A simplified drawing of the HBV particle and surface antigen. Purple = Lipid Envelope, Red = Nucleocapsid Core (Note: This drawing is slightly misleading in that the nucleocapsid core is a single entity even though it is depicted as a light blue icosahedral line shape and a red ring of circles).The genome organisation of HBV. The genes overlap. (ORF Core, at bottom left, encodes HBcAg; when translated together with Pre C, it produces soluble HBeAg.)
HBeAg is a hepatitis Bviral protein, produced by the HBcAg reading frame. It is an indicator of active viral replication; this means the person infected with Hepatitis B can likely transmit the virus on to another person (i.e. the person is infectious). HBeAg is considered a marker for cccDNA replication.[1]