NOVEL RUBELLA E1 ENVELOPE PROTEIN VARIANTS AND THEIR USE IN THE DETECTION OF ANTI-RUBELLA ANTIBODIES

摘要

The invention relates to soluble rubella E1 antigens and variants of these antigens. The antigens contain amino acids 201 to 432 or 169 to 432 and are lacking amino acids 453 to 481 as well as at least the amino acids 143 to 164. They further contain a region spanning two disulfide-bridges. The invention also relates to a recombinant DNA molecule encoding the rubella E1 antigens, the expression of rubella E1 antigens as chaperone fusion proteins and their use in a method of detecting antibodies against rubella in a sample.