Expression of African horse sickness virus NS1 protein in insect cells and its antigenicity analysis
African horse sickness(AHS)is a vector-borne viral disease of equids.To express the AHSV NS1 protein in baculovirus expression system and evaluate its antigenicity as a subunit vaccine component,based on the AHSV gene sequence published in GenBank,the full-length NS1 gene of AHSV was artificially synthesized.The complete open reading frame of NS1 gene was amplified by PCR and inserted into vector pFastBacTM HTb.The recombinant plasmid pFastBac-AHSV NS1 was transformed into DH10Bac to obtain recom-binant bacmid Bacmid-AHSV NS1.Bacmid-AHSV NS1 was transfected into Sf9 insect cells to rescue the recom-binant baculovirus expressing NS1 protein.SDS-PAGE and Western-blot showed that the molecular weight of recombinant AHSV NS1 protein was approximately 65 ku,and the purified recombinant AHSV NS1 protein was obtained.BALB/c mice was immunized with purified AHSV NS1 protein to obtain its polyclonal antibodies.Cellular immunofluorescence assay and Western-blot showed that the specific polyclonal antibodies against AHSV NS1 protein was obtained with a titer of 1∶52 000.Flow cytometry showed that the mice immunized with recombinant NS1 protein were able to induce the increase of CD4+and CD8+cells,indicating that AHSV NS1 protein has a potential application as a component of AHSV subunit vaccines.This study achieved the successful expression of AHSV NS1 protein in insect cells and verified its antigenicity,which laid a foundation for further investigation on the biological function of AHSV NS1 protein and the development of AHSV subunit vaccine.