Hepatitis B Virus (HBV) | HBsAg | HBcAg | HBeAg

#microbiology #hepatitis #virus #virology #HBV #cancer
The infectious HBV virion (Dane particle) has a spherical, double-shelled structure 42 nm in diameter, consisting of a lipid envelope containing HBsAg that surrounds an inner nucleocapsid composed of hepatitis B core antigen (HBcAg) complexed with virally encoded polymerase and the viral DNA genome.
Two distinct antigen-antibody systems are associated with the hepatitis B virus: the hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg, Australia antigen) and antibody (anti-HBs) and the recently characterized hepatitis B core antigen (HBcAg) and antibody (anti-HBc, anti-core).