The core antigen of hepatitis B virus as a carrier for immunogenic peptides

The core antigen of hepatitis B virus (HBcAg) made in Escherichia coli yiel ds particles that closely resemble the viral nucleocapsid. Extensive modifi cations can be made to the primary structure of HBcAg without impairing par ticle assembly. This enables other peptide sequences, including very long s equences, to be added, substituted, or inserted into the nucleocapsid subun it while retaining the ability to form highly immunogenic particles. These also retain the T cell epitopes of HBcAg and constitute powerful delivery s ystems for a diverse range of immunogenic epitopes and have significant pot ential for development of multi-component vaccines.