Development of a P30 protein-based indirect ELISA for detecting African swine fever antibodies utilizing the HEK293F expression system

Abstract

African swine fever (ASF) is an acute, febrile, and highly lethal infectious disease in pigs caused by the African swine fever virus (ASFV). Effective detection methods and strict biosecurity measures are crucial for preventing and controlling ASF, especially since there are currently no commercially available vaccines or antiviral drugs to combat ASFV infection effectively. However, the emergence of low-virulence strains of ASFV in recent years has led to false-positive results, highlighting the importance of early-produced antibody detection methods. Therefore, detecting antibodies against ASFV produced early in the infection can facilitate the prompt identification of infected pigs. This study focused on the p30 protein, an early expressed protein during ASFV infection, to develop an indirect ELISA. This method was established using the HEK293F suspension cell expression system, which has the ability to produce large quantities of correctly folded proteins with normal functionality. In this study, we developed an indirect ELISA test utilizing the p30 recombinant protein produced by the HEK293F suspension cell expression system as the antigen coating. The concentration of the p30 protein obtained from the HEK293F suspension cell expression system was measured at 4.668 mg/mL, serving as the foundation for establishing the indirect ELISA. Our findings indicate that the indirect ELISA method exhibits a sensitivity of 1:12800. Furthermore, it demonstrates high specificity and excellent reproducibility. Comparing our results to those obtained from the commercial kit, we found a coincidence rate of 98.148 % for the indirect ELISA. In summary, we have developed a sensitive method for detecting ASFV, providing a valuable tool for monitoring ASFV infection in pig herds.