Comparison of Immune Response in Mice Immunized with Recombinant PreS2/S-C18-27 Protein Derived from Hepatitis B Virus with Commercial Vaccine

• Published in: Iranian journal of pathology Vol. 17; no. 4; pp. 448 - 460
• Main Authors: Gholami Parizad, Elaheh, Imani Fooladi, Abbas Ali, Sedighian, Hamid, Behzadi, Elham, Valizadeh, Azar, Khosravi, Afra
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Iran 2022
• Subjects: Hepatitis B Core Antigen; preS2HBsAg; Hepatitis B Virus; CpG 7909; Hepatitis B Vaccines
• ISSN: 1735-5303
• DOI: 10.30699/ijp.2022.553785.2896

The vaccine available to prevent Hepatitis B virus disease is ineffective in 5% of people due to the use of HBsAg as a weak immunogenic factor. In the present study, PreS2/S fused to C18-27 peptide fragment as an effective antigen and is proposed as a promising vaccine candidate compared with the conventional vaccine prescribed in the vaccination program. After the synthesis of PreS2/S genes and C18-27 peptide fragment in pET28a, the recombinant protein was confirmed by Western blotting. The efficacy of the PreS2/S-C18-27 protein was compared with the conventional vaccine injected into five groups of rats. Finally, the cytokine level of IF-r, IL-2, IL-4, IL-10, TNF-a, IgG1, and IgG2a were measured using the ELISA method. This study showed no significant difference between the recombinant vaccine group and PBS control group in the IF-r test, but there was a significant difference between groups testing IL-2 and IL-10. In addition, the group receiving the recombinant vaccine with CPG adjuvant at a dilution of 1/10 in the IgG total test on days 14 and 45 after the first injection showed a significant difference in comparison with other groups. This study showed no statistically significant difference between the recombinant protein vaccine group and the conventional vaccine group. The Th1- mediated immune responses obtained from recombinant proteins with and without CPG performed better than conventional vaccines, possibly due to the functional deficiency of the available vaccines.