Hepatitis B pre‐S1 and pre‐S2 proteins: Clinical significance and relation to hepatitis B virus DNA

Abstract

Pre-S proteins may have an important role in virus assembly and virus entry into the host cell. The presence of pre-S proteins in serum has also been thought to correlate with active viral replication. To investigate whether pre-S proteins in serum might have additional diagnostic and/or predictive value for liver sequelae in HBV infection, sera from six different serological groups of patients with HBV markers (total number 363) and different manifestations of liver histology were examined for the presence of pre-S1 and pre-S2 proteins using micro-ELISAs. Pre-S1 and pre-S2 proteins were detected significantly more often in HBV-DNA-positive than in HBV-DNA-negative sera from HBsAg carriers. However, pre-S1 and pre-S2 proteins were also found in HBV-DNA-negative HBsAg carriers irrespective of serum HBeAg/anti-HBe or liver histologic findings. These results suggest that the presence of the pre-S1 and or pre-S2 proteins in serum either does not seem to reflect the presence of active viral replication and active liver disease or pre-S proteins are more readily detectable than HBeAg and HB-DNA as measured by a dot-blot technique. Furthermore, the presence of pre-S proteins in serum is strongly correlated with that of HBsAg.

Vaccines targeting preS1 domain overcome immune tolerance in hepatitis B virus carrier mice

“…In the clinic, the appearance of anti‐preS1 in patients implies a better recovery from AHB . So, we investigated whether there were relationships between anti‐preS1 and reduction of HBV infection.…”

“…In the clinic, the appearance of anti-preS1 in patients implies a better recovery from AHB. (25)(26)(27) So, we investigated whether there were relationships between anti-preS1 and reduction of HBV infection. We observed that anti-preS1 was negatively correlated with preS1 antigen (Fig.…”

Correlation of preS antigens and clinical status during chronic hepatitis B virus infection

“…The epitopes of the two domains are immunogenic in man and mice, and denaturation resistant in Western blots (Milich et al 1985(Milich et al , 1986Neurath et al 1984). The relationship between preS 1/preS2 antigens in serum and the status of viral replication in HBV chronically infected subjects is still controversial (Kuijpers et al 1989;Budkowska et al 1988a;Hu et al 1987;Mondelli et al 1984;Van Ditzhuijsen et al 1990). To gain a better understanding of the serum kinetics of the preS antigens in subjects with chronic HBV infection, we investigated the two antigens in serial serum samples from biopsy-proven chronic active (CAH, three cases) and chronic persistent (CPH, five cases) hepatitis, and from ten asymptomatic carriers, by an enyzme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) employing anti-preS 1 and anti-preS2 monoclonal antibodies (mAb).…”

High-Flux Membranes Are Not Permeable to Hepatitis B Virus-DNA

“…The difference between cellulose and high-flux membranes is a greater permeabili ty in the latter to larger molecules, notably in the range of 5,000-50,000 daltons [4], As the molecular weight of H BsAg is 24,000 daltons [5], it is to be expected that it can be demon strated in the dialysate during treatment with high-flux membranes but not with cellulose membranes. The molecular weight of the fulllength HBV-DNA can be estimated to be about 2,000,000 daltons, while an intact H BV virion (Dane particle) has a diameter of 42 nm.…”