Production and characterization of monospecific and bispecific antibodies against dengue virus NS1 protein

Dengue is a mosquito borne infection, which in recent years has become a major international public health concern. Annually, 100 million dengue virus infections are reported worldwide. The nonstructural protein 1 (NS1) of dengue virus is a useful target for diagnostics of dengue infection since the protein is abundantly circulating in the blood during acute phase of the disease, in both primary and secondary infections. This research paper highlights the development of a panel of Mab and bsMab for dengue NS1 detection. The P148 series of Mabs showed high specificity for recombinant dengue NS1 antigen. These antibodies showed no cross reactivity with recombinant dengue envelope protein and other viral proteins. The hybrid-hybridoma approach to generate the P156.1 and P156.2 bsMabs from the P148 monoclonal antibody method was used during this study. Furthermore, the affinity purification provided good yields of quadromas associated with HRPO in two steps. Direct detection method involved coating of plates with different concentrations of recombinant antigen and detecting with bsMab. Sensitive sandwich assay with Mabs and bsMabs was also done. Detection of nonstructural dengue antigens may be of benefit for early and rapid diagnosis of dengue infection due to their long half-life in the blood.