Rapid and Robust Continuous Purification of High-Titer Hepatitis B Virus for In Vitro and In Vivo Applications

• Published in: Viruses Vol. 13; no. 8; p. 1503
• Main Authors: Wettengel, Jochen M, Linden, Bianca, Esser, Knud, Laue, Michael, Burwitz, Benjamin J, Protzer, Ulrike
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland MDPI AG 30.07.2021; MDPI
• Subjects: Anticoagulants; Cell culture; Cell Line; Cell lines; Chromatography; DNA, Viral - isolation & purification; Genomes; HBV for in vitro and in vivo assays; HBV high-titer virus stocks; Heparan sulfate; heparin-affinity chromatography; Hepatitis B; Hepatitis B - virology; hepatitis B virus; Hepatitis B virus - isolation & purification; Humans; Immunocompetence; In Vitro Techniques; Infections; Medical research; Polyethylene glycol; Proteins; Protocol; Purification; Sucrose; sucrose-gradient ultracentrifugation; Viral Load - methods; virus purification; Virus Replication; Viruses; heparin-affinity chromatography; HBV for in vitro and in vivo assays; sucrose-gradient ultracentrifugation; virus purification; HBV high-titer virus stocks; hepatitis B virus
• ISSN: 1999-4915; 1999-4915
• DOI: 10.3390/v13081503

Available treatments for hepatitis B can control the virus but are rarely curative. This led to a global initiative to design new curative therapies for the 257 million patients affected. Discovery and development of these new therapies is contingent upon functional in vitro and in vivo hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection models. However, low titer and impurity of conventional HBV stocks reduce significance of in vitro infections and moreover limit challenge doses in current in vivo models. Therefore, there is a critical need for a robust, simple and reproducible protocol to generate high-purity and high-titer infectious HBV stocks. Here, we outline a three-step protocol for continuous production of high-quality HBV stocks from supernatants of HBV-replicating cell lines. This purification process takes less than 6 h, yields to high-titer stocks (up to 1 × 10 enveloped, DNA-containing HBV particles/mL each week), and is with minimal equipment easily adaptable to most laboratory settings.