Virus-like particle (VLP) vaccine, consisting of a complex structure, is a unique modality of recombinant subunit vaccine.
VLPs are generated using recombinant DNA technology, which met the challenges and bottlenecks of recombinant VLP vaccine manufacturing. Various expression systems are applied to produce VLP vaccine, such as bacteria (Escherichia coli), yeasts (Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Hansenula polymorpha, Pichia pastoris), insect cells, mammalian cells, or even plants.
The first VLP vaccine, Heptavax against hepatitis B virus (HBV), was authorized in 1986. Heptavax is self-assembled into VLP based on hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) using yeast S. cerevisiae as an expression system. After that, HPV, a vaccine targeting human papillomavirus (HPV) and using L1 structural protein, was introduced and entered the market in 2006 and 2007. This was a huge success and subsequently brought about progress of several VLP-based vaccines, including VLP vaccines, chimeric VLP vaccines, VLP based conjugate vaccine, VLP carrying RNA and etc.
Category |
Approved Products |
RECOMBIVAX HB (S. cerevisiae), PREHEVBRIO (CHO cell), ENGERIX-B (S. cerevisiae), HEPLISAV-B (H. polymorpha) |
|
Hecolin (E. coli) |
|
4-valent Gardasil (S. cerevisiae), 9-valent Gardasil 9 |
|
Cervarix (Baculovirus), Cecolin (E. coli) |
|
Malaria Vaccine |
RTS,S/AS01, Mosquirix (S. cerevisiae) |
VLP-based vaccines are being developed as classical vaccines against infection desease, as well as therapeutic vaccines against cancer, inflammation, allergy, neurodegenerative diseases, hypertension, and etc. Examples of commonly used VLPs in vaccine development are listed:
VLP Backbone |
VLP Composition |
Derivation |
HBV-VLP
|
HBsAg, HBcAg or S1, S2 antigen
|
Hepatitis B virus (HBV) |
HPV-VLP
|
HPV capsid L1 antigen, or HPV capsid L1/L2 protein
|
Human papillomavirus (HPV) |
HEV-VLP
|
HEV ORF2
|
Hepatitis E Virus (HEV) |
Qβ-VLP
|
Qβ coat protein
|
Bacteriophage Qβ |
AP205-VLP
|
AP205 coat protein
|
Bacteriophage AP205 |
MS2-VLP
|
MS2 coat protein
|
Bacteriophage MS2 |
PP7-VLP
|
PP7 coat protein
|
Bacteriophage PP7 |
CuMV-VLP
|
CuMV capsid protein
|
Cucumber-mosaic virus-like particles (CuMV) |
CCMV-VLP
|
CCMV capsid protein
|
Cowpea chlorotic mosaic virus (CCMV) |
RHDS-VLP
|
RHDS capsid protein VP1/VP60
|
Rabbit hemorrhag ic disease virus (RHDS) |
CPV-VLP
|
CPV capsid protein VP2
|
Canine parvovirus (CPV) |
Mona O. Mohsen and Mar tin F. Bachmann. Virus-like particle vaccinology, from bench to bedside. Cellular & Molecular Immunology (2022) 19:993–1011. doi: 10.1038/s41423-022-00897-8.