Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Morphological characterization of a plant-made virus-like particle vaccine bearing influenza virus hemagglutinins by electron microscopy

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • Morphological characterization of a plant-made virus-like particle vaccine bearing influenza virus hemagglutinins by electron microscopy

    Vaccine. 2018 Mar 14. pii: S0264-410X(18)30316-5. doi: 10.1016/j.vaccine.2018.02.106. [Epub ahead of print]
    Morphological characterization of a plant-made virus-like particle vaccine bearing influenza virus hemagglutinins by electron microscopy.

    Lindsay BJ1, Bonar MM1, Costas-Cancelas IN1, Hunt K2, Makarkov AI3, Chierzi S3, Krawczyk CM2, Landry N4, Ward BJ3, Rouiller I5.
    Author information

    Abstract

    Plant-made virus-like particle (VLP) vaccines that display wild-type influenza hemagglutinin (HA) are rapidly advancing through clinical trials. Produced by transient transfection of Nicotiana benthamiana, these novel vaccines are unusually immunogenic, eliciting both humoral and cellular responses. Here, we directly visualized VLPs bearing either HA trimers derived from strains A/California/7/2009 or A/Indonesia/5/05 using cryo-electron microscopy and determined the 3D organization of the VLPs using cryo-electron tomography. More than 99.9% of the HA trimers in the vaccine preparations were found on discoid and ovoid-shaped particles. The discoid-shaped VLPs presented HA trimers on their outer diameter. The ovoid-shaped VLPs contained HA trimers evenly distributed at their surface. The VLPs were stable for 12 months at 4 ?C. Early interactions of the VLPs with mouse dendritic and human monocytoid (U-937) cells were visualized by electron microscopy after resin-embedding and sectioning. The VLP particles were observed bound to plasma membranes as well as inside vesicles. Mouse dendritic cells exposed to VLPs displayed classic morphological changes associated with activation including the extensive formation of dendrites. Our findings demonstrate that plant-made VLPs bearing influenza HA trimers are morphologically stable over time and raise the possibility that these VLPs may interact with and activate antigen-presenting cells in a manner similar to the intact virus.


    KEYWORDS:

    Antigen presenting cells; Cellular activation; Cryo-electron microscopy; Hemagglutinin; Phase plate tomography; Plant-made virus-like particle

    PMID: 29550194 DOI: 10.1016/j.vaccine.2018.02.106
Working...
X