Lobaina Y, Palenzuela D, García D, Rodríguez D, Pichardo D, Muzio V, Aguilar J C
Biomedical Research Department, Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, Avenue 31 b/ 158 and 190, Cubanacán, Playa, P.O. Box 6162, Habana 10600, Cuba.
Vaccine. 2006 Apr 12;24 Suppl 2:S2-58-9. doi: 10.1016/j.vaccine.2005.01.122.
The hepatitis B virus (HBV) core antigen (HBcAg) is a potent immunogen in animal models and humans and has been used as a carrier for several antigens; however, the mucosal immunogenicity of HBcAg has been poorly studied. In this study, we explored the immunogenicity and the immunoenhancing effect elicited by two different variants of the recombinant complete nucleocapside of HBV in mice by intranasal route. For this purpose, we used as co-administered antigen, the HBV surface protein (HBsAg) and the antibody response in sera was evaluated after each dose. To analyze the specificity of the generated antibody response, the recognition of lineal epitopes was evaluated on a cellulose membrane bearing 12 mer peptides covering the HBcAg sequence. The obtained results evidenced that the intranasal immunogenicity of both variants of HBcAg was similar and high, developing early responses of IgG. The immunoenhancing effect on the HBsAg-specific antibody response was also similar for both variants. The results of the recognition of lineal epitopes study evidenced a similar recognition pattern to all sera and vaginal lavages samples generated by the immunization of mice with the two variants of HBcAg, and also similar to a pool of human anti-HBcAg positive sera samples.
乙肝病毒（HBV）核心抗原（HBcAg）在动物模型和人类中是一种有效的免疫原，并已被用作多种抗原的载体；然而，HBcAg的黏膜免疫原性研究较少。在本研究中，我们通过鼻内途径探讨了两种不同变体的重组乙肝病毒完整核衣壳在小鼠中引发的免疫原性和免疫增强作用。为此，我们将乙肝病毒表面蛋白（HBsAg）作为共同给药抗原，并在每次给药后评估血清中的抗体反应。为了分析所产生抗体反应的特异性，我们在承载覆盖HBcAg序列的12聚体肽的纤维素膜上评估线性表位的识别情况。获得的结果表明，两种变体的HBcAg鼻内免疫原性相似且较高，可产生早期IgG反应。两种变体对HBsAg特异性抗体反应的免疫增强作用也相似。线性表位识别研究的结果表明，用两种变体的HBcAg免疫小鼠所产生的所有血清和阴道灌洗样本的识别模式相似，并且与一组人类抗HBcAg阳性血清样本也相似。
