The monoclonal antibody VZ 63.08 recognizes VZV ORF63.
ORF63 protein is 278 amino acids long tegument protein expressed with an immediate-early kinetics (J Gen Virol 1986. 67 (Pt 9): 1759-1816, J Virol 1995. 69: 4274-4282). It is a homolog of HSV-1 protein ICP22. ORF63 is one of the most abundantly expressed genes during latency, also shown to be critical for the establishment of latency (J Virol 2004. 78: 11833-11840). ORF63 protein acts as transcriptional repressor and activator of host and viral promoters, inhibits interferon-alpha induced antiviral response (J Virol 2007. 81: 7844-7851) and supresses apoptosis of infected neurons (J Virol 2006. 80: 1025-1031).
Our anti-ORF63 antibody has been validated in ELISA (on immunogen), IF (VZV infected cells) and in WB (VZV infected cell lysates) as described in J Virol. 2013 Jun;87(12):6943-54.