Identification of the p34 Protein of African Swine Fever Virus as a Novel Viral Antigen with Protection Potential
Xin Zhang,
Xiangyu Guan,
Qiuxia Wang,
Xiao Wang,
Xiaoke Yang,
Shuwen Li,
Xiao-Tian Zhao,
Mengqi Yuan,
Xingyou Liu,
Hua-Ji Qiu,
Yongfeng Li
Affiliations
Xin Zhang
State Key Laboratory for Animal Disease Control and Prevention, Harbin Veterinary Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Harbin 150069, China
Xiangyu Guan
State Key Laboratory for Animal Disease Control and Prevention, Harbin Veterinary Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Harbin 150069, China
Qiuxia Wang
College of Animal Science and Veterinary Medicine, Henan Institute of Science and Technology, Xinxiang 453003, China
Xiao Wang
Department of Pathogenic Biology, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Binzhou Medical University, Yantai 264003, China
Xiaoke Yang
State Key Laboratory for Animal Disease Control and Prevention, Harbin Veterinary Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Harbin 150069, China
Shuwen Li
State Key Laboratory for Animal Disease Control and Prevention, Harbin Veterinary Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Harbin 150069, China
Xiao-Tian Zhao
State Key Laboratory for Animal Disease Control and Prevention, Harbin Veterinary Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Harbin 150069, China
Mengqi Yuan
State Key Laboratory for Animal Disease Control and Prevention, Harbin Veterinary Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Harbin 150069, China
Xingyou Liu
College of Animal Science and Veterinary Medicine, Henan Institute of Science and Technology, Xinxiang 453003, China
Hua-Ji Qiu
State Key Laboratory for Animal Disease Control and Prevention, Harbin Veterinary Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Harbin 150069, China
Yongfeng Li
State Key Laboratory for Animal Disease Control and Prevention, Harbin Veterinary Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Harbin 150069, China
African swine fever (ASF) is a highly contagious disease caused by African swine fever virus (ASFV), affecting domestic and wild boars. The polyprotein pp220 of ASFV is responsible for producing the major structural proteins p150, p37, p14, p34, and p5 via proteolytic processing. The p34 protein is the main component of the ASFV core shell. However, the immunologic properties of the p34 protein in vitro and in vivo remain unclear. The results showed that the recombinant p34 protein expressed in prokaryotes and eukaryotes could react with convalescent swine sera to ASFV, suggesting that p34 is an immunogenic protein. Significantly, anti-p34 antibodies were found to inhibit the replication of ASFV in target cells. Furthermore, rabbits immunized with the recombinant C-strain of classical swine fever virus containing p34 produced both anti-p34 humoral and cellular immune responses. In addition, the p34 protein could induce a cell-mediated immune response, and a T-cell epitope on the p34 protein was identified using immunoinformatics and enzyme-linked immunospot (ELIspot) assay. Our study demonstrates that the p34 protein is a novel antigen of ASFV with protective potential.
