Production and characterization of monoclonal antibodies to two new mosquito Aedes aegypti salivary proteins

Abstract

Mosquito salivary proteins, which are fundamental to the process of blood feeding, also facilitate disease transmission and cause allergic reactions. The identification and characterisation of these proteins have been hampered by the difficulty of obtaining them in purified form. In this report, we describe the production of mouse monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) against mosquito salivary proteins. BALB/c mice were immunised with Aedes aegypti saliva proteins. Hybridomas were produced by fusion of spleen cells with a mouse myeloma cell line. Positive clones were selected using a saliva-capture ELISA and further identified using immunoblotting. Three mAbs reacted with a 44 kDa protein (Aed a X1) in the saliva-immunoblotting, and did not react with 2 recombinant salivary proteins, rAed a 1 (apyrase) and rAed a 2 (D7), in both immunoblotting and ELISA. Two other mAbs reacted with a 37 kDa protein in saliva-immunoblotting, but failed to react with the 37 kDa rAed a 2 in either immunoblotting or ELISA, suggesting that there is a second 37 kDa protein (Aed a X2) which is recognised by the two mAbs. The 44 kDa and 37 kDa proteins have not been previously identified. These mAbs provide a means to purify proteins, to isolate new genes from the salivary gland cDNA library, and to standardise mosquito extracts, facilitating studies of disease transmission by mosquitoes and of mosquito allergy.