Inexpensive designer antigen for anti-HIV antibody detection with high sensitivity and specificity

A novel recombinant multiepitope protein (MEP) has been designed that consists of four linear, immunodominant, and phylogenetically conserved epitopes, taken from human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-encoded antigens that are used in many third-generation immunoassay kits. This HIV-MEP has been evaluated for its diagnostic potential in the detection of anti-HIV antibodies in human sera. A synthetic MEP gene encoding these epitopes, joined by flexible peptide linkers in a single open reading frame, was designed and overexpressed in Escherichia coli. The recombinant HIV-MEP was purified using a single affinity step, yielding >20 mg pure protein/liter culture, and used as the coating antigen in an in-house immunoassay. Bound anti-HIV antibodies were detected by highly sensitive time-resolved fluorometry, using europium(III) chelate-labeled anti-human antibody. The sensitivity and specificity of the HIV-MEP were evaluated using Boston Biomedica worldwide HIV performance, HIV seroconversion, and viral coinfection panels and were found to be comparable with those of commercially available anti-HIV enzyme immunoassay (EIA) kits. The careful choice of epitopes, high epitope density, and an E. coli-based expression system, coupled with a simple purification protocol and the use of europium(III) chelate-labeled tracer, provide the capability for the development of an inexpensive diagnostic test with high degrees of sensitivity and specificity.