Preparation by alkaline treatment and detailed characterisation of empty hepatitis B virus core particles for vaccine and gene therapy applications.

ABSTRACT: Hepatitis B virus (HBV) core (HBc) virus-like particles (VLPs) are one of the most powerful protein engineering tools utilised to expose immunological epitopes and/or cell-targeting signals and for the packaging of genetic material and immune stimulatory sequences. Although HBc VLPs and their numerous derivatives are produced in highly efficient bacterial and yeast expression systems, the existing purification and packaging protocols are not sufficiently optimised and standardised. Here, a simple alkaline treatment method was employed for the complete removal of internal RNA from bacteria- and yeast-produced HBc VLPs and for the conversion of these VLPs into empty particles, without any damage to the VLP structure. The empty HBc VLPs were able to effectively package the added DNA and RNA s

SUBMITTER: Strods A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4650659 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature