원문정보
초록
영어
The hepatitis B virus (HBV) is the major cause of liver disease worldwide. The World Health Organization estimates that 2 billion people (one-third of the world's population) have been infected by HBV. Of these, approximately 400 million people have chronic infections that put them at high risk of ultimately developing cirrhosis and cancer of the liver and the death of liver tissue. In China alone, more than 100 million people have chronic HBV infections. The currently available HBV vaccine needs some improvement to induce protection among the nonresponders and also to apply the immune therapy for the chronic carriers. To improve immunogenicity of the HBV vaccine antigen, we have successfully developed a CHO cell line that can express all three types of envelope proteins (L protein, M protein and S protein) in the form of virus-like particles which are observed in the blood of HBV chronic patients. The preS antigens are exposed at the external surface of the particles composed of S antigens and the virus-like particles are properly glycosylated. Using this antigen, we have developed a strong HBV vaccine which can break immune tolerance and induce strong immune responses in a transgenic mouse model.