Abstract
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.
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Abbreviations
- HEV:
-
Hepatitis E virus
- ORF:
-
Open reading frame
- PVX:
-
Potato virus X
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Acknowledgements
This research was funded by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (Grant 18‐54‐18005), the Bulgarian National Science Fund (Grant DNTC/Russia 02-6) and the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program project PlantaSYST (SGA-CSA No. 739582 under FPA No. 664620).
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Mardanova, E.S., Takova, K.H., Toneva, V.T. et al. A plant-based transient expression system for the rapid production of highly immunogenic Hepatitis E virus-like particles. Biotechnol Lett 42, 2441–2446 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10529-020-02995-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10529-020-02995-x