Description
Human parvovirus B19 is a causative agent of common childhood infection, erythema infectiosum. B19 is also a major cause of apalstic crises, there is 9% risk for fetal loss in infected pregnancy. It can cause hydro feralis, and has been shown to be the cause of persistant severe anaemia in immunocomprised individuals including children wirh acute lymphatic leukaemia and patients with HIV. Parvovirus B19 is a small DNA virus with limited genome about 5.4 Kb. This virus arranges its genome with the left side encoding non-structural proteins NS1 and right side encoding structural protein, VP1 and VP2. VP1 and VP2 encodes in the same reading frame with identical sequence except additional 227 amino acids at the amino terminus of VP1 protein. Monoclonal antibody map study indicated most antigenicity of VP1 and 2 located at the N-terminus of VP1. The N-terminal 227 amino acids was cloned and expressed in E Coli, the purified protein can be used to detect Parvovirus B19 antibody for diagnostic purpose