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. 1990 Apr;98(4):1071-8.
doi: 10.1016/0016-5085(90)90035-y.

X antigen/antibody markers in hepadnavirus infections. Presence and significance of hepadnavirus X gene product(s) in serum

M A Feitelson  1 , M M Clayton, B S Blumberg
Affiliations

X antigen/antibody markers in hepadnavirus infections. Presence and significance of hepadnavirus X gene product(s) in serum

M A Feitelson et al. Gastroenterology. 1990 Apr.

Abstract

The finding that X antigen is associated with hepatitis B core antigen particles and that serum hepatitis B e antigen derives from the cleavage of one or more core associated polypeptides raises the question as to whether core associated X antigen could be similarly generated and released into serum. To test this hypothesis, antisera raised to X antigen peptides were used to construct an enzyme-linked solid-phase immunoassay to detect X antigen in sera from patients infected with hepatitis B virus and from woodchucks infected with woodchuck hepatitis virus. X antigen was present in more than half of the individuals tested. There was a significant association between X antigen and markers of viral replication. Most individuals destined to become surface-antigen carriers had X antigen appearing before surface antigen, as did a smaller proportion of individuals transiently positive for surface antigen. A high frequency of X antigen was observed only in sera from human populations with a high frequency of other hepatitis B virus markers. These results suggest that X is a newly identified serum marker of viral replication that often appears before surface antigen in productive infections.

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