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Pichia pastoris-expressed dengue 2 envelope forms virus-like particles without pre-membrane protein and induces high titer neutralizing antibodies.

ABSTRACT: Dengue is a mosquito-borne viral disease with a global prevalence. It is caused by four closely-related dengue viruses (DENVs 1-4). A dengue vaccine that can protect against all four viruses is an unmet public health need. Live attenuated vaccine development efforts have encountered unexpected interactions between the vaccine viruses, raising safety concerns. This has emphasized the need to explore non-replicating dengue vaccine options. Virus-like particles (VLPs) which can elicit robust immunity in the absence of infection offer potential promise for the development of non-replicating dengue vaccine alternatives. We have used the methylotrophic yeast Pichia pastoris to develop DENV envelope (E) protein-based VLPs. We designed a synthetic codon-optimized gene, encoding the N-terminal 395 amino acid residues of the DENV-2 E protein. It also included 5' pre-membrane-derived signal peptide-encoding sequences to ensure proper translational processing, and 3' 6× His tag-encoding sequences to facilitate purification of the expressed protein. This gene was integrated into the genome of P. pastoris host and expressed under the alcohol oxidase 1 promoter by methanol induction. Recombinant DENV-2 protein, which was present in the insoluble membrane fraction, was extracted and purified using Ni(2+)-affinity chromatography under denaturing conditions. Amino terminal sequencing and detection of glycosylation indicated that DENV-2 E had undergone proper post-translational processing. Electron microscopy revealed the presence of discrete VLPs in the purified protein preparation after dialysis. The E protein present in these VLPs was recognized by two different conformation-sensitive monoclonal antibodies. Low doses of DENV-2 E VLPs formulated in alum were immunogenic in inbred and outbred mice eliciting virus neutralizing titers >1,1200 in flow cytometry based assays and protected AG129 mice against lethal challenge (p<0.05). The formation of immunogenic DENV-2 E VLPs in the absence of pre-membrane protein highlights the potential of P. pastoris in developing non-replicating, safe, efficacious and affordable dengue vaccine.

SUBMITTER: Mani S

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3662778 | biostudies-literature | 2013

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Pichia pastoris-expressed dengue 2 envelope forms virus-like particles without pre-membrane protein and induces high titer neutralizing antibodies.

Mani Shailendra S Tripathi Lav L Raut Rajendra R Tyagi Poornima P Arora Upasana U Barman Tarani T Sood Ruchi R Galav Alka A Wahala Wahala W de Silva Aravinda A Swaminathan Sathyamangalam S Khanna Navin N

PloS one 20130523 5

Dengue is a mosquito-borne viral disease with a global prevalence. It is caused by four closely-related dengue viruses (DENVs 1-4). A dengue vaccine that can protect against all four viruses is an unmet public health need. Live attenuated vaccine development efforts have encountered unexpected interactions between the vaccine viruses, raising safety concerns. This has emphasized the need to explore non-replicating dengue vaccine options. Virus-like particles (VLPs) which can elicit robust immuni ...[more]

PMID: 23717637

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Project description:BackgroundFour antigenically distinct serotypes (1-4) of dengue viruses (DENVs) cause dengue disease. Antibodies to any one DENV serotype have the potential to predispose an individual to more severe disease upon infection with a different DENV serotype. A dengue vaccine must elicit homotypic neutralizing antibodies to all four DENV serotypes to avoid the risk of such antibody-dependent enhancement in the vaccine recipient. This is a formidable challenge as evident from the lack of protective efficacy against DENV-2 by a tetravalent live attenuated dengue vaccine that has completed phase III trials recently. These trial data underscore the need to explore non-replicating subunit vaccine alternatives. Recently, using the methylotrophic yeast Pichia pastoris, we showed that DENV-2 and DENV-3 envelope (E) glycoproteins, expressed in absence of prM, implicated in causing severe dengue disease, self-assemble into virus-like particles (VLPs), which elicit predominantly virus-neutralizing antibodies and confer significant protection against lethal DENV challenge in an animal model. The current study extends this work to a third DENV serotype.ResultsWe cloned and expressed DENV-1 E antigen in P. pastoris, and purified it to near homogeneity. Recombinant DENV-1 E underwent post-translational processing, namely, signal peptide cleavage and glycosylation. Purified DENV-1 E self-assembled into stable VLPs, based on electron microscopy and dynamic light scattering analysis. Epitope mapping with monoclonal antibodies revealed that the VLPs retained the overall antigenic integrity of the virion particles despite the absence of prM. Subtle changes accompanied the efficient display of E domain III (EDIII), which contains type-specific neutralizing epitopes. These VLPs were immunogenic, eliciting predominantly homotypic EDIII-directed DENV-1-specific neutralizing antibodies.ConclusionsThis work demonstrates the inherent potential of P. pastoris-expressed DENV-1 E glycoprotein to self-assemble into VLPs eliciting predominantly homotypic neutralizing antibodies. This work justifies an investigation of the last remaining serotype, namely, DENV-4, to assess if it also shares the desirable vaccine potential manifested by the remaining three DENV serotypes. Such efforts could make it possible to envisage the development of a tetravalent dengue vaccine based on VLPs of P. pastoris-expressed E glycoproteins of the four DENV serotypes.

