The Expression Of Hepatitis B Virus Core Protein And X Protein In Human Peripheral Mononuclear Cells Cultivated

Background: The hepatitis B virus (HBV), discovered in 1966, is one of the major causes of most prevalent liver diseases in the world. It is reported by WHO, globally, about 2 billion people were infected by HBV and over 350 million became chronic carriers who are at high risk of developing severe sequelae including chronic active hepatitis, cirrhosis, and primary hepatocellular carcinoma. More than 1 million persons died from diseases and complications related with HBV such as liver failure, cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma. In China, more than 50% of the population were infected, and 8% to 15% become chronically infected.Despite increasing knowledge of genome structure and individual viral proteins, there is currently no suitable cell model for HBV in vitro. Studies on virus replication and pathogenesis have been hampered by the lack of reliable and efficient cell culture systems. And there is no completely effective treatment! Particularly the function of two important proteins, the hepatitis B core antigen (HBcAg) and the HBV-encoded X antigen (HBxAg), still need to be proved by more efficient cell model. The nucleocapsid, HBcAg, is an intracellular 21-kDa protein that self-assembles into particles that encapsidate the viral genome and polymerase and is essential to the function and maturation of the virion. Previous studies demonstrated that HBcAg as an immunogen was superior to HBeAg in terms of both antibody production and Th cell induction and that HBcAg could function as a T-cell-independent antigen. Establishing an more efficient cell model which can...