Patent ID: 8524868

Claim:
A multimer of purified monomeric polypeptides, wherein said multimer is formed by 2-180 purified monomeric polypeptides via self-aggregation, and each said purified monomeric polypeptide is selected from the group consisting of (a) a fragment of SEQ ID No. 1 of hepatitis E virus ORF 2 wherein the amino terminus starts from between amino acid residues 370 and 469, and the carboxyl terminus ends from between amino add residues 601 and 628, wherein the fragment of SEQ ID No. 1 is selected from the group consisting of a polypeptide having the amino acid sequence of amino acid residues 394 to 628 from SEQ ID No. 1, a polypeptide having the amino acid sequence of amino acid residues 394 to 618 from SEQ ID No. 1, a polypeptide having the amino acid sequence of amino acid residues 394 to 602 from SEQ ID No. 1, a polypeptide having the amino acid sequence of amino acid residues 394 to 601 from SEQ ID No. 1, a polypeptide having the amino acid sequence of amino acid residues 394 to 606 from SEQ ID No. 1, a polypeptide having the amino acid sequence of amino acid residues 390 to 603 from SEQ ID No. 1, a polypeptide having the amino acid sequence of amino acid residues 374 to 618 from SEQ ID No. 1, a polypeptide having the amino acid sequence of amino acid residues 414 to 602 from SEQ ID No. 1, a polypeptide having the amino acid sequence of amino acid residues 414 to 601 from SEQ ID No. 1, and a polypeptide having the amino acid sequence of amino acid residues 459 to 628 from SEQ ID No. 1, and (b) a polypeptide having the amino acid sequence of amino acid residues X to 603 from SEQ ID No. 1 with Met added at the N-terminus and a modified C-terminus, wherein the modified C-terminus is an addition, in the 5′ to 3′ direction, of amino acid sequence -Pro-Pro-Arg at amino acid residue 603, Pro, on its 3′ end and wherein when X is amino acid residue 394, the polypeptide is as set forth in SEQ ID No. 2; when X is amino acid residue 414, the polypeptide is as set forth in SEQ ID No. 3; when X is amino acid residue 429, the polypeptide is as set forth in SEQ ID No. 4; when X is amino acid residue 439, the polypeptide is as set forth in SEQ ID No. 7; when X is amino acid residue 449, the polypeptide is as set forth in SEQ ID No. 8; when X is amino acid residue 459, the polypeptide is as set forth in SEQ ID No. 9; or when X is amino acid residue 469, the polypeptide is as set forth in SEQ ID No. 10.