Vol. 12, Issue 1 (2023)

Author(s):
Hridya Susan Varughese, Chethana Chandrahasa, Kavitha GM, Akhila DS, Shreya Gopinath, Kavitha Govindaiah, Tilak Chandan, Vinay C Prakash Rao, Madhusudhan Hosamani, Sharada Ramakrishnaiah, Rathnamma Doddamane, Divakar Hemadri and Shrikrishna Isloor

Abstract:
Rabies viral nucleoprotein is proven to be antigenic and immunogenic in nature. Monoclonal antibody binding characterises the Rabies viral nucleoprotein's immune-reactivity. However, studies on reactivity of nucleoproteins to polyclonal antibodies are limited. In this study, a partial Rabies viral nucleoprotein gene of 516 bp was cloned into a pET-32a (+) vector, and prokaryotic expression was induced to obtain a protein of 24.1 kDa. The protein obtained was further characterised by Western blot and indirect ELISA. Our research discovered Rabies nucleoprotein immune-reactivity in polyclonal sera and suspected that the epitopes' are conformational in nature. This study adds to the limited number of polyclonal sera-based studies on Rabies nucleoprotein.