Hepatitis C virus core protein fused to hepatitis B virus core antigen for serological diagnosis of both hepatitis C and hepatitis B infections by ELISA

✍ Scribed by Wu, Chao-Liang; Leu, Tzong-Shiann; Chang, Ting-Tsung; Shiau, Ai-Li

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1999
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 199 KB
• Volume: 57
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0146-6615
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1096-9071(199902)57:2<104::aid-jmv3>3.0.co;2-7

✦ Synopsis

The sequence encoding the truncated core protein (amino acids 1-98) of hepatitis C virus (HCc) was expressed in E. coli for production of HCc (1-98) , or fused with the truncated core antigen (HBcAg) and segments from the preS1 and preS2 regions from hepatitis B virus (HBV) for production of HBcPreS 1 PreS 2 HCc (1-98) . The HCc (1-98) and HBcPreS 1 PreS 2 HCc (1-98) proteins reacted with sera from HCV-infected individuals by immunoblot analyses, while the latter protein also exhibited HBV core antigenicity. They induced antibodies against HBcAg and/or HCV core protein in rabbits and in mice. Moreover, HBcPreS 1 PreS 2 HCc (1-98) is more immunogenic than HCc (1-98) in terms of anti-HCc induction. An ELISA that employed recombinant HCV core antigens of either HCc or HBcPreS 1 PreS 2 HCc (1-98) to detect anti-HCc and/or anti-HBc antibodies was developed. Evaluation of serum samples with different status of HBV and HCV infections suggested that HCc (1-98) might be suitable for the determination of antibodies against HCV core protein, while HBcPreS 1 PreS 2 HCc (1-98) might be of value to detect HCV and/or HBV infection in donated blood in HBV low-prevalence countries.