Project description:Dengue is a viral disease spread to humans by mosquitoes. Notably, there are four serotypes of dengue viruses (DENV) that places ~40 % of the global population at risk of infection. However, lack of a suitable drug or a preventive vaccine exacerbates the matter further. Envelope domain-III (EDIII) antigen of dengue virus (DENV) has garnered much attention as a promising vaccine candidate for dengue, in addition to its use as a diagnostic intermediate. Hence developing a method for efficient production of high quality recombinant EDIII is important for research and industrial purpose.In this work, a Pichia pastoris system was optimized for the secretory over-expression of DENV serotype-3 EDIII under the control of methanol inducible AOX1 promoter. Temperature alone had a significant impact upon the amount of secretory EDIII, with 2.5-fold increase upon reducing the induction temperature from 30 to 20 °C. However surprisingly, supplementation of culture media with Casamino acids (CA), further augmented secretory EDIII titer, with a concomitant drop of intracellular EDIII levels at both temperatures. Though, reduction in intracellular retention of EDIII was more prominent at 20 °C than 30 °C. This suggests that CA supplementation facilitates overexpressing P. pastoris cells to secrete more EDIII by reducing the proportion retained intracellularly. Moreover, a bell-shaped correlation was observed between CA concentration and secretory EDIII titer. The maximum EDIII expression level of 187 mg/L was achieved under shake flask conditions with induction at 20 °C in the presence of 1 % CA. The overall increase in EDIII titer was ~9-fold compared to un-optimized conditions. Notably, mouse immune-sera, generated using this purified EDIII antigen, efficiently neutralized the DENV.The strategy described herein could enable fulfilling the mounting demand for recombinant EDIII as well as lay direction to future studies on secretory expression of recombinant proteins in P. pastoris with CA as a media supplement.

Project description:Dengue, a significant public health problem in several countries around the world, is caused by four different serotypes of mosquito-borne dengue viruses (DENV-1, -2, -3, and -4). Antibodies to any one DENV serotype which can protect against homotypic re-infection, do not offer heterotypic cross-protection. In fact, cross-reactive antibodies may augment heterotypic DENV infection through antibody-dependent enhancement (ADE). A recently launched live attenuated vaccine (LAV) for dengue, which consists of a mixture of four chimeric yellow-fever/dengue vaccine viruses, may be linked to the induction of disease-enhancing antibodies. This is likely related to viral interference among the replicating viral strains, resulting in an unbalanced immune response, as well as to the fact that the LAV encodes prM, a DENV protein documented to elicit ADE-mediating antibodies. This makes it imperative to explore the feasibility of alternate ADE risk-free vaccine candidates. Our quest for a non-replicating vaccine centered on the DENV envelope (E) protein which mediates virus entry into the host cell and serves as an important target of the immune response. Serotype-specific neutralizing epitopes and the host receptor recognition function map to E domain III (EDIII). Recently, we found that Pichia pastoris-expressed DENV E protein, of all four serotypes, self-assembled into virus-like particles (VLPs) in the absence of prM. Significantly, these VLPs displayed EDIII and elicited EDIII-focused DENV-neutralizing antibodies in mice. We now report the creation and characterization of a novel non-replicating recombinant particulate vaccine candidate, produced by co-expressing the E proteins of DENV-1 and DENV-2 in P. pastoris. The two E proteins co-assembled into bivalent mosaic VLPs (mVLPs) designated as mE1E2bv VLPs. The mVLP, which preserved the serotype-specific antigenic integrity of its two component proteins, elicited predominantly EDIII-focused homotypic virus-neutralizing antibodies in BALB/c mice, demonstrating its efficacy. In an in vivo ADE model, mE1E2bv VLP-induced antibodies lacked discernible ADE potential, compared to the cross-reactive monoclonal antibody 4G2, as evidenced by significant reduction in the levels of IL-6 and TNF-α, suggesting inherent safety. The results obtained with these bivalent mVLPs suggest the feasibility of incorporating the E proteins of DENV-3 and DENV-4 to create a tetravalent mVLP vaccine.

Dataset Information

Pichia pastoris-expressed dengue 2 envelope forms virus-like particles without pre-membrane protein and induces high titer neutralizing antibodies.

Publications

Pichia pastoris-expressed dengue 2 envelope forms virus-like particles without pre-membrane protein and induces high titer neutralizing antibodies.

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