4.7 Article

A Plant-Produced Virus-Like Particle Displaying Envelope Protein Domain III Elicits an Immune Response Against West Nile Virus in Mice

Journal

FRONTIERS IN PLANT SCIENCE
Volume 12, Issue -, Pages -

Publisher

FRONTIERS MEDIA SA
DOI: 10.3389/fpls.2021.738619

Keywords

West Nile virus; virus-like particle; envelope protein domain III; Nicotiana benthamiana; SpyTag; SpyCatcher

Categories

Funding

  1. Poliomyelitis Research Foundation (PRF) [19/21]
  2. PRF, Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), Biopharming Research Unit (BRU)
  3. Postgraduate Publication Incentive (PPI) of UCT
  4. Carnegie Corporation
  5. Carnegie Corporation of New York

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The West Nile virus is a globally disseminated Flavivirus that causes encephalitis outbreaks in human and horse populations, posing a major public health threat. Utilizing plants as biofactories for vaccine production may offer a cost-effective and safer alternative to current vaccine manufacturing methods.
West Nile virus (WNV) is a globally disseminated Flavivirus that is associated with encephalitis outbreaks in humans and horses. The continuous global outbreaks of West Nile disease in the bird, human, and horse populations, with no preventative measures for humans, pose a major public health threat. The development of a vaccine that contributes to the One Health Initiative could be the answer to prevent the spread of the virus and control human and animal disease. The current commercially available veterinary vaccines are generally costly and most require high levels of biosafety for their manufacture. Consequently, we explored making a particulate vaccine candidate made transiently in plants as a more cost-effective and safer means of production. A WNV virus-like particle-display-based vaccine candidate was generated by the use of the SpyTag/SpyCatcher (ST/SC) conjugation system. The WNV envelope protein domain III (EDIII), which contains WNV-specific epitopes, was fused to and displayed on AP205 phage virus-like particles (VLPs) following the production of both separately in Nicotiana benthamiana. Co-purification of AP205 and EDIII genetically fused to ST and SC, respectively, resulted in the conjugated VLPs displaying EDIII with an average coupling efficiency of 51%. Subcutaneous immunisation of mice with 5 mu g of purified AP205: EDIII VLPs elicited a potent IgG response to WNV EDIII. This study presents the potential plants being used as biofactories for making significant pharmaceutical products for the One Health Initiative and could be used to address the need for their local production in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs).

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