Mumps Antibodies, Proteins & ELISA Kits

Mumps is a highly contagious infectious disease caused by Mumps Virus (MuV), belonging to the Rubulavirus genus and the Paramyxoviridae family. Mumps can be spread when an infected individual coughs or sneezes, releasing airborne droplets.

Mumps infections are associated with a fever, headaches, malaise, a cough, parotitis, orchitis and encephalitis. Other common symptoms of mumps are swelling of the cheeks and inflammation of different organs. In particular, inflammation of the testicles and ovaries can affect fertility following infection. There has been a massive reduction in mumps cases reported annually since the emergence of live-attenuated vaccines, such as the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine. However, in developing countries where there are less rigorous vaccination programmes, mumps is still a major threat.

MuV has a number of different viral proteins such as phosphoprotein (P), nucleoprotein (NP), large protein (L), matrix (M), fusion protein (F), hemagglutinin-neuraminidase protein (HN), small hydrophobic protein (SH), V and I proteins. NP packages RNA into a nucleocapsid which can be used as a template for viral replication, SH blocks the TNF-alpha mediated apoptosis pathway and V inhibits IFN-beta antiviral state. HN binds host receptors and F protein is responsible for viral penetration into the host cell whereby it stimulates fusion of both the viral and cellular membranes. Assay Genie provides a Mumps Virus Nucleoprotein Recombinant Protein which can be used for vaccine research and development.

Analyzing what a pathogen binds to in the body and the signaling pathways activated are a key part of vaccine research and development. The MuV-HN protein binds to sialic acid on host cells during mumps infections, whereby α-2,3-linked sialic acid is the receptor which MuV-HN has a preference for. The virus is then recognized by toll-like receptor 2 (TLR2). Both TLR2 and retinoic acid-inducible gene I (RIG-I) cooperatively work to initiate the innate immune response during mumps infections.

Immunometabolism is an important area of science which encompasses regions of metabolism and immunology. Many of the functional capacities of immune cells are dependent on the metabolic state of the cell and its capability to mount an immune response.

At present there is very little research covering how immune cell metabolism in humans is affected by mumps infections, meaning it represents a potential research area for future investigations. Assay Genie provides a wide range of immunometabolism products such as glycolysis, fatty acid oxidation, the citric acid (TCA) cycle and oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS) assay kits.

A key area of research is the immune response against MuV during mumps infections. It has been shown that MuV infections stimulate the production of tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha), interleukin-1beta (IL-1beta), interleukin-6 (IL-6), IL-8, IL-10, interferon-alpha (IFN-alpha), IFN-beta, monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1/CCL2) and CXCL10 (IP-10).

Animal models are useful research tools which are often used in early stages of therapeutic product development and pathogenesis studies. Mouse animal models have been used to study mumps infections, whereby they have allowed scientists to explore the immune response generated following pathogen entry into the body. For example, MuV infected mouse models have increased production of cytokines and chemokines such as TNF-alpha, type I IFN, IL-6, CXCL10 and MCP-1, similar to humans. As well as this, rhesus macaques represent the best animal model for studying MuV pathogenesis and the non-human primates (NHPs) have been shown to display clinical signs of mumps 2-4 weeks following infection.