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Journal of Virology, April 2006, p. 3506-3514, Vol. 80, No. 7
0022-538X/06/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/JVI.80.7.3506-3514.2006
Copyright © 2006, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Partial Delipidation Improves the T-Cell Antigenicity of Hepatitis B Virus Surface Antigen

Isabelle Desombere,* Annick Willems, Yvonne Gijbels, and Geert Leroux-Roels

Center for Vaccinology, Department of Clinical Biology, Microbiology and Immunology, Ghent University and Hospital, Ghent, Belgium

Received 30 September 2005/ Accepted 10 January 2006

Hepatitis B virus surface antigen (HBsAg) is a complex macromolecular particle composed of glycoproteins and lipids. The latter, representing 25% of the particle mass, are of host origin and determine the solubility, stability, and, indirectly, B-cell immunogenicity of HBsAg. HBsAg is a T-cell-dependent immunogen that does not elicit a detectable humoral immune response in 5% of HBsAg vaccine recipients and in most subjects suffering from chronic hepatitis B. We investigated the influence of the lipid content on the antigenicity of the particle. Lipids were partially removed from HBsAg by treatment with ß-D-octyl glucoside and density centrifugation. Sham treatment consisted of density centrifugation of HBsAg only. We compared the in vitro proliferative responses of established T-cell lines and nonfractionated peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) from HBsAg vaccinees and chronic HBV patients when stimulated with partially delipidated HBsAg, untreated HBsAg, or sham-treated HBsAg. In all experiments, delipidated HBsAg turned out to be 10 to 100 times more antigenic than its untreated or sham-treated counterpart. Remarkably, PBMC from vaccine nonresponders or chronic HBV patients displayed a proliferative response towards delipidated HBsAg, whereas native HBsAg never induced a response. A series of control experiments demonstrated that this enhancement of T-cell antigenicity was HBsAg specific and directly linked to lipid extraction. Nonspecific adjuvant effects of any kind could be ruled out. In vivo evaluation in mice demonstrated that delipidated particles lose most of their B-cell antigenicity. However, when native and delipidated particles were mixed, these mixtures induced equal or slightly superior anti-HBs responses to those induced by the same quantity of native HBsAg alone. In conclusion, our data show that partial delipidation of HBsAg strikingly increases the T-cell antigenicity of this unique viral antigen.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Center for Vaccinology, Department of Clinical Biology, Microbiology and Immunology, Ghent University and Hospital, De Pintelaan 185, B-9000 Ghent, Belgium. Phone: 32-9-2404174. Fax: 32-9-2406311. E-mail: Isabelle.Desombere{at}ugent.be.

Journal of Virology, April 2006, p. 3506-3514, Vol. 80, No. 7
0022-538X/06/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/JVI.80.7.3506-3514.2006
Copyright © 2006, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.





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