Immunogenicity of Virus Like Particle Forming Baculoviral DNA Vaccine against Pandemic Influenza H1N1

Abstract

An outbreak of influenza H1N1 in 2009, representing the first influenza pandemic of the 21st century, was transmitted to over a million individuals and claimed 18,449 lives. The current status in many countries is to prepare influenza vaccine using cell-based or egg-based killed vaccine. However, traditional influenza vaccine platforms have several limitations. To overcome these limitations, many researchers have tried various approaches to develop alternative production platforms. One of the alternative approach, we reported the efficacy of influenza HA vaccination using a baculoviral DNA vaccine (AcHERV-HA). However, the immune response elicited by the AcHERV-HA vaccine, which only targets the HA antigen, was lower than that of the commercial killed vaccine. To overcome the limitations of this previous vaccine, we constructed a human endogenous retrovirus (HERV) envelope-coated, baculovirus-based, virus-like-particle (VLP)–forming DNA vaccine (termed AcHERV-VLP) against pandemic influenza A/California/04/2009 (pH1N1). BALB/c mice immunized with AcHERV-VLP (1×107 FFU AcHERV-VLP, i.m.) and compared with mice immunized with the killed vaccine or mice immunized with AcHERV-HA. As a result, AcHERV-VLP immunization produced a greater humoral immune response and exhibited neutralizing activity with an intrasubgroup H1 strain (PR8), elicited neutralizing antibody production, a high level of interferon-γ secretion in splenocytes, and diminished virus shedding in the lung after challenge with a lethal dose of influenza virus. In conclusion, VLP-forming baculovirus DNA vaccine could be a potential vaccine candidate capable of efficiently delivering DNA to the vaccinee and VLP forming DNA eliciting stronger immunogenicity than egg-based killed vaccines.

Porcine endogenous retrovirus envelope coated baculoviral DNA vaccine against porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus

“…The titers of neutralizing antibodies and IFN-c secretion elicited by Ac mPERV-C5/C6 expressing GP5 and M proteins were higher than those by Ac mPERV-C5 expressing GP5 only. Our results are consistent with previous reports 21 showing that DNA vaccines encoding VLP forming antigen generated stronger immunogenicity than those encoding a single major antigen gene.…”

“…Previously, we reported the immunization efficacy of influenza DNA vaccines based on a HERV-coated baculoviral DNA vaccine system for human use. 5,21 In this study, we successfully constructed a PERVenveloped baculovirus delivery system for porcine use. Compare to full length of PERV env, signal sequence and transmembrane modified PERV env showed more efficient delivery.…”

Yeast Surface-Displayed H5N1 Avian Influenza Vaccines

“…The virus-like particle (VLP) vaccine has been shown to induce long-term protection of mice from influenza virus infection [50, 51]. However, construction and production of these VLP vaccines at an industry scale are cumbersome [52]. Unlike VLP vaccines, yeast vaccines can be produced at large-scale and in a very cost-effective way.…”

Preparation of liposome‐encapsulated interferon alpha (IFN‐α) vaccine and anti‐grass carp reovirus effect

“…Furthermore, DNA vaccines can induce strong and long‐lasting humoral and cell‐dependent immune responses (Thermet, Rollier, Zoulim, Trepo, & Cova, ). In a vaccination study of mice, Gwon et al () reported that, compared with BALB/c mice immunized with the killed vaccine, mice immunized with virus‐like‐particle (VLP)‐forming DNA vaccine can produce a strong neutralizing antibody and a high level of interferon‐γ with an intrasubgroup H1 strain.…”