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Although comprehensive vaccination is the cornerstone of public health programs to control hepatitis B virus (HBV) infections, 5% of people who receive the existing vaccine do not develop proper immunity against HBV. To overcome this challenge, researchers have tried using various protein fragments encoded by the virus genome to achieve better immunization rates. An important antigenic component of HBsAg called the preS2/S or M protein has also received much attention in this area. The gene sequences of preS2/S and Core18-27 peptide were extracted from the GenBank (NCBI). Final gene synthesis was conducted with pET28. Groups of BALB/c mice were immunized with 10 μg/ml of recombinant proteins and 1 μg/ml CPG7909 adjuvant. Serum levels of IF-γ, TNF-α, IL-2, IL-4, and IL-10 were measured by ELISA assay method on spleen cell cultures on day 45, and IgG1, IgG2a, and total IgG titers obtained from mice serum were quantified on days 14 and 45. Statistical analysis did not show any significant difference between the groups regarding IF-γ level. There were, however, significant differences in terms of IL-2 and IL-4 levels between the groups receiving preS2/S-C18-27 with and without adjuvant and the groups receiving both preS2/S and preS2/S-C18-27 (Plus Recomb-Plus Recomb: the group of mice that received both preS2/S and preS2/S-C18-27 simultaneously). The strongest total antibody production was induced by immunization with both recombinant proteins without CPG adjuvant. The groups that received both preS2/S and preS2/S-C18-27, whether with or without adjuvant, were significantly different from those that received the conventional vaccine considering most abundant interleukins. This difference suggested that higher levels of efficacy can be achieved by the use of multiple virus antigen fragments rather than using a single fragment., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.)

Introduction: Hepatitis B and C viruses are one of the leading causes of health problems in the world and early diagnosis and treatment of them are very important. Thereby, this study aimed to evaluate the validity and reliability of usable diagnostic tests for the detection of hepatitis B and C viruses in the clinical setting and to compare them with each other., Materials and Methods: In this review article, we have searched major online databases, including PubMed and EMBASE. 42 retrieved articles were published between January 2000 and January 2020, which are summarized in this review., Results: Immunoassay approaches are general techniques for the identification of pathogenic agents, among which ELISA is the gold standard for the detection of HBsAg. While serological techniques are not conclusive, molecular assays are really important because of the high sensitivity to detect chronic hepatitis B without HBeAg, in which viral loads are very low. Biosensors have more elevated selectivity and sensitivity and faster responses compared to other methods., Conclusion: This study suggests that all of the molecular, serological, and biotechnological assays have advantages and disadvantages for diagnosing hepatitis B and C viruses which are dependent on the condition, so we should choose one of them in regards to the time, cost, and laboratory equipment along with the clinical symptoms., (Copyright© Bentham Science Publishers; For any queries, please email at epub@benthamscience.net.)

Background & Objective: 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. Methods: 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/SC18-27 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. Results: 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. Conclusion: 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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]