Scope for using plant viruses to present epitopes from animal pathogens

Epitope presentation to the immune system for vaccination purposes can be achieved either via an inactivated or attenuated form of a pathogen or via its isolated antigenic sequences. When free, these peptides can adopt a variety of conformations, most of which will not exist in their native environment. Conjugation to carrier proteins restricts mobility of the peptides and increases their immunogenicity. A high local concentration of epitopes boosts the immune response further and can be generated by the use of self-aggregating carriers, such as the capsid proteins of viruses. In this regard plant viruses have in recent years started to make an impact as safer alternatives to the use of bacterial and attenuated animal viruses: the latter both require propagation in costly cell-culture systems where they can undergo reversion towards a virulent form and/or become contaminated by other pathogens. Plant virus-based vectors can be multiplied cheaply and to high yields (exceeding 1 mg/g plant tissue) in host plants. Both helical (tobacco mosaic virus, potato virus X, alfalfa mosaic virus) and icosahedral (cowpea mosaic virus, tomato bushy stunt virus) particles have been used to express a number of animal B-cell epitopes, whose immunogenic properties have been explored to varying degrees. Copyright 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.