Journal of Proteomics & Bioinformatics
Open Access
ISSN: 0974-276X
+44 1223 790975
ISSN: 0974-276X
+44 1223 790975
Hye-Min Woo, Hyemin Ko, Joo-Yeon Lee, Lingshu Wang, Barney S Graham and Hanseam Lee
Korea Centers for Disease Control & Prevention, Republic of Korea
NIAID/VRC, NIH, USA
Posters & Accepted Abstracts: J Proteomics Bioinform
Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) is a severe respiratory infection caused by MERS Coronavirus (MERS-CoV). After the outbreak of MERS occurred in the Republic of Korea in 2015, it has been required to develop the efficient and safe therapeutics against MERS-CoV infection. The spike glycoproteins (S) of MERS-CoV bind cellular receptors, and mediate infection of target cells. Therefore, S protein is one of the most promising antigen candidates for the development of neutralizing antibodies of a newly emerging MERS-CoV. In this study, we employed the peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) of Korean MERS recovered patients to obtain the memory B cells bearing immunoglobulin Gs (IgGs) against MERS S protein. The cells were isolated by using FACS. The cDNAs of IgGs were synthesized from the sorted B cell clones. The variable regions of heavy and light chains were amplified by PCR, and recombinant plasmids were cloned with pFUSE vectors containing signal peptides and the constant region of human IgG. The anti-MERS-CoV S IgGs were expressed in 293F cells and purified by a protein G affinity chromatography. Characteristics of anti-MERS-CoV S IgGs were analyzed by the S protein affinity assay and the neutralizing assays using a MERS-CoV pseudovirus and MERS-CoV strains. The antibodies generated in this study are expected to be applied as therapeutic agents or tools for diagnosis.
Hye-Min Woo has completed her PhD from Kookmin University, Republic of Korea. She is a Senior Researcher of division of Emerging Infectious Diseases & Vector Research, Korea National Institute of Health, Korea Centers for Disease Control & Prevention, Republic of Korea.