Polyclonal Antibody to SARS-Spike protein

Background
It has recently been shown that SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) is caused by a human coronavirus. Human coronaviruses are the major cause of upper respiratory tract illness, such as the common cold, in humans. Coronaviruses are positive-stranded RNA viruses, featuring the largest viral RNA genomes known to date (27-31 kb). The first step in coronavirus infection is binding of the viral spike protein, a 139-kDa protein, to certain receptors on host cells. The spike protein is the main surface antigen of the coronavirus. The glycosilated spike protein (as well as the nucleocapsid protein) can be detected in infected cell culture supernatants with antisera from SARS patients.

Antigen
The antibody was developed by immunizing rabbits with synthetic peptides corresponding to amino acids 19-35 of the putative SARS Spike glycoprotein (Genbank accession no. NP_828851).

Application Notes
The antibody was tested on a cell line transfected with a partial-length cDNA coding for the N-terminal portion of SARS Spike protein with a predicted molecular weight of 68 kDa.

Genebank Info (Protein)
NP_006504

Reference
1. Krokhin O, Li Y, Andonov A, Feldmann H, Flick R, Jones S, Stroeher U. Mol Cell Proteomics. May;2(5):346-356 (2003).
2. Snijder,E.J., Bredenbeek,P.J., Dobbe,J.C., Thiel,V., Ziebuhr,J., et al. J. Mol. Biol. 331 (5), 991-1004 (2003).
3. Marra MA, Jones SJ, Astell CR, Holt RA, Brooks-Wilson A, Butterfield YS, Khattra J, Asano JK, Barber SA, Chan SY, et al. Science. 300(5624):1399-1404 (2003).
4. Rota PA, Oberste MS, Monroe SS, Nix WA, Campagnoli R, et al. Science. 300(5624):1394-1399 (2003).