Recombinant hepatites B vaccine: the usage of yeast saccharomyces cerevisisae expression system

ABSTRACT

Hepatitis B is a serious viral infection that represents a parenterally and sexually transmitted disease of wordwide importance. There is no effective treatment being vaccination the only real way to control this infection. Recombinant DNA technology has been successfully used for development of a safe and effective vaccine agaiinst Hepatitis B. Among different expression systems yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae is considered appropriate for efficient synthesis of Hepatitis Bsurface antigen (HBsAg) and large-scale production of recombinant vaccine. In spite of many benefits of commercially available recombinant vaccines they have to be improved for immunogenicity. Supplementing HBsAg with preS epitopes is the prospective way to increase the potency of yeast-derived recombinant vaccine.