Plant Viruses as Adjuvants for Next-Generation Vaccines and Immunotherapy

Abstract

Vaccines are the cornerstone of infectious disease control and prevention. The outbreak of SARS-CoV-2 has confirmed the urgent need for a new approach to the design of novel vaccines. Plant viruses and their derivatives are being used increasingly for the development of new medical and biotechnological applications, and this is reflected in a number of preclinical and clinical studies. Plant viruses have a unique combination of features (biosafety, low reactogenicity, inexpensiveness and ease of production, etc.), which determine their potential. This review presents the latest data on the use of plant viruses with different types of symmetry as vaccine components and adjuvants in cancer immunotherapy. The discussion concludes that the most promising approaches might be those that use structurally modified plant viruses (spherical particles) obtained from the Tobacco mosaic virus. These particles combine high adsorption properties (as a carrier) with strong immunogenicity, as has been confirmed using various antigens in animal models. According to current research, it is evident that plant viruses have great potential for application in the development of vaccines and in cancer immunotherapy.

Getting Hold of the Tobamovirus Particle—Why and How? Purification Routes over Time and a New Customizable Approach

“…Biomedical uses of tobamovirus derivatives were evaluated for both human and veterinary treatments, as well as in phytopathology, with auspicious trials at the animal and laboratory testing levels [ 115 , 126 , 127 ]. They spanned the range from vaccines, adjuvants, and test antigens [ 128 , 129 , 130 , 131 , 132 , 133 ] to the intravital delivery of tobamoviral diagnostic imaging agents and therapeutics, with cutting-edge multitasking and theranostic approaches [ 134 , 135 ]. Inactivated tobacco mild green mosaic virus (TMGMV) showed agronomic promise for a root-directed supply of pesticides [ 136 ], with the plus that the replicating TMGMV was also approved as an herbicide against invasive plants in the U.S. due to its limited risk of spread and its natural occurrence [ 137 ].…”