TCR-like bispecific antibodies toward eliminating infected hepatocytes in HBV mouse models.

Therapeutics for eradicating hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection are still limited and current nucleos(t)ide analogs (NAs) and interferon are effective in controlling viral replication and improving liver health, but they cannot completely eradicate the hepatitis B virus and only a very small number of patients are cured of it. The TCR-like antibodies recognizing viral peptides presented on human leukocyte antigens (HLA) provide possible tools for targeting and eliminating HBV-infected hepatocytes. Here, we generated three TCR-like antibodies targeting three different HLA-A2.1-presented peptides derived from HBV core and surface proteins. Bispecific antibodies (BsAbs) were developed by fuzing variable fragments of these TCR-like mAbs with an anti-CD3ϵ antibody. Our data demonstrate that the BsAbs could act as T cell engagers, effectively redirecting and activating T cells to target HBV-infected hepatocytes in vitro and in vivo. In HBV-persistent mice expressing human HLA-A2.1, two infusions of BsAbs induced marked and sustained suppression in serum HBsAg levels and also reduced the numbers of HBV-positive hepatocytes. These findings highlighted the therapeutic potential of TCR-like BsAbs as a new strategy to cure hepatitis B.

Evaluation of magnetic matrix solid-phase dispersion for the determination of polychlorinated biphenyls in water samples by gas chromatography with electron capture detection.

A vortex-assisted magnetic matrix solid-phase dispersion method was proposed for the determination of polychlorinated biphenyls in different matrix water samples by gas chromatography with electron capture detection. Magnetic bamboo charcoal (MBC) was synthesized for the adsorption of polychlorinated biphenyls in water samples. Complete separation of the liquid phase and the solid magnetic bamboo charcoal was easily achieved by using a permanent magnet. Under the optimized conditions, good linearity in the range of 0.006-5.0 µg/L was obtained with regression coefficients (r) higher than 0.9986. Based on a signal-to-noise ratio of 3, limits of detection were found to be 0.001-0.003 µg/L. Relative standard deviations ranged from 2.92 to 6.56%. Relative recoveries were 96.6-111.2% for the spiked wastewater sample and 90.7-104.7% for the spiked lake water sample. All results showed that the proposed method was simple, sensitive, and reliable for the determination of polychlorinated biphenyls in water samples.