Functional Virus-Like Particles Production Using Silkworm and Their Application in Life Science

Abstract

Virus-like particles (VLPs), which mimic the structure of authentic virus, are of significant importance owing to their wide ranging applications. VLPs have the potential to serve as candidate vaccine in addition to subunit vaccines and also serve as a nano-bioparticle scaffold for displaying complex foreign proteins. Here, we review different methods available to produce VLPs with various host expression systems including from microorganisms to mammalian cells and the current potential of silkworms as producers of these VLPs. Recently, silkworms have been used for efficient production of VLPs too in addition to mass production of recombinant proteins, which have contributed to molecular structural analysis, molecule-molecule interactions in biology and biotechnology.

Plant and insect virus‐like particles: emerging nanoparticles for agricultural pest management

“…The advantages and drawbacks of each system for VLP production have been analyzed previously. [18][19][20] The most popular system for producing VLPs is the recombinant baculovirus expression system in lepidopteran cells. 21 Purified VLPs should have similar properties to authentic virions, such as morphology, size, and even function.…”

“…VLPs are composed of self‐assembled viral structural proteins that can be produced in common protein expression systems based on bacterial, plant, or insect cells. The advantages and drawbacks of each system for VLP production have been analyzed previously 18–20 . The most popular system for producing VLPs is the recombinant baculovirus expression system in lepidopteran cells 21 .…”

Expression and purification of recombinant feline interferon in the baculovirus-insect larvae system

“…The need for additional purification steps should be analyzed for veterinary applications. As an example, hemolymph from B. mori larvae containing antigens or virus-like particles can be directly used as a veterinary vaccine formulation without purification because silkworm hemolymph does not cause any anaphylactic reaction in immunized animals [43]. The IEC is a cost-effective downstream processing method [44].…”

Humoral Immune Response in a Mouse Model Induced With Dengue Virus-like Particles Serotypes 1 and 4 Produced in Silkworm Larvae

“…This enables us to express eukaryotic recombinant proteins with post-translational modi cations similar to those found in mammals. The number of recombinant proteins produced by silkworm-BEVS in silkworm larvae is frequently signi cantly higher than that produced by Sf9-BEVS in cultured cells (Kato et al 2010;Vipin Kumar Deo 2012). Feeding silkworms is exceptionally inexpensive, with a total cost of approximately USD 20 for twenty larvae.…”