Characteristics of the major structural proteins of African swine fever virus: Role as antigens in the induction of neutralizing antibodies. A review.

African swine fever virus (ASFV) has been traditionally a major animal health problem worldwide, with important economic impact for the pig industry. Recently the disease has re-emerged in large areas of the world, including China and Eastern Europe. Therefore, it seems timely to summarize our current understanding of ASFV proteins and their antigenic properties, in connection with potential vaccine formulations. Here we review the main characteristics of the major structural proteins p150, p72 and p17 of ASFV and their antigenic properties. In particular, we emphasize that p17 was detected as a specific antigen in the immunoreaction of pig sera with neutralizing antibodies. In addition, specific immunoreactions against IP97, IP27, IP25.5, IP23 and IP13 viral infection proteins were also detected in these sera. The viral structural proteins have been studied with intracellular and extracellular viruses and, therefore the differences between both classes of viruses were also reviewed.