Quantification of the three hepatitis B virus surface proteins (large, middle and small) and the potential as novel biomarkers during treatment of chronic HBV patients

Abstract

Infections related to the HBV are challenging and due to >300,000 cases, they can be considered a major global health burden. The various stages and courses make the infection complex and demanding to manage and treat. While diagnostic tools are available to monitor the course of the infection with the help of biomarkers, it is still difficult and does not always lead to detailed and individualised adjusted treatment for the patient. Currently, there is no cure for the disease, and limited predictive biomarkers make it even more important to maximize therapy effectiveness. Closer investigations on biomarkers during the infection course have great potential in detecting predictive outcome tools. These would also allow monitoring of patients’ infection courses by signalling treatment failure or recurrence, leading to individualised therapy. Aim: This study mainly focuses on quantifying the HBsAg protein components by targeting specific epitopes with modified in-house immunoassays. Its priority is assessing the potential of the three HBV surface proteins LHBs, MHBs and SHBs as novel clinical biomarkers for monitoring immune-based therapy in chronically HBV-infected HBeAg-positive patients.