A study of the effect of chemical inactivants on the epitopes of Rift Valley fever virus glycoproteins using monoclonal antibodies.

A panel of 23 monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) was used to study the effect of formalin, beta propriolactone (BPL) and binary ethylenimine (BEI) on the epitopes of the Rift Valley fever virus glycoproteins. After the initial inactivation period BEI had very little adverse affect on the epitopes whereas BPL significantly altered seven and formalin partially changed the conformation or accessibility of most of the epitopes. The epitopes of all of the inactivated antigens showed a reduced activity against the specific mAbs over a six month storage period.