Design and heterologous expression of dengue virus envelope protein (E) peptides and their use for serological diagnosis

► A definitive diagnosis of dengue infection can be made only in the laboratory and depends on isolating the virus or detecting specific antibodies. ► Currently, the greatest difficulty in conducting immunoenzymatic assays is obtaining suitable antigens. ► We mapped two peptides of the E protein from DENV using bioinformatics tools, expressed these peptides and tested the antigenic potential. ► The results obtained here led to the conclusion that a combination of the E1 and E2 peptides can be used in dengue diagnosis.