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Process development for pandemic influenza VLP vaccine production using a baculovirus expression system.

ABSTRACT: Background:Influenza viruses cause hundreds of thousands of respiratory diseases worldwide each year, and vaccination is considered the most effective approach for preventing influenza annual epidemics or pandemics. Since 1950, chicken embryonated eggs have been used as the main method for producing seasonal influenza vaccines. However, this platform has the main drawback of a lack of scale-up flexibility, and thus, egg-based vaccine manufacturers cannot supply sufficient doses within a short period for use for pandemic prevention. As a result, strategies for reducing the manufacturing time and increasing production capacity are urgently needed. Non-virion vaccine methods have been considered an alternative strategy against an influenza pandemic, and the purpose of maintaining an immunogenic capsule structure with infectious properties appears to be met by the virus-like particle (VLP) platform. Results:An influenza H7N9-TW VLP production platform using insect cells, which included the expression of hemagglutinin (HA), NA, and M1 proteins, was established. To scale up H7N9-TW VLP production, several culture conditions were optimized to obtain a higher production yield. A high level of dissolved oxygen (DO) could be critical to H7N9-TW VLP production. If the DO was maintained at a high level, the HA titer obtained in the spinner flask system with ventilation was similar to that obtained in a shake flask. In this study, the HA titer in a 5-L bioreactor with a well-controlled DO level was substantially improved by 128-fold (from 4 HA units (HAU)/50??L to 512 HAU/50??L). Conclusions:In this study, a multigene expression platform and an effective upstream process were developed. Notably, a high H7N9-TW VLP yield was achieved using a two-step production strategy while a high DO level was maintained. The upstream process, which resulted in high VLP titers, could be further used for large-scale influenza VLP vaccine production.

SUBMITTER: Lai CC

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6813129 | biostudies-literature | 2019

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Process development for pandemic influenza VLP vaccine production using a baculovirus expression system.

Lai Chia-Chun CC Cheng Yu-Chieh YC Chen Pin-Wen PW Lin Ting-Hui TH Tzeng Tsai-Teng TT Lu Chia-Chun CC Lee Min-Shi MS Hu Alan Yung-Chih AY

Journal of biological engineering 20191023

<h4>Background</h4>Influenza viruses cause hundreds of thousands of respiratory diseases worldwide each year, and vaccination is considered the most effective approach for preventing influenza annual epidemics or pandemics. Since 1950, chicken embryonated eggs have been used as the main method for producing seasonal influenza vaccines. However, this platform has the main drawback of a lack of scale-up flexibility, and thus, egg-based vaccine manufacturers cannot supply sufficient doses within a ...[more]

PMID: 31666806

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Project description:BackgroundEach year, influenza is responsible for hundreds of thousand cases of illness and deaths worldwide. Due to the virus' fast mutation rate, the World Health Organization (WHO) is constantly on alert to rapidly respond to emerging pandemic strains. Although anti-viral therapies exist, the most proficient way to stop the spread of disease is through vaccination. The majority of influenza vaccines on the market are produced in embryonic hen's eggs and are composed of purified viral antigens from inactivated whole virus. This manufacturing system, however, is limited in its production capacity. Cell culture produced vaccines have been proposed for their potential to overcome the problems associated with egg-based production. Virus-like particles (VLPs) of influenza virus are promising candidate vaccines under consideration by both academic and industry researchers.MethodsIn this study, VLPs were produced in HEK293 suspension cells using the Bacmam transduction system and Sf9 cells using the baculovirus infection system. The proposed systems were assessed for their ability to produce influenza VLPs composed of Hemagglutinin (HA), Neuraminidase (NA) and Matrix Protein (M1) and compared through the lens of bioprocessing by highlighting baseline production yields and bioactivity. VLPs from both systems were characterized using available influenza quantification techniques, such as single radial immunodiffusion assay (SRID), HA assay, western blot and negative staining transmission electron microscopy (NSTEM) to quantify total particles.ResultsFor the HEK293 production system, VLPs were found to be associated with the cell pellet in addition to those released in the supernatant. Sf9 cells produced 35 times more VLPs than HEK293 cells. Sf9-VLPs had higher total HA activity and were generally more homogeneous in morphology and size. However, Sf9 VLP samples contained 20 times more baculovirus than VLPs, whereas 293 VLPs were produced along with vesicles.ConclusionsThis study highlights key production hurdles that must be overcome in both expression platforms, namely the presence of contaminants and the ensuing quantification challenges, and brings up the question of what truly constitutes an influenza VLP candidate vaccine.

Project description:Despite the advantages of DNA vaccines, overcoming their lower efficacy relative to that of conventional vaccines remains a challenge. Here, we constructed a human endogenous retrovirus (HERV) envelope-coated, nonreplicable, baculovirus-based HA vaccine against swine influenza A/California/04/2009(H1N1) hemagglutin (HA) (AcHERV-sH1N1-HA) as an alternative to conventional vaccines and evaluated its efficacy in two strains of mice, BALB/c and C57BL/6. A commercially available, killed virus vaccine was used as a positive control. Mice were intramuscularly administered AcHERV-sH1N1-HA or the commercial vaccine and subsequently given two booster injections. Compared with the commercial vaccine, AcHERV-sH1N1-HA induced significantly higher levels of cellular immune responses in both BALB/c and C57BL/6 mice. Unlike cellular immune responses, humoral immune responses depended on the strain of mice. Following immunization with AcHERV-sH1N1-HA, C57BL/6 mice showed HA-specific IgG titers 10- to 100-fold lower than those of BALB/c mice. In line with the different levels of humoral immune responses, the survival of immunized mice after intranasal challenge with sH1N1 virus (A/California/04/2009) depended on the strain. After challenge with 10-times the median lethal dose (MLD50) of sH1N1 virus, 100% of BALB/c mice immunized with the commercial vaccine or AcHERV-sH1N1-HA survived. In contrast, C57BL/6 mice immunized with AcHERV-sH1N1-HA or the commercial vaccine showed 60% and 70% survival respectively, after challenge with sH1N1 virus. In all mice, virus titers and results of histological analyses of lung tissues were consistent with the survival data. Our results indicate the importance of humoral immune response as a major defense system against influenza viral infection. Moreover, the complete survival of BALB/c mice immunized with AcHERV-sH1N1-HA after challenge with sH1N1 virus suggests the potential of baculoviral vector-based vaccines to achieve an efficacy comparable to that of killed virus vaccines.

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Process development for pandemic influenza VLP vaccine production using a baculovirus expression system.

Publications

Process development for pandemic influenza VLP vaccine production using a baculovirus expression system.

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