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Comparison of the size distributions and immunogenicity of human papillomavirus type 16 L1 virus-like particles produced in insect and yeast cells

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Abstract

Insect and yeast cells are considered the expression systems of choice for producing virus-like particles (VLPs), and numerous types of VLPs have been produced in these systems. However, previous studies were restricted to identifying the characteristics of individual VLP preparations. No direct comparison of the structures and immunogenic properties of insect and yeast-derived VLPs has so far been made. In the present study, the size distribution and immunogenic properties of human papillomavirus type 16 (HPV16) L1 VLPs produced in Spodoptera frugipedra-9 insect cells and Saccharomyces cerevisiae were compared. The insect cell-derived VLPs were larger than the yeast ones (P < 0.0001), with median sizes of 34 and 26 nm, respectively. In addition, the insect-derived VLPs appeared to be more diverse in size than the yeast-derived VLPs. Immunization of mice with 30 ng per dose of VLPs elicited 2.7- and 2.4-fold higher anti-HPV16 L1 IgG and anti-HPV16 neutralizing antibody titers than immunization with the same amounts of the yeast-derived VLPs after the 4th immunizations, respectively. Our results suggest that the choice of expression system critically affects the particle size and immunogenic property of HPV16 L1 VLPs.

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Acknowledgements

This research was supported by a fund ‘(Grant no.: HD16A1337)’ by Research of Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This research was supported by the Chung-Ang University Research Scholarship Grants in 2017. We thank professor Ju-Won Kwak (Department of Life Sciences, Pohang University of Science and Technology) for providing pFastBac-HTb-HPV16 L1 and Yingji Jin (College of Pharmacy, Chung-Ang University) for her help with pseudovirus-based neutralizing assay.

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  1. Laboratory of Virology, College of Pharmacy, Chung-Ang University, 84 Heukseok-Ro, Dongjak-Gu, Seoul, 06974, South Korea

    Hyoung Jin Kim, Seo Young Cho, Min-Hye Park & Hong-Jin Kim

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  1. Hyoung Jin Kim
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Correspondence to Hong-Jin Kim.

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Kim, H.J., Cho, S.Y., Park, MH. et al. Comparison of the size distributions and immunogenicity of human papillomavirus type 16 L1 virus-like particles produced in insect and yeast cells. Arch. Pharm. Res. 41, 544–553 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12272-018-1024-4

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