HBcAg Protein

HBcAg (core antigen) is a hepatitis B viral protein. It is an indicator of active viral replication; this means the person infected with Hepatitis B can likely transmit the virus on to another person (i.e. the person is infectious) . Hepatitis B virus (HBV) core antigen (HBcAg) -specific CD4 (+) T-cell responses are believed to play an important role in the control of human HBV infection. HBcAg-specific CD4 (+) Th1-type T cells can modulate the function and exert a regulatory role in deleting HBcAg-binding, or -specific, human B cells in vivo, which may be of importance in controlling the infection.

Kimura T, Rokuhara A, Matsumoto A, et al. (May 2003) . "New enzyme immunoassay for detection of hepatitis B virus core antigen (HBcAg) and relation between levels of HBcAg and HBV DNA". J. Clin. Microbiol. 41 (5) : 1901–6. Cao T, Meuleman P, Desombere I, Sällberg M, Leroux-Roels G (December 2001) . "In vivo inhibition of anti-hepatitis B virus core antigen (HBcAg) immunoglobulin G production by HBcAg-specific CD4 (+) Th1-type T-cell clones in a hu-PBL-NOD/SCID mouse model". J. Virol. 75 (23) : 11449–56.