| Affiliation: | 1. Syngene International Private Limited, Bangalore, India;2. Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology (IMCB), Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), Singapore City, Singapore Infectious Diseases Translational Research Programme and Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore, Singapore City, Singapore;3. Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology (IMCB), Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), Singapore City, Singapore |
| Abstract: | Over 250 million people are living with chronic infection caused by the hepatitis B virus (HBV). HBV has three surface proteins, namely small (SHBs), medium (MHBs) and large (LHBs), and they play different roles in the virus life cycle. The approved hepatitis B vaccine only contains the SHBs protein and many studies have focused on characterising the functional domains in SHBs. Although the LHBs protein is less studied, recent studies have shown that it plays important roles in mediating viral entry, replication and assembly. Over the years, there have been major advancements in monoclonal antibody (mAb) discovery tools and multiple mAbs have been developed to specifically target the preS1 domain in LHBs. We summarise the HBV infection systems and antibody discovery strategies that have been utilised by various research groups to assess the potential use of anti-preS1 mAbs as therapeutic antibodies against HBV or in the development of new diagnostic assays. |
