Development of a highly sensitive bioluminescent enzyme immunoassay for hepatitis B virus surface antigen capable of detecting divergent mutants.

Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infections are sometimes overlooked when using commercial kits to measure hepatitis B virus surface antigen (HBsAg) due to their low sensitivities and reactivities to mutant strains of various genotypes. We developed an ultrasensitive bioluminescent enzyme immunoassay (BLEIA) for HBsAg using firefly luciferase, which is adaptable to a variety of HBsAg mutants, by combining four monoclonal antibodies with a polyclonal antibody against HBsAg. The measurement of seroconversion panels showed trace amounts of HBsAg during the early infection phase by the BLEIA because of its high sensitivity of 5 mIU/ml. The BLEIA detected HBsAg as early as did PCR in five of seven series and from 2.1 to 9.4 days earlier than commercial immunoassay methods. During the late infection phase, the BLEIA successfully detected HBsAg even 40 days after the disappearance of HBV DNA and the emergence of antibodies against HBsAg. The HBsAg BLEIA successfully detected all 13 recombinant HBsAg and 45 types of HBsAg mutants with various mutations within amino acids 90 to 164 in the S gene product. Some specimens had higher values determined by the BLEIA than those by a commercial chemiluminescent immunoassay; this suggests that such discrepancies were caused by the dissociation of preS1/preS2 peptides from the particle surface. With its highly sensitive detection of low-titer HBsAg, including various mutants, the HBsAg BLEIA is considered to be useful for the early diagnosis and prevention of HBV infection because of the shorter window of infection prior to detection, which facilitates early prediction of recurrence in HBV-infected individuals.