Assay for Non-A Non-B hepatitis
AssigneeDade International Inc.
InventorsDavid C. Leahy, John A. Todd, Michael E. Jolley, Dinesh O. Shah, Delia R. Bethell, Terukatsu Arima
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Abstract
New assays for diagnosing NANBH utilizing novel peptide fragments derived from polypeptide antigens reactive to antibodies present in the sera of infected patients are disclosed. In producing these peptides, the portion of the polypeptide contributing to high backgrounds is deleted thereby resulting in assays with an exceptionally high signal to background ratio.
Claims7
In an assay for diagnosing NANBH utilizing a polypeptide having substantially the amino acid sequence QEKKGEASNGEAENDTHKKQRRYKEKEKTATNNPGKNKKPRVGRIKNWNREGRKDAyQIR KRR SEQ ID NO:1 and containing at least one epitope reactive to NANBH positive sera, the improvement consisting of a target peptide fragment thereof extending from an amino acid residue corresponding to any one of residues 21 to 26 from the amino end of the polypeptide to at least the amino acid residue corresponding to residue 56 from the amino end of the polypeptide wherein the sensitivity of the assay to NANBH positive samples utilizing the peptide fragment is greater than the sensitivity of the assay to NANBH positive samples utilizing the entire polypeptide.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.