A single anion exchange chromatography step enables scalable, high-yield purification of hepatitis B virus capsid virus-like particles

Introduction

Hepatitis B Virus (HBV) causes a significant global health burden. The HBV core (HBc) protein forms the HBV capsid and has a crucial role in the virus replication cycle. When expressed across different platforms, HBc can self-assemble into HBV-capsid-based virus-like particles (VLPs), with a wide range of applications in both fundamental and pharmaceutical research. Due to their ability to display or crosslink foreign antigens on the surface, HBc VLPs are used as vaccine antigens. However, conventional VLP purification methods face challenges in scalability and achieving high yields. Therefore, investigating the generation and purification process of these VLPs is of high interest.