Oriented immobilization of polyclonal IgG onto natural biopolymer-alginate blend beads for enhanced HCV capture

Abstract In the present investigation, specific polyclonal antibody responses against hepatitis C virus (HCV) E2 proteins (HCV Ab) were developed in goats and immobilized onto four natural polymeric scaffold beads: alginate (A), alginate-carrageenan (AC), alginate-gelatin (AG), and alginate-pectin (AP). Two complementary antibody (ab) immobilization strategies were employed to achieve either random or site-directed (oriented) antibody attachment. To examine the enhancement of various approaches in HCV capture from infected sera, the HCV signals were amplified in infected sera before and after incubation with antibody loaded beads made from any of the four polymeric beads mentioned above. Unloaded beads have no notable or negligible reduction in detectable HCV amplification signal of infected sera following treatment. However, HCV capture attended based on the reduction in detectable HCV amplification signals were observed in the treated sera compared with the unloaded-bead controls. Furthermore, beads loaded with antibody using the orientation loading method were significantly more efficient in enhancing HCV capture than beads loaded using the random loading method. These results are encouraging for outlook considering strategies to use antibody-loaded natural polymers as innovative extracorporeal platforms for the physical capture and removal of HCV from the bloodstream. Such an approach could potentially reduce circulating viral loads substantially, offering a promising adjunctive strategy to facilitate viral clearance and enhance the effectiveness of subsequent standard-of-care antiviral therapy.