Virus-Like Particle (VLP) Vaccines

A special issue of Vaccines (ISSN 2076-393X).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 March 2023) | Viewed by 5294

Special Issue Editors


E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Institute of Health Carlos III, ISCIII, National Microbiology Centre, 28029 Madrid, Spain
Interests: HIV

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
San Diego Biomedical Research Institute, 3525 John Hopkins Court, San Diego, CA 92121, USA
Interests: HIV; antibodies; vaccines; neutralizing antibodies

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

An effective HIV vaccine design remains one of the biggest challenges facing the scientific community today. In fact, after more than 30 years of intensive research in this field, we still do not have a protective vaccine capable of stopping HIV transmission.

Traditional vaccines based on live attenuated viruses have been ruled out for HIV and other viruses for biosafety reasons. In some viruses, such as HIV, many of the vaccine prototypes investigated thus far have shown difficulty in generating effective broadly neutralizing antibodies and cytotoxic T-cell immune responses to primary HIV isolates.

Virus-like particles (VLPs) have been shown to be safe to administer to animals and humans. In addition, VLPs have demonstrated the ability to stimulate both innate and adaptive immune responses. Moreover, their particulate structure favors absorption by antigen-presenting cells. These intrinsic immunological characteristics of VLPs, augmented by their self-adjuvant properties and demonstrated success as products to date, suggest potential for broad impact in the coming years.

This Special Issue aims to collect research articles, brief reports and communications on "virus-like particle (VLP) vaccines" in order to promote the knowledge and discussion about the various VLP formulations developed and modifications aimed at improving antigen display versatility, efficacy and stability. We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Dr. Eloisa Yuste
Prof. Dr. James Binley
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Vaccines is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • HIV
  • virus-like particles
  • humoral immune response
  • cellular immune response
  • stability
  • broadly neutralizing antibodies

Benefits of Publishing in a Special Issue

  • Ease of navigation: Grouping papers by topic helps scholars navigate broad scope journals more efficiently.
  • Greater discoverability: Special Issues support the reach and impact of scientific research. Articles in Special Issues are more discoverable and cited more frequently.
  • Expansion of research network: Special Issues facilitate connections among authors, fostering scientific collaborations.
  • External promotion: Articles in Special Issues are often promoted through the journal's social media, increasing their visibility.
  • e-Book format: Special Issues with more than 10 articles can be published as dedicated e-books, ensuring wide and rapid dissemination.

Further information on MDPI's Special Issue polices can be found here.

Published Papers (2 papers)

Order results
Result details
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:

Research

26 pages, 3417 KiB  
Article
Chimeric Human Papillomavirus-16 Virus-like Particles Presenting P18I10 and T20 Peptides from HIV-1 Envelope Induce HPV16 and HIV-1-Specific Humoral and T Cell-Mediated Immunity in BALB/c Mice
by Chun-Wei Chen, Narcís Saubi, Athina Kilpeläinen and Joan Joseph-Munné
Vaccines 2023, 11(1), 15; https://doi.org/10.3390/vaccines11010015 - 21 Dec 2022
Cited by 8 | Viewed by 2437
Abstract
In this study, the HIV-1 P18I10 CTL peptide derived from the V3 loop of HIV-1 gp120 and the T20 anti-fusion peptide of HIV-1 gp41 were inserted into the HPV16 L1 capsid protein to construct chimeric HPV:HIV (L1:P18I10 and L1:T20) VLPs by using the [...] Read more.
In this study, the HIV-1 P18I10 CTL peptide derived from the V3 loop of HIV-1 gp120 and the T20 anti-fusion peptide of HIV-1 gp41 were inserted into the HPV16 L1 capsid protein to construct chimeric HPV:HIV (L1:P18I10 and L1:T20) VLPs by using the mammalian cell expression system. The HPV:HIV VLPs were purified by chromatography. We demonstrated that the insertion of P18I10 or T20 peptides into the DE loop of HPV16 L1 capsid proteins did not affect in vitro stability, self-assembly and morphology of chimeric HPV:HIV VLPs. Importantly, it did not interfere either with the HIV-1 antibody reactivity targeting sequential and conformational P18I10 and T20 peptides presented on chimeric HPV:HIV VLPs or with the induction of HPV16 L1-specific antibodies in vivo. We observed that chimeric L1:P18I10/L1:T20 VLPs vaccines could induce HPV16- but weak HIV-1-specific antibody responses and elicited HPV16- and HIV-1-specific T-cell responses in BALB/c mice. Moreover, could be a potential booster to increase HIV-specific cellular responses in the heterologous immunization after priming with rBCG.HIVA vaccine. This research work would contribute a step towards the development of the novel chimeric HPV:HIV VLP-based vaccine platform for controlling HPV16 and HIV-1 infection, which is urgently needed in developing and industrialized countries. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Virus-Like Particle (VLP) Vaccines)
Show Figures

Graphical abstract

15 pages, 5735 KiB  
Article
Identification and Characterization of Epithelial Cell-Derived Dense Bodies Produced upon Cytomegalovirus Infection
by Estéfani García-Ríos, María Josefa Rodríguez, María Carmen Terrón, Daniel Luque and Pilar Pérez-Romero
Vaccines 2022, 10(8), 1308; https://doi.org/10.3390/vaccines10081308 - 12 Aug 2022
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2063
Abstract
Dense bodies (DB) are complex, noninfectious particles produced during CMVinfection containing envelope and tegument proteins that may be ideal candidates as vaccines. Although DB were previously described in fibroblasts, no evidence of DB formation has been shown after propagating CMV in epithelial cells. [...] Read more.
Dense bodies (DB) are complex, noninfectious particles produced during CMVinfection containing envelope and tegument proteins that may be ideal candidates as vaccines. Although DB were previously described in fibroblasts, no evidence of DB formation has been shown after propagating CMV in epithelial cells. In the present study, both fibroblast MRC-5 and epithelial ARPE-19 cells were used to study DB production during CMV infection. We demonstrate the formation of epithelial cell-derived DB, mostly located as cytoplasmic inclusions in the perinuclear area of the infected cell. DB were gradient-purified, and the nature of the viral particles was confirmed using CMV-specific immunelabeling. Epithelial cell-derived DB had higher density and more homogeneous size (200–300 nm) compared to fibroblast-derived DB (100–600 nm).In agreement with previous results characterizing DB from CMV-infected fibroblasts, the pp65 tegument protein was predominant in the epithelial cell-derived DB. Our results also suggest that epithelial cells had more CMV capsids in the cytoplasm and had spherical bodies compatible with nucleus condensation (pyknosis) in cells undergoing apoptosis that were not detected in MRC-5 infected cells at the tested time post-infection. Our results demonstrate the formation of DB in CMV-infected ARPE-19 epithelial cells that may be suitable candidate to develop a multiprotein vaccine with antigenic properties similar to that of the virions while not including the viral genome. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Virus-Like Particle (VLP) Vaccines)
Show Figures

Figure 1

Back to TopTop