Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UMLS:C0021345 (infectious mononucleosis)
 3,358 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

The Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) open reading frame BFRF3 encodes a viral structural capsid protein or tegument protein, VCA p18, that is highly immunogenic in humans. In this study, a cluster of immunodominant epitopes in the C-terminus of VCA p18 has been identified. These epitopes were combined into a single synthetic peptide that was analyzed for diagnostic value in an ELISA. This VCA combined peptide appeared to be an excellent VCA marker with remarkable applications for IgG- and IgM-related EBV diagnostics. The combined peptide reacted with 95% of 159 sera that were IgG VCA-positive by immunofluorescence assay. In addition, 95% of sera from 67 persons with confirmed infectious mononucleosis were positive for IgM antibodies to this VCA combined peptide. An IgG-specific seroconversion could be demonstrated by subsequent serum samples during the acute phase of primary EBV infections. Although 97% of the tested sera from nasopharyngeal carcinoma patients had IgG antibodies reacting positively with the VCA combined peptide, only 61% contained IgA anti-VCA combined peptide.
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PMID:Localization and diagnostic application of immunodominant domains of the BFRF3-encoded Epstein-Barr virus capsid protein. 801 88

A new pair of Epstein-Barr virus ELISAs (Biotest Anti-EBV VCA IgG and VCA IgM ELISA) was evaluated for usefulness for routine diagnosis of acute EBV infections. The ELISAs are based on two viral capsid antigens (VCA), p23 (BLRF2, full-length) and p18 (BFRF3, carboxy-half), that are combined by autologous gene fusion. In total, 179 sera were tested in direct comparison with classical VCA immunofluorescence assays (IFA). With the help of clinical data and additional reference serology, i.e., heterophile antibodies, anti-EA IgG (IFA) and anti-EBNA-1 IgG (ELISA), the patients were divided into the following categories: seronegatives (46), acute primary infections (67), previous infections (39), suspected reactivations (20) and constellations with intermediate serological patterns (7). The VCA IgG and VCA IgM ELISAs showed overall agreement to IFA of 95.0% and 94.4%, respectively. The calculated analytical performance (sensitivity; specificity) of VCA IgG and VCA IgM was 94.0%; 97.8% and 97.1%; 96.5%, respectively. A certain delay in seroconversion of anti-p23-p18 IgG may account for a significant difference in sensitivity of the VCA IgG ELISA between primary (88.4%) and previous infections (100%). In summary, the new recombinant VCA ELISAs yielded good correlation to VCA IFA and in combination with EBNA-1 IgG allow rapid, sensitive, and specific diagnosis of infectious mononucleosis or EBV immune status in general.
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PMID:Serological diagnosis of Epstein-Barr virus infection by novel ELISAs based on recombinant capsid antigens p23 and p18. 1124 57

Current single Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) markers fail to reach 100% sensitivity for serodiagnosis of acute and malignant diseases associated with EBV infection. Previous study had identified immunodominant epitopes of VCA-p40 and VCA-p18, and indicated that these two VCA antigens may have diagnostic value for EBV-related diseases. A recombinant protein of the full-length BdRF1 fused to the immunodominant domain of BFRF3 as 6-his tagged protein in Escherichia coli was developed. The recombinant protein was extracted in 8M urea solution and purified by metal-affinity chromatography yielding a 55 kDa product (VCA-p40+18). VCA-p40+18 blot-strips examined for IgM reactivity in infectious mononucleosis samples yielded 100% sensitivity and specificity, with improved reactivity compared with IgM/VCA-p18-ELISAs. A recent study described a synthetic peptide-based IgA/[EBNA1+VCA-p18]-ELISA (IgA/EBV-ELISA), with a sensitivity of 90% for diagnosing nasopharyngeal carcinoma. Immunoblot analysis of biopsy-confirmed nasopharyngeal carcinoma cases with low or negative IgA/EBV-ELISA showed 100% IgG reactivity to VCA-p40 and VCA-p18 proteins. Evaluation of VCA-p40+18 as an additional marker for screening and diagnosis of nasopharyngeal carcinoma was carried out. The data showed positive IgA/VCA-p40+18 reactivity by ELISA for 63.6% (14 of 22) nasopharyngeal carcinoma samples that were missed by peptide-based IgA/EBV-ELISA, suggested VCA-p40+18 as an improved marker for nasopharyngeal carcinoma serodiagnosis. The VCA-p40+18 may be combined with an EBNA1 synthetic peptide as an antigen mixture in one or separate IgA ELISA for improved nasopharyngeal carcinoma serodiagnosis.
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PMID:Combination of Epstein-Barr virus scaffold (BdRF1/VCA-p40) and small capsid protein (BFRF3/VCA-p18) into a single molecule for improved serodiagnosis of acute and malignant EBV-driven disease. 2062 Nov 26