Magic™ Anti-Distemper Virus, Canine Monoclonal Antibody, clone IN207

The highly contagious canine distemper viruses (CDVs) are still a major threat to a wide range of natural susceptible hosts. The nucleocapsid (N) protein plays various roles in the virus-induced immune response. But precise mapping of epitopes and antigenic variations in N protein of CDV are still scant. In this study, two monoclonal antibodies (MAbs), designated as F8N and G3N, against the N protein of CDV were generated and characterized. The epitopes recognized by the two MAbs were mapped by truncated N protein fragments expressed in E.coli based on western blotting. The 470ESRYDTQ476 and 385GITKEEAQL393 were identified as the minimal linear epitopes recognized by F8N and G3N, respectively. The amino acid residues of the epitope (385-393aa) were highly conserved in a variety of CDV strains from the databases as well as five CDV strains in this study, indicating that MAb G3N can detect various CDV strains. However, MAb F8N was found not to react with an older CDV 851 strain of the five CDV strains due to both of two amino substitution (S471P and Y473H) in the epitope, whereas either single mutant S471P or Y473H did not eliminate the binding of F8N. Further, the variable epitopes existed in the N protein of six CDV strains resembling CDV3 in phylogenic tree by alignment with sequences from the databases. This is the first record of a precise epitope affecting antigenity of N protein of CDV. These results may facilitate future investigations into the function of NP of CDV and diagnostic methods for CDV infection.

Pavements are major means of highway infrastructure. Maintenance and rehabilitation of these pavements for the required serviceability is a routine problem faced by highway engineers and organizations. Improvement in road management system results in reduction of time and cost, the pavement condition survey plays a big role in the pavement management. The initial phase in setting up a pavement management system (PMS) is road network identification. A vital element of a PMS is the capacity to assess the present condition of a pavement network and anticipation of future condition. The pavement condition index (PCI) is a numerical index generally utilized for the assessment of the operational condition & structural reliability of pavements. Estimation of the PCI is dependent on the results of a visual inspection in which the type, severity, and quantity of distresses are distinguished. In this research, a pavement distress condition rating strategy was utilized to accomplish the goals of this study. The main targets of this research were to categorize the common types of distress that exist on "Lakhi Larkana National Highway (N-105)", and to estimate the pavement condition index. Using these data, Average PCI for the highway section was calculated. PCI to assess the pavement performance, 10 out of 19 defects were recognized in the pavement, as stated by the PCI method. Results indicated that the common pavement distress types were depressions, polished aggregate, rutting, potholes, block cracking, and alligator cracking.