PRODUCTION AND CHARACTERIZATION OF MONOCLONAL ANTIBODIES AGAINST THE AVIAN INFECTIOUS BRONCHITIS VIRUS

Resumo

The use of monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) has contributed to the diagnosis of avian infectious bronchitis (IB), however their use are still limited because the utilized MAbs are imported, increasing the cost of such methodologies. Therefore, given the relevance of the national poultry production as well as the losses caused by the occurrence of IB in commercial poultry flocks, it is important that Brazil can produce biological supplies to use for diagnostic of IB. Thus, the present work reports the production, and characterization of MAbs against the infectious bronchitis virus (IBV). Two groups of three Balb-c female mice were inoculated with inactivated classic or variant IBV for 10 times, once per week. The splenocytes from mouse with higher serum concentration against IBV antigens were harvested and fused with murine Sp2/O-Ag14 myeloma cells. We generated two hybridomas secreting MAbs anti-IBV (MAb 2G4 and 5A11) from the fusion of myeloma cells and B-lymphocytes from a mouse immunized with the variant IBV. Following the characterization by ELISA and Western Blot, it was observed that MAbs recognize the IBV classic and variant types, showing more intense reactions with IBV variant. The MAbs obtained in this study have potential for use in immunodiagnostic for IB.