Pseudotyping Improves the Yield of Functional SARS-CoV-2 Virus-like Particles (VLPs) as Tools for Vaccine and Therapeutic Development.

ABSTRACT: Virus-like particles (VLPs) have been proposed as an attractive tool in SARS-CoV-2 vaccine development, both as (1) a vaccine candidate with high immunogenicity and low reactogenicity and (2) a substitute for live virus in functional and neutralization assays. Though multiple SARS-CoV-2 VLP designs have already been explored in Sf9 insect cells, a key parameter ensuring VLPs are a viable platform is the VLP spike yield (i.e., spike protein content in VLP), which has largely been unreported. In this study, we show that the common strategy of producing SARS-CoV-2 VLPs by expressing spike protein in combination with the native coronavirus membrane and/or envelope protein forms VLPs, but at a critically low spike yield (~0.04-0.08 mg/L). In contrast, fusing the spike ectodomain to the influenz

SUBMITTER: Zak AJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10572262 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature