The Use of Transient Expression Systems for the Rapid Production of Virus-like Particles in Plants

Abstract

Advances in transient expression technologies have allowed the production of milligram quantities of proteins within a matter of days using only small amounts (tens of grams) of plant tissue. Among the proteins that have been produced using this approach are the structural proteins of viruses which are capable of forming virus-like particles (VLPs). As such particulate structures are potent stimulators of the immune system, they are excellent vaccine candidates both in their own right and as carriers of additional immunogenic sequences. VLPs of varying complexity derived from a variety of animal viruses have been successfully transiently expressed in plants and their immunological properties assessed. Generally, the plant-produced VLPs were found to have the expected antigenicity and immunogenicity. In several cases, including an M2e-based influenza vaccine candidate, the plant-expressed VLPs have been shown to be capable of stimulating protective immunity. These findings raise the prospect that low-cost plant-produced vaccines could be developed for both veterinary and human use.

Plant-based porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus VLPs induce an immune response in mice

“…However, these results are in contrast to that obtained by Thuenemann et al (Thuenemann et al, 2013), who were not able to detect VLPs nor any of the GP5 and M proteins by western blot after expression in plants. One of the bands, that presumably corresponds to GP5 as determined by molecular mass, is also detectable in the control lane albeit at lower level (Fig.…”

Micropropagation of transgenic lettuce containing HBsAg as a method of mass-scale production of standardised plant material for biofarming purposes

“…Some of them have been already licensed, such as the enzyme glucocerebrosidase (taliglucerase alfa, Protalix™) against Gaucher’s disease, or are very close to implementation, such as a vaccine against influenza (haemagglutinins assembled into virus-like particles, Medicago Inc.) (Grabowski et al 2014; Ward et al 2014). Nowadays, most of biopharmaceuticals are produced using transient expression systems based on virus-derived vectors or agroinfiltration (Thuenemann et al 2013; Yusibov et al 2013). Despite the unquestionable effectiveness of these systems, biopharmaceuticals produced in this manner usually require to be purified.…”

Plant-based vaccines against viruses

“…This project was a part of the EU FP7 Plant Production of Vaccines (PlaProVa) initiative (http://www.plaprova.eu/), whose activities to do with VLP-based vaccines are partly reported on here [129]. Bluetongue disease is a relatively newly emerged problem in sheep and goats in northern Europe [130], and is almost certainly a result of climate change affecting the distribution of the Culicoides midges that transmit it [131].…”