Obtaining recombinant proteins from Neospora caninum expressed in Escherichia coli

Abstract

Neosporosis is a parasitic disease with a negative impact on bovine reproduction. In Ecuador, seroprevalences of 22.3 and 23.4% have been reported in dairy herds (Maldonado-Rivera et al., 2020; Román-Cárdenas and Chávez-Valdivieso, 2016). The control of this disease requires the identification of exposed-infected females, in order to eliminate them and with them the risk of vertical transmission. For indirect diagnosis, several antigenic proteins have been used, among which surface antigen 4 (SAG4) and dense granule antigen 7 (GRA7) stand out, expressed in Escherichia coli (E. coli) and used as capture antigen in indirect ELISA assays (Aguado-Martínez et al., 2008). However, the country does not have the experience in the production of this type of input necessary for the local development of indirect diagnostic tools, which currently must be imported at a high cost, limiting their availability for disease control. bovine neosporosis. For this reason, it was proposed to produce the rNcSAG4 and rNcGRA7 proteins for use in the development of serological assays.