[Simultaneous expression of modified hepatitis B surface antigen fusion polypeptides containing preS1, preS2 epitopes...

At present time, the widely used hepatitis B virus( HBV) vaccines consist of only the small hepatitis B surface antigen expressed in yeast or CHO cells. The frequency of non-responders to these vaccines has increased the demand for a more immunogenic vaccine. Some studies have suggested that the addition of preS region to the vaccine will improve its efficacy. However, the large protein (L) containing the whole preS region can not be effectively expressed in vitro. To overcome this problem, two chimeric contructs, SS1, surface gene containing preS1 region at C-terminus and SS2, surface gene containing preS2 region at C-terminus, were constructed and effectively expressed in our previous studies. Here we further constructed an expression vector containing both SS1 and SS2 expression cassettes by separation and ligation the SS2 cassette to a linearized SS1 expression vector pAO815-SS1. The recombinant vector was transformed into Pichia pastoris GS115 by electroporation. A high-level expression strain (GS115-SS1S2) was established by primary screening for His+ transformants and further analysis for induction products. ELISA results demonstrated that the expressed protein had S, preS1 and preS2 antigenicities simultaneously. Western blotting showed that the product can bind to all of the three antibodies, anti-S, anti-preS1 and anti-preS2. The expression protein was present in the form of particles of 20-35 nm diameter and the yield of recombinant particles reached 300-600 mg/L by fermentation. The SS1 and SS2 polypeptides kept intact in purified particles, suggesting that the stability of preS region has been significantly improved.