A plant-based transient expression system for the rapid production of highly immunogenic Hepatitis E virus-like particles
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Published on: June 26, 2020
Eugenia S Mardanova1, Katerina H Takova2, Valentina T Toneva2,3
1Institute of Bioengineering, Research Center of Biotechnology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, 119071, Russia.
Objective:
Hepatitis E virus (HEV) infection is a major cause of acute hepatitis worldwide. The aim of the study is the development of plant expression system for the production of virus-like particles formed by HEV capsid and the characterization of their immunogenicity.
Results:
Open reading frame (ORF) 2 encodes the viral capsid protein and possesses candidate for vaccine production. In this study, we used truncated genotype 3 HEV ORF 2 consisting of aa residues 110 to 610. The recombinant protein was expressed in Nicotiana benthamiana plants using the self-replicating potato virus X-based vector pEff up to 10% of the soluble protein fraction. The yield of HEV 110-610 after purification was 150-200 µg per 1 g of green leaf biomass. The recombinant protein formed nanosized virus-like particles. The immunization of mice with plant-produced HEV 110-610 protein induced high levels of HEV-specific serum antibodies.
Conclusions:
HEV ORF 2 (110-610 aa) can be used as candidate for the development of a plant-produced vaccine against Hepatitis E.
