Production of Mosquito Cell-derived Zika Virus-like Particles using BacMos System

Background: Zika virus (ZIKV) is a mosquito-borne flavivirus which has been conclusively linked to Guillain-Barré syndrome and microcephaly. The worldwide emergence of ZIKV has greatly increased the demand for vaccines that reduce or prevent disease transmission. Neutralizing human antibodies which...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published inJournal of Medical Sciences Vol. 41; no. 3; pp. 134 - 139
Main Authors Lin, Hui-Tsu, Chiao, Der-Jiang, Kuo, Szu-Cheng
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Chinese
Published 台灣 國防醫學院 01.05.2021
Medknow Publications and Media Pvt. Ltd
Wolters Kluwer Medknow Publications
Subjects
Antibodies
B cells
baculovirus
Disease transmission
Guillain-Barre syndrome
MEDLINE
mosquito
Mosquitoes
Proteins
Scopus
Vaccines
Viral antibodies
Viral genetics
virus-like particles
Zika virus
virus-like particles
baculovirus
Zika virus
mosquito
Online AccessGet full text

Cover

More Information
Summary:Background: Zika virus (ZIKV) is a mosquito-borne flavivirus which has been conclusively linked to Guillain-Barré syndrome and microcephaly. The worldwide emergence of ZIKV has greatly increased the demand for vaccines that reduce or prevent disease transmission. Neutralizing human antibodies which target ZIKV E proteins have been shown to prevent ZIKV replication. Virus-like particles (VLPs) lacking viral genetic material comprise self-assembled multi-subunit protein structures that are capable of strongly activating humoral and cellular immunity. Flavivirus prM and E proteins are both necessary and sufficient for the production of VLPs. Thus, it appears that ZIKV VLPs are an ideal target for vaccine design and serological detection. Methods: In this study, the BacMos (baculovirus/mosquito) method was used to introduce the ZIKV prME gene into mosquito cells. Immunofluorescence assays (IFAs), dot blot (DB) analysis, and Western blot (WB) analysis were used to evaluate the expression and secretion of ZIKV glycoproteins. VLP formation was confirmed using transmission electron microscopic (TEM) and dynamic light scattering (DLS) analysis. Results: IFA presented intense signals from ZIKV E-positive cells in BacMos-ZIKV prME-transduced cells. DB and WB detected abundant ZIKV glycoproteins in the culture medium of BacMos-ZIKV prME-transduced cells. TEM observation and DLS analysis revealed that ZIKV VLPs comprised spherical particles, with an average diameter of 30 nm. Conclusions: Mosquito cell-derived ZIKV VLPs are promising candidates for the development of safe, efficacious vaccines and diagnostic antigens in the future.
ISSN:1011-4564
DOI:10.4103/jmedsci.jmedsci_106_20