Identification and epitope mapping of anti-p72 single-chain antibody against African swine fever virus based on phage display antibody library

African swine fever virus (ASFV) is a lethal pathogen that causes severe threats to the global swine industry and it has already had catastrophic socio-economic effects. To date, no licensed prophylactic vaccine exists. Limited knowledge exists about the major immunogens of ASFV and the epitope mapping of the key antigens. As such, there is a considerable requirement to understand the functional monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) and the epitope mapping may be of utmost importance in our understanding of immune responses and designing improved vaccines, therapeutics, and diagnostics. In this study, we generated an ASFV antibody phage-display library from ASFV convalescent swine PBMCs, further screened a specific ASFV major capsid protein (p72) single-chain antibody and fused with an IgG Fc fragment (scFv-83-Fc), which is a specific recognition antibody against ASFV Pig/HLJ/2018 strain. Using the scFv-83-Fc mAb, we selected a conserved epitope peptide (221MTGYKH226) of p72 retrieved from a phage-displayed random peptide library. Moreover, flow cytometry and cell uptake experiments demonstrated that the epitope peptide can significantly promote BMDCs maturation in vitro and could be effectively uptaken by DCs, which indicated its potential application in vaccine and diagnostic reagent development. Overall, this study provided a valuable platform for identifying targets for ASFV vaccine development, as well as to facilitate the optimization design of subunit vaccine and diagnostic reagents.

Automated summary

This study generated an ASFV antibody phage-display library, screened a specific single-chain antibody against ASFV major capsid protein, and identified a conserved epitope peptide that can promote the maturation of immune cells and be effectively uptaken by dendritic cells.