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Displaying Whole-Chain Proteins on Hepatitis B Virus Capsid-Like Particles

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Virus-Derived Nanoparticles for Advanced Technologies

Part of the book series: Methods in Molecular Biology ((MIMB,volume 1776))

Abstract

The highly immunogenic icosahedral capsid of hepatitis B virus (HBV) can be exploited as a nanoparticulate display platform for heterologous molecules. Its constituent core protein (HBc) of only ~180 amino acids spontaneously forms capsid-like particles (CLPs) even in E. coli. The immunodominant c/e1 epitope in the center of the HBc primary sequence comprises a solvent-exposed loop that tolerates insertions of flexible peptide sequences yet also of selected whole proteins as long as their 3D structures fit into the two acceptor sites. This constraint is largely overcome in the SplitCore system, where the sequences flanking the loop are expressed as two separate but self-complementing entities, with the foreign sequence fixed to the carrier at one end only. Both the contiguous and the split type of CLP strongly enhance immunogenicity of the displayed sequence but also nonvaccine applications can easily be envisaged. After a brief survey of the basic features of the two HBc carrier forms, we provide conceptual guidelines concerning which foreign proteins are likely to be presentable, or not, on either carrier type. We describe generally applicable protocols for CLP expression in E. coli, cell lysis and CLP enrichment by sucrose gradient velocity sedimentation, plus a simple but meaningful gel electrophoretic assay to assess proper particle formation.

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Acknowledgments

Work in the authors’ laboratory pertinent to this chapter has been supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG), most recently through grants NA154/9-4 and NA154/11-1.

We thank Jolanta Vorreiter and Andrea Pfister for excellent technical assistance.

Author information

Author notes

  1. Julia Heger-Stevic, Philipp Kolb, and Andreas Walker contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Internal Medicine II/Molecular Biology, University Hospital Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany

    Julia Heger-Stevic & Michael Nassal

  2. Department of Medical Microbiology and Hygiene, Institute of Virology, University Hospital Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany

    Philipp Kolb

  3. Institute of Virology, University Hospital Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf, Germany

    Andreas Walker

Authors
  1. Julia Heger-Stevic
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  2. Philipp Kolb
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  3. Andreas Walker
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  4. Michael Nassal
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Michael Nassal .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Biomaterials and Biomolecular Systems, University of Stuttgart, Stuttgart, Germany

    Christina Wege

  2. Department of Biological Chemistry, John Innes Centre, Norwich, United Kingdom

    George P. Lomonossoff

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Heger-Stevic, J., Kolb, P., Walker, A., Nassal, M. (2018). Displaying Whole-Chain Proteins on Hepatitis B Virus Capsid-Like Particles. In: Wege, C., Lomonossoff, G. (eds) Virus-Derived Nanoparticles for Advanced Technologies. Methods in Molecular Biology, vol 1776. Humana Press, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-7808-3_33

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-7808-3_33

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  • Publisher Name: Humana Press, New York, NY

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4939-7806-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4939-7808-3

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