, purification and in vitro refolding of JEV NS1 protein from inclusion bodies was developed. A step-wise dialysis refolding approach was used to facilitate JEV NS1 refolding. The authenticity of the refolded JEV NS1 was confirmed by specific antibody binding on indirect ELISA commercial anti-NS1 antibodies which showed that the refolded JEV NS1 was highly immunoreactive. This presented approach is cost-effective, and negates the need for mammalian or insect cell expression systems in order to synthesize this JEV NS1 protein of important diagnostic and therapeutic relevance in Japanese Encephalitis disease.