원문정보
초록
영어
Hepatitis B virus is a major cause of liver disease worldwide. Although currently available HBV vaccines are highly effective, HBV infection is still a major problem in Asia, Latin America, Africa and Eastern Europe. The WHO estimates that two billion people have been infected with HBV and about 350 million people have chronic infections, which can ultimately cause liver cirrhosis and cancer. When adults are infected with HBV, about 5-10% of them become chronically infected. However, vertical infections from mother and infections to neonates lead to chronic infections in almost 100% of cases. Additionally, greater than 90% of HBV infections in babies younger than 10 months result in chronic infection. Therefore, an improved HBV vaccine that can elicit protective immunity within 1-2 months would be beneficial, since currently available vaccines take 7-10 months to produce protective immunity. We have developed a CHO cell line that produces HBV surface antigens, including the L-protein, M-protein, and S-protein. The purified HBV surface antigens in the form of virus-like particles are highly immunogenic in mice, inducing more HBV-specific antibodies than any other vaccines on the market. This vaccine has been further improved by using an adjuvant that we have also developed, inducing strong immune responses in HBV transgenic mice, which then efficiently cleared HBV antigens in sera.
