Abstract
Recombinant viral or virus-like particles offer new tools for vaccine development. This study investigated hepatitis B core antigen (HBcAg) capsids and RNA phage Qbeta coats as carriers of a foreign epitope to induce antibody responses in mice. HBcAg capsids were shown to induce T cell-independent (TI) antibodies. We found that these particles behave as antigen-specific TI type 1 (TI-1) Ag comparable to other rigidly structured viruses. When a 5-aa long epitope of the pre-S1 domain of hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) was introduced into the optimal position of the HBc molecule, it also behaved as a TI-1 Ag. Best efficiency of the antibody response to the foreign epitope was achieved by a compensatory deletion after the epitope to retain the regular structure of the HBcAg capsid with a highly repetitive superficial exposition of the foreign epitope. For recombinant Qbeta phage coats, a much more efficient antibody response to the foreign epitope was achieved when the foreign epitope was expressed repetitively on a particulate derivate of Qbeta phage coats. Thus, recombinant virus particles are suitable vaccine carriers for the introduction of foreign B cell epitopes, if precise structural requirements are fulfilled.