Strong hydrophobicity enables efficient purification of HBc VLPs displaying various antigen epitopes through hydrophobic interaction chromatography

•HBc-VLP and its derivatives with various foreign epitopes show strong surface hydrophobicity.•Displaying of foreign epitopes influence the surface hydrophobicity of the recombinant VLPs.•Analysis on their surface hydrophobicity provide rational approach for HIC condition selection.•A complete downstream process involving a heat pretreatment, HIC and SEC was developed.•Total recovery of HBc-VLP and three derivatives was from 33.2% to 41.92%, with purity of final products nearly 100%.