Immunization with phage virus-like particles displaying Zika virus potential B-cell epitopes neutralizes Zika virus infection of monkey kidney cells

Engineered Bacteriophages for Practical Applications

“…59) Similarly, a Candida albicans-derived peptide expressed on a filamentous phage elicited an immune response and improved survival rates against a systemic candidiasis challenge. 60) As for vaccines against viruses, there are recent examples for protection in mice against human papillomavirus (HPV) types associated with cancer, using MS2 virus-like particles (VLPs) expressing an HPV protein, 61) and for in vitro neutralization of the Zika virus by antibodies generated against different epitope-carrying VLPs. 62) Finally, there have also been reports of phage-based vaccines against cancer, such as melanoma neoantigens expressed on phage T7 that elicited immune responses and antibodies that bound to melanoma cells, 63) or phages carrying epitopes of a mutated version of HER2, able to break immune tolerance and provide protection in a breast cancer model in mouse.…”

Recent Advances in the Development of Virus-Like Particle-Based Flavivirus Vaccines

“…Basu et al also displayed B cell epitopes (amino acids 241-259, 294-315, 317-327, 346-361, 377-388 and 421-437) of ZIKV E protein on bacteriophage VLPs. They found that VLPs displaying a single B-cell epitope reduced ZIKV infection, while immunization with a VLP mixture displaying combined B-cell epitopes neutralized ZIKV infection [66], suggesting that VLPs displaying multiple ZIKV B-cell epitopes, rather than the VLPs displaying a single B-cell epitope, provide a promising strategy to enhance ZIKV neutralizing activity.…”

Peer Review #3 of "Application of built-in adjuvants for epitope-based vaccines (v0.1)"

“…The over-expression of the single-chain dimer coat proteins of MS2 and PP7 RNA phages in bacteria can spontaneously assemble into recombinant MS2 or PP7 VLPs containing 90 dimer copies and 90 exogenous epitopes. In addition, for the Qβ bacteriophage, 180 copies of singlechain dimer capsid proteins can spontaneously assemble into a VLP; thus, at least 180 exogenous epitopes can be displayed on the surface of a Qβ VLP (Basu et al, 2018). Recent reports have shown that the Qβ bacteriophage contains TLR ligands that can enhance Qβ-VLP-induced T cellindependent and -dependent Ab reactions, including a germinal center (GC) reaction via of TLR/MyD88 signaling in B cells (Tian et al, 2018).…”

“…Recent reports have shown that the Qβ bacteriophage contains TLR ligands that can enhance Qβ-VLP-induced T cellindependent and -dependent Ab reactions, including a germinal center (GC) reaction via of TLR/MyD88 signaling in B cells (Tian et al, 2018). This VLP platform which contains no viral genome can be used in the future as a carrier system for the administration of safe vaccines against many pathogens (Pumpens et al, 2016 Manuscript to be reviewed the envelope proteins of Zika virus on the surface of a highly immunogenic bacteriophage VLP platform (MS2, PP7, and Qβ), and evaluated the immunogenicity of these VLPs in mice (Basu et al, 2018) Zhai et al also displayed consensus peptides from HPV L2 and tandem HPV31/16L2 peptides on the surface of bacteriophage MS2 VLPs. These MS2-L2 VLPs can induce high antibody titers in mice and are cost-effective vaccine candidates against HPV; however, HPV vaccines with greater cross-protection should be further evaluated to prevent more types of HPV (Zhai et al, 2017).…”