Varied Properties of Hepatitis-Delta Virus-like Particles Produced by Baculovirus-transduced Mammalian Cells

Integration of life sciences & engineering

Integration of Life Sciences & Engineering - Poster (T5-P)

Mrs Ying-Wei Chiang
National Tsing Hua University
Chemical Engineering

Taiwan, Province of China

Dr Jaw-Chin Wu
National Yang Ming University
Clinical Medicine

Taiwan, Province of China

Mr Kuei-Chun Wang
National Tsing Hua University
Chemical Engineering

Taiwan, Province of China

Mr Yu-Chen Hu
National Tsing Hua University
Department of Chemical Engineering
101, Sec. 2, Kuang Fu. Rd.
Hsinchu, 300
Taiwan, Province of China

Keywords: baculovirus; hepatitis delta virus; virus-like particles; mammalian cells

Hepatitis delta virus-like particles (HDV VLP) may be a promising vaccine candidate against hepatitis delta virus, which causes severe acute liver inflammation or chronic liver diseases. Currently there is no effective vaccine or diagnostic reagent for HDV due to the lack of a proper method to efficiently produce HDV VLP. To mass produce HDV VLP, we constructed recombinant baculoviruses Bac-GD expressing large-hepatitis delta antigen (L-HDAg) and Bac-GB expressing hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg). In this study, we demonstrated that co-transduction of mammalian cells led to co-expression of both proteins, as well as secretion of HDV VLP. However, we found that the ratios of virus dosages led to changes in VLP properties. A high dosage ratio of Bac-GD to Bac-GB led to higher L-HDAg expression relative to HBsAg, which in turn resulted in the incorporation of more L-HDAg into VLP, larger particle size, and larger density. A model correlating the VLP properties and the relative baculovirus dosage is proposed.

Presented Wednesday 19, 13:30 to 15:00, in session Integration of Life Sciences & Engineering - Poster (T5-P).