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The Native Antigen Company (NAC), a company specialising in the provision of high purity bacterial and viral antigens, announces that, for the first time, all four Dengue Virus NS1 serotypes from human cell lines are commercially available.

All four DENV NS1 serotypes have been manufactured in response to the unmet need for highly purified, concentrated proteins for use in vaccine development and serological based diagnostic assays. To achieve this, the company has employed its novel platform which is based entirely on human cell lines using state-of-the-art expression techniques.

NAC has focused on NS1’s hexameric presentation, which is the biologically active form of NS1 involved in key aspects of dengue pathogenesis. The resultant DENV NS1 proteins were then purified to a high degree, left in their native folding state, and possess all post-translational modifications. This advanced approach results in a product which delivers optimal antigenicity due to its human origin.

With more than one-third of the world’s population living in areas at risk of transmission, dengue infection is a leading cause of illness and death in the tropics and subtropics. As many as 100 million people are infected yearly. Dengue is caused by any one of four related viruses transmitted by mosquitoes. There are no vaccines available to prevent infection with dengue virus.

Andrew Maxwell, CEO of NAC said: “Research around Dengue virus has unique challenges. The four serotypes circulate globally, and infection with one dengue serotype confers life-long protection against re-infection with the same serotype, but only short-term protection against the other three serotypes. There is limited understanding of how the virus interacts with the immune system and how certain types of pre-existing immunity can exacerbate disease. The need is therefore for a tetravalent vaccine to induce protection against all 4 serotypes. Dengue is also in need of improved diagnostics through better differentiation between serotypes as well as distinguishing cross reactive infections such as Yellow Fever and West Nile Virus.  The availability of NAC’s Dengue NS1 hexameric presentations will be a valuable asset in overcoming these issues.”

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