Antigenic composition and immunoreactivity differences between HEV recombinant capsid proteins generated from different genotypes

Appreciable variability has been observed in hepatitis E virus (HEV) serological diagnostics. Four recombinant proteins (p166s) were generated from position 452 to 617 aa of ORF2 of different HEV genotypes and used in an indirect ELISA to detect anti-HEV IgMs and IgGs in serially diluted sera of patients infected with different HEV genotypes (genotype 1, n = 15; genotype 3, n = 12; genotype 4, n = 17). To evaluate the differences at a conformational level, 3D-structure models of p166s were predicted, and different bioinformatics tools were used to analyze the antigenic composition. With both anti-HEV IgMs and IgGs antibodies, there was a considerable variability between the four antigens immunoreactivities. In silico results revealed the region 483-533 aa with the highest antigenic potential and contains six key aa at positions 488, 489, 512, 533, 483 and 530. This immunoreactivity variation could affect diagnosis results and seroprevalence estimations and the identification in silico of a region highly antigenic would guide the development of efficient serological assays and epitope-based vaccines.