Development of antibodies against recombinant staphylococcal enterotoxin B from food poisoning cases

Staphylococcal enterotoxin B (SEB) is the most common serotype involved in food poisoning. The aim of this study was to develop immunoassay detection methods using a recombinant enterotoxin B antigen protein to produce recombinant polyclonal antibodies in vivo.

Staphylococcus aureus isolated from a food poisoning case (strain JH5800) was analyzed by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and confirmed to contain a seb gene of 477 bp. A SEB segment was amplified, cloned, sequenced, and aligned. The PCR product corresponding to the predicted mature SEB peptide was inserted into Escherichia coli BL21 (DE-3) expression vector and expressed as a hexahistidine-SEB fusion protein. Antiserum against recombinant SEB protein was produced by immunization of Balb/c mice.

In the indirect enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), the polyclonal antibodies produced had a titer of 1:3200. The seb gene of Staphylococcus aureus isolated from a poisoning case (JH5800) had a molecular size of about 477 bp and a band of recombinant SEB toxin was observed at approximately 30 kDa on SDS-PAGE gel. The polyclonal anti-SEB antibody titer, as revealed by indirect ELISA, was 1:3200 at 59 days.

SEB recombinant protein could be used to produce polyclonal antibodies. ELISA and Western blotting were used to analyze the specificity and sensitivity of the recombinant polyclonal antibodies. Polyclonal antibodies produced could be used to detect SEB on a large-scale.