Hepatitis B Surface Antigen preS2 Hepatitis B virus (HBV) is a human pathogen, causing serious liver disease. The HBV surface protein antigens (HBsAg) are comprised of three carboxyl co terminal HBs proteins termed large (LHBs), middle (MHBs) and small (SHBs, also called major) protein. LHBs and MHBs also share the highly hydrophobic, repetitive, membrane spanning S domain. In addition, MHBs has a 55 amino acid region called preS2.