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Journal of Virology, March 2001, p. 2130-2141, Vol. 75, No. 5
Sir Albert Sakzewski Virus Research Centre,
Royal Children's Hospital, Herston, Queensland
4029,1 and Clinical Medical Virology
Research Centre, University of Queensland, St. Lucia, Queensland
4067,2 Australia
Received 25 August 2000/Accepted 5 December 2000
The small envelope protein of hepatitis B virus (HBsAg-S) can
self-assemble into highly organized virus like particles (VLPs) and
induce an effective immune response. In this study, a restriction enzyme site was engineered into the cDNA of HBsAg-S at a position corresponding to the exposed site within the hydrophilic a determinant region (amino acid [aa] 127-128) to create a novel HBsAg vaccine vector allowing surface orientation of the inserted sequence. We
inserted sequences of various lengths from hypervariable region 1 (HVR1) of the hepatitis C virus (HCV) E2 protein containing immunodominant epitopes and demonstrated secretion of the recombinant HBsAg VLPs from transfected mammalian cells. A number of different recombinant proteins were synthesized, and HBsAg VLPs containing inserts up to 36 aa were secreted with an efficiency similar to that of
wild-type HBsAg. The HVR1 region exposed on the particles retained an
antigenic structure similar to that recognized immunologically during
natural infection. VLPs containing epitopes from either HCV-1a or -1b
strains were produced that induced strain-specific antibody responses
in immunized mice. Injection of a combination of these VLPs induced
antibodies against both HVR1 epitopes that resulted in higher titers
than were achieved by vaccination with the individual VLPs, suggesting
a synergistic effect. This may lead to the development of recombinant
particles which are able to induce a broad anti-HCV immune response
against the HCV quasispecies or other quasispecies-like infectious agents.
0022-538X/01/$04.00+0 DOI: 10.1128/JVI.75.5.2130-2141.2001
Copyright © 2001, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.
Antigenicity and Immunogenicity of Novel Chimeric
Hepatitis B Surface Antigen Particles with Exposed Hepatitis C
Virus Epitopes

*
Corresponding author. Mailing address: Sir Albert
Sakzewski Virus Research Centre, Herston Road, Herston, QLD 4029, Australia. Phone: 61-7-3636-7315. Fax: 61-7-3636-1401. E-mail:
H.Netter{at}mailbox.uq.edu.au.
Manuscript number 126 from SASVRC.
Present address: Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Department of
Microbiology, University of Southern California School of Medicine, Los
Angeles, CA 90033.
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