Related Experiment Video
Updated: Mar 22, 2026

Expression and Purification of Virus-like Particles for Vaccination
Published on: June 2, 2016
Human papillomavirus L1 protein expressed in Escherichia coli self-assembles into virus-like particles that are
Yumei Chen1, Yunchao Liu2, Gaiping Zhang3
1College of Basic Medical Science, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou 450001, China; Henan Provincial Key Laboratory of Animal Immunology, Henan Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Zhengzhou 450002, China.
Abstract:
HPV vaccines based on L1 virus-like particles (VLPs) provided a high degree of protection against HPVs infection. In this study, the codon optimized HPV16 L1 gene were sub-cloned into five procaryotic expression vectors (pET-28a, pET-32a, pGEX-4T-2, pE-sumo and pHSIE), and fused with different protein tags. No recombinant proteins were expressed in pET-28a-L1 and pHSIE-L1, and the proteins expressed by pET-32a-L1 plasmid with TRX-tag were in the form of inclusion body. Only SUMO-tagged and GST-tagged L1 proteins expressed by pE-Sumo-L1 or pGEX-4T-L1 were soluble. The yield of SUMO-L1 protein reached 260mg/L fermentation medium in shake flask. After SUMO tags were eliminated, a 90% purity of L1 proteins was generated by ion-exchange and Ni-NTA affinity chromatography. The purified HPV16 L1 protein self-assembled into virus-like particles (VLPs) and showed a haemagglutination activity. High titers specific and neutralizing antibodies were detected in HPV 16 L1VLPs vaccinated mice. Cytokines such as IFN-γ and IL-2 showed significant higher in VLPs vaccinated mice compared with negative control (p<0.05, p=0.055). Thus, the expression of recombinant HPV16 L1 VLPs in Escherichia coli was feasible, which could potentially be used for a VLP-based HPV vaccine.
More Related Videos
05:15Detection of Neutralization-sensitive Epitopes in Antigens Displayed on Virus-Like Particle VLP-Based Vaccines Using a Capture Assay
Published on: February 10, 2022
10:58Production of E. coli-expressed Self-Assembling Protein Nanoparticles for Vaccines Requiring Trimeric Epitope Presentation
Published on: August 21, 2019
Related Concept Videos
Leaky Scanning
Protein Complex Assembly
Many viruses self-assemble into a fully functional unit using the infected host cell to...
Viral Structure