Soluble expression and purification of hepatitis B core antigen (HBcAg) subgenotype B3 in Escherichia coli using thioredoxin fusion tag

Abstract

Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection is a serious health problem in the world. HBV is one of the major causes of liver diseases because of its long term effects. The HBV infection in liver can cause acute or chronic disease. It can be transmitted through contact with blood or other body fluids of hepatitis patient. It was estimated that 257 million people worldwide have been infected with HBV. In 2015, 887 000 deaths were caused by hepatitis and its complications such as cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma[1]. Besides, the prevalence of HBV infections in Southeast Asia including Indonesia is high[2]. Genetic variability of HBV plays an important role in the development of HBV infection treatment. Based on nucleotide array, HBV is classified into eight genotypes (A–H) and each genotype is classified into some subgenotypes. Each genotype or subgenotype has a different geographic distribution. For example, some HBV/ B subgenotypes from Southeast Asia (B3, B4, B5, B7, B8, and B9) are clearly separated with HBV/B1 and B2 subgenotypes which are found in Japan and China[3]. Indonesia is an archipelago that consists of thousands of islands and is a home to hundreds of ethnic populations. The distribution of HBV genotypes/subgenotypes in the Indonesian archipelago is related to the ethnic pattern of its population. There are three main genotypes of HBV in Indonesia, namely, HBV/B (70.9%), HBV/C (27.5%), and HBV/D (1.6%). HBV/B is the dominant genotype in Western Indonesia, especially HBV/B3 which is the predominant subgenotype in Java region. In East Indonesia, HBV/C is the predominant genotype followed by HBV/D[3,4]. ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT