Production and characterization of monoclonal antibodies against hepatitis B e-antigen and their potential application for development of HBeAg detection ELISA

Despite global vaccination efforts, hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection remains a major health threat, causing over a million deaths annually. Hepatitis B e-antigen (HBeAg) is an indicator of HBV replication and high infectivity. HBeAg is an essential serological marker for monitoring response to treatment and/or determining the stage of chronic HBV infection. Here, we produced a panel of mouse hybridomas secreting monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) to HBeAg by fusing a mouse myeloma cell line with splenocytes from mice immunized with recombinant HBeAg. Anti-HBe MAbs were then characterized by competition ELISA and Western blotting. We designed and optimized an in-house sandwich ELISA using HBeAg-specific rabbit polyclonal and mouse monoclonal antibodies. The diagnostic performance of the assay was then compared to a commercial HBeAg detection ELISA kit using 176 HBeAg[-] and 44 HBeAg[+] serum samples, showing a significant positive correlation (r = 0.8250; P < 0.0001). The in-house ELISA showed reasonable sensitivity (97.56 %) and specificity (99.40 %), with a cut-off value and area under the curve of 0.193 and 0.9884, respectively. Additionally, the assay showed high repeatability, with intra- and inter-assay coefficients of variation of 2.46 % and 11.38 %, respectively. Our designed HBeAg-detecting sandwich ELISA has the potential for use in clinical diagnosis.