By definition, this antigen is free of any other gene structure related to HIV. The protein, supplied in frozen format and containing 232 amino acids derived from the HIV p24 core sequence, is soluble in aqueous media and exhibits strong reactivity with sera from HIV positive donors.
The p24 core protein is also of interest as a reference in the development of assays designed to detect the p24 antigen itself, an early marker of infection with HIV. The use of this protein for affinity purification of anti-core antibodies via coupling of p24 to a solid matrix is another application which has become feasible by its very low bulk pricing.