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. 2023 Mar 9;29(4):851–868. doi: 10.3350/cmh.2022.0434

Figure 1.

Figure 1.

Schema of the life cycle of HBV and HBcrAg. The cccDNA is present as minichromosomes. There are 5 to 50 per hepatocyte. The minichromosomes are recycled as cccDNA to maintain the amount of cccDNA [13]. HBcrAg is produced from cccDNA. HBcrAg is coded from the precore/core region and is a denatured mixture consisting of HBV RNA, HBeAg, HBcAg, and empty particles [21,26,30]. This figure is based on Inoue et al. [9] HBeAg: information on the replication status of the virus. Empty particle. HBcAg: undetectable protein in blood specimens because it is always part of a complex. These different types of protein antigens are translated from mRNAs that are transcription products of cccDNA, which itself is generated by the HBV replication process in hepatocytes [23]. Serologic testing can measure HBeAg, empty particles, and HBcAg altogether as HBcrAg [26,27]. HBV, hepatitis B virus; cccDNA, covalently closed circular DNA; HBcrAg, hepatitis B core-related antigen; HBeAg, hepatitis B envelope antigen; HBcAg, hepatitis B core antigen; pgRNA, pregenomic RNA.