Korean J Intern Med.  1998 Jul;13(2):95-98.

Detection of antibodies against DNA polymerase of hepatitis B virus in HBsAg-positive sera using ELISA

• Rui LX
• Park YM
• Choi JY
• Kim BS
• Jung GH

Abstract

OBJECTIVES
DNA polymerase (pol) of Hepatitis B virus (HBV) includes 3 different domains such as terminal protein (TP), reverse transcriptase (RT) and RNase H. Humoral immune responses to each of these proteins have not been well documented previously, although antibody to pol was detected in serum of patients with chronic hepatitis B. We have constructed TP (amino acids 1-182), RT (amino acids 346-685) and RNase H (amino acids 690-832). METHODS: By ELISA using each protein expressed in E. coli as antigens, the corresponding antibodies were tested in serum from 40 patients with type B viral chronic liver diseases. (20 HBeAg-positive and 20 HBeAg-negative). As negative controls, sera from 3 healthy young men were used. With the mean values of the OD, which were tested 4 times per each test sample and 3 times per each control sample, we considered to be positive if the mean OD of each test sample is 2-fold or higher than that of controls. RESULTS: Five of 40 sera (12.5%) contained one or two different antibodies detectable by this method: 4 of 20 HbeAg-positive sera (20%) and 1 of 20 HbeAg-negative sera (5%). Anti-TP, anti-RT and anti-RNase H antibodies were detected in 2.5% (1/40), 10% (4/40) and 7.5% (3/40), respectively. Among 4/20 HbeAg-positive ELISA-positive sera, anti-TP, anti-RT and anti-RNase H were positive in 5% (1/20), 20% (4/20) and 10% (2/20), respectively, while 1 HBeAg-negative ELISA-positive sera were positive only for anti-RNase H.
CONCLUSIONS
These results suggest that the corresponding antibody responses to individual recombinant peptides derived from 3 domains of DNA polymerase may tend to be detected more frequently in HBeAg-positive sera than in HBeAg-negative sera from various patients with type B viral chronic liver diseases.

MeSH Terms

Adult
Antibodies, Antinuclear/analysis*
Biological Markers/analysis
DNA Polymerase II/immunology*
Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay
Female
Hepatitis B Surface Antigens/analysis*
Hepatitis B Virus/immunology*
Hepatitis B, Chronic/immunology*
Human
Male
Middle Age
Odds Ratio
Reference Values
Substances: DNA Polymerase II
Substances: Hepatitis B Surface Antigens
Substances: Biological Markers
Substances: Antibodies, Antinuclear