چكيده لاتين :
We developed an immunogen to stimulate multivalent immunity against hepatitis B surface antigen
(HBsAg) and hepatitis B core antigens (HBcAg). Immune responses specific for both HBsAg and
HBcAg play an important role in controlling the infection. HBsAg-specific antibodies mediate
elimination of virions at an early stage of infection and prevent the spread of virus. The immunogen
was constructed by inserting the immunodominant, antibody-binding יaי determinant (aa 111-149) of
HBsAg (with or without a poly-glycine (PG) linker) into the e2 epitope of HBcAg. Only the constructs
in which the HBsAg יaי determinant was inserted into HBcAg, flanked by PG linkers, expressed a
chimeric protein in human embryonic kidney cells with HBsAg and HBcAg antigenicity. Both
glycosylated and non-glycosylated forms of the chimeric protein were immunoprecipitated from cell
lysate. Intramuscular DNA vaccination of mice with plasmids expressing chimeric HBcAg primed
antibody responses against well-defined serologically-defined determinants of both, native HBcAg, and
native HBsAg. In addition, CDS+ T cell responses against HBcAg epitopes were primed by this
chimeric HBV antigen. The e2 sequence of HBcAg can thus be used to present heterologous epitopes
without loss of immunogenicity of the HBcAg protein. Iran. Biomed. J /0 (2): 6/-68, 2006
