Delivery of vaccine peptides by rapid conjugation to baculovirus particles

Baculoviruses deliver strong activation signals to dendritic cells and can promote potent immune responses. These properties can be harnessed to use baculovirus as an adjuvant and carrier particle for immunogenic peptides. In this study we use a chemical linker to couple peptides to the baculovirus Autographa californica multicapsid nucleopolyhedrovirus (AcMNPV). Intranasal delivery of baculovirus coupled with immunogenic peptides to mice elicited antigen-specific IgG1 and IgG2a antibody. Furthermore, antigen-specific IgA was detected in the lung, and an IFN-gamma response was observed upon re-stimulation with antigen. We show that chemical coupling enables the rapid modification of AcMNPV, allowing multiple epitopes to be delivered simultaneously on a self-adjuvanting carrier particle.