Hepatitis B core-based virus-like particles: A platform for vaccine development in plants

Area of Science:

• Biotechnology
• Immunology
• Vaccinology

Background:

• Virus-like particles (VLPs) are non-infectious structures assembled from viral capsid proteins.
• Hepatitis B core (HBc) antigen self-assembles into VLPs, inducing robust immune responses and forming a licensed Hepatitis B vaccine.
• HBc VLPs serve as a versatile platform for presenting foreign epitopes, enabling vaccine development against various pathogens.

Purpose of the Study:

• To review the application of plant-based Hepatitis B core (HBc) virus-like particles (VLPs) as a vaccine production platform.
• To explore the advantages of using plant expression systems for VLP production.

Main Methods:

• Literature review of studies on plant-based VLP production.
• Analysis of HBc VLP assembly and immunogenicity in plant systems.
• Evaluation of plant expression systems for scalability, safety, and cost-effectiveness.

Main Results:

• Plant expression systems provide rapid, scalable, and safe production of HBc VLPs.
• Plants can perform necessary post-translational modifications for correct VLP structure and function.
• Plant-based production significantly reduces upstream costs for VLP manufacturing.

Conclusions:

• Plant-based HBc VLPs represent a promising and efficient platform for vaccine production.
• This approach has the potential to increase the accessibility and reduce the cost of vaccines.
• Further development in plant-based VLP technology can accelerate vaccine development against infectious diseases.