Objective. Preparation of highly purified recombinant polypeptides representing antigenically active regions of hantavirus nucleocapsid proteins Puumala, Kurkino, Hantaan and studying of their antigenic specificity.

Materials and methods. Puumala (strain СG-1820), Hantaan (strain 4950), Kurkino (strain Aa 118) viruses and samples of blood sera of HFRS patients infected with those viruses were used. Bacterial strain of Escherichia coli BL21 (DE3) was used to express the recombinant polypeptides. Standard genetic engineering, molecular-biological, and immunobiological methods of research were applied.

Results. The recombinant vectors pJC40 / N PUU, pJC40 / N DOB, pJC40 / N HANT providing the recombinant polypeptides of Puumala, Hantaan and Kurkino virus expression in the prokaryotic system E. coli, strain BL 21 (DE3) were produced. The antigenic specificity of the recombinant polypeptides was shown in immune blotting analysis.

Conclusion. Plasmids pJC40 / N PUU, pJC40 / N DOB, pJC40 / N HANT were constructed. The recombinant polypeptides representing antigenic fragments of the nucleocapsid proteins of Puumala, Kurkino, Hantaan viruses were expressed in the prokaryotic E. coli system. The purified polypeptides without impurities of bacterial proteins were obtained and their antigenic specificity was shown.