Production and characterization of a monoclonal antibody specific for NS3 protease and the ATPase region of Dengue-2 virus.

Dengue is considered a reemerging disease of worldwide distribution. The Dengue virus non-structural protein 3 (NS3) is known to possess ATPase, helicase, and protease activities that are a constitutive part of the replication complex of Dengue virus. In this report, we discuss the cloning, expressing, and purifying of the Dengue-2 NS3 protein, to immunize mice and then generate monoclonal antibodies (MAbs). Our results show the production of MAbs specific to NS3 protein of Dengue-2 virus, which by immunofluorescence recognize the native protein in experimentally infected endothelial cells (HMEC). Likewise, C6/36-infected lisates were used in Western blots, and observed the specific characteristic band that defines the NS3 protein. We conclude that these antibodies may be a useful tool, not only to study the replicative process of Dengue virus, but also to generate specific diagnostic tools for Dengue infection.