Baculovirus as Vaccine Vectors

Abstract

Application of viral vectors derived from human viruses to mediate immune response in animals and humans has been greatly hampered by the problems associated with pre-existing immunity and associated toxicities. Among few non-human viral vectors, baculovirus has now evolved as a novel tool for vaccine vector development. With broad tissue tropism and expanded bio-safety profile suitably supplemented with intrinsic immunostimulatory properties, baculovirus has now attained a niche position in the arena of vaccine development. Recombinant envelope-modified baculovirus equipped with novel shuttle promoters for in vivo transduction has shown promising results in several animal models. Baculovirus mediated induction of systemic and mucosal immune responses through intranasal or oral administration has now open an entirely new way for the development of new generation vaccines. Gaining additional insight into the baculovirus biology and its interaction with non-native hosts will certainly promote this human-friendly virus as a potential vector for clinical applications.

Development of the hybrid Sleeping Beauty-baculovirus vector for sustained gene expression and cancer therapy

“…Baculovirus is non-pathogenic to humans and recombinant baculovirus construction and handling can be performed in Biosafety Level 1 facilities. Consequently, baculovirus has emerged as a promising gene delivery vector for a plethora of applications (for review, see Chen et al, 7 Madhan et al, 8 Kost et al, 9 Liu et al, 10 Lin et al, 11 and Airenne et al 12 ). Furthermore, baculovirus has been exploited for the treatment of glioma, hepatoma and melanoma in murine models.…”

Recent Advances in Our Knowledge of Baculovirus Molecular Biology and Its Relevance for the Registration of Baculovirus-Based Products for Insect Pest Population Control

“…The different strategies employed in the production of baculovirus-based vaccines include: (i) BEVs-based subunit vaccines; here, recombinant viral proteins or peptides are produced using BEVs in cell culture. Subunit vaccines can be efficiently produced in insect cells and have additional safety advantages over live attenuated vaccines (Madhan et al, 2010). A good example is the influenza vaccine (FluBlok), which is based on recombinant Hemagglutin (HA) proteins selected from three influenza virus strains as determined by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Centre for Disease Control (CDC) (Airenne, 2009;Cox & Hollister, 2009).…”

“…Unlike BEVs, which relies on baculovirus late promoters, the gene of interest in BacMam vectors is placed under the transcriptional control of mammalian active-promoters such as those of CMV, RSV, chicken beta-actin (CAG), among others (Madhan et al, 2010). Various cellular and viral promoters have been shown to affect transduction efficiency in different mammalian cells implying that promoter selection is critical to efficient use of baculovirus vectors (Kim et al, 2007;Shoji et al, 1997).…”

Expression of recombinant proteins in insect cells by their direct infection with Escherichia coli transformed with baculovirus bacmids

“…Advantages of the system include high packaging capacity, high level of protein expression, simultaneous expression of hetero-oligomeric complexes, advanced post-translational modification, and biosafety (Belzhelarskaia, 2002;Ashour et al, 2007). These attributes have increased the interest in utilizing baculoviruses in areas such as vaccine development, cancer therapy, antiviral therapy, tissue regeneration, and organ transplantation (Hu et al, 2008;Tani et al, 2008;Suzuki et al, 2009;Lin et al, 2010;Madhan et al, 2010;Wang and Balasundaram, 2010;Hitchman et al, 2011). Two main types of the baculovirus have been used; Autographa californica nuclear polyhedrosis virus (AcNPV) and Bombyx mori nuclear polyhedrosis virus (BmNPV).…”