Advances in nanotechnology and nanomaterials have facilitated the development of silicon dioxide, or Silica, particles as a promising immunological adjuvant for the generation of novel prophylactic and therapeutic vaccines. In the present study, we have compared the adjuvanting potential of commercially available Silica nanoparticles (initial particles size of 10–20 nm) with that of aluminium hydroxide, or Alum, as well as that of complete and incomplete Freund's adjuvants for the immunisation of BALB/c mice with virus-like particles (VLPs) formed by recombinant full-length Hepatitis B virus core (HBc) protein. The induction of B-cell and T-cell responses was studied after immunisation. Silica nanoparticles were able to adsorb maximally 40% of the added HBc, whereas the adsorption capacity of Alum exceeded 90% at the same VLPs/adjuvant ratio. Both Silica and Alum formed large complexes with HBc VLPs that sedimented rapidly after formulation, as detected by dynamic light scattering, spectrophotometry, and electron microscopy. Both Silica and Alum augmented the humoral response against HBc VLPs to the high anti-HBc level in the case of intraperitoneal immunisation, whereas in subcutaneous immunisation, the Silica-adjuvanted anti-HBc level even exceeded the level adjuvanted by Alum. The adjuvanting of HBc VLPs by Silica resulted in the same typical IgG2a/IgG1 ratios as in the case of the adjuvanting by Alum. The combination of Silica with monophosphoryl lipid A (MPL) led to the same enhancement of the HBc-specific T-cell induction as in the case of the Alum and MPL combination. These findings demonstrate that Silica is not a weaker putative adjuvant than Alum for induction of B-cell and T-cell responses against recombinant HBc VLPs. This finding may have an essential impact on the development of the set of Silica-adjuvanted vaccines based on a long list of HBc-derived virus-like particles as the biological component.

Hepatitis C core protein is an attractive target for HCV vaccine aimed to exterminate HCV infected cells. However, although highly immunogenic in natural infection, core appears to have low immunogenicity in experimental settings. We aimed to design an HCV vaccine prototype based on core, and devise immunization regimens that would lead to potent anti-core immune responses which circumvent the immunogenicity limitations earlier observed.

Influenza, an acute, highly contagious respiratory disease, remains a significant threat to public health. More effective vaccination strategies aimed at inducing broad cross-protection not only against seasonal influenza variants, but also zoonotic and emerging pandemic influenza strains are urgently needed. A number of conserved protein targets to elicit such cross-protective immunity have been under investigation, with long alpha-helix (LAH) from hemagglutinin stalk and ectodomain of matrix protein 2 ion channel (M2e) being the most studied ones. Recently, we have reported the three-dimensional structure and some practical applications of LAH expressed in Escherichia coli system (referred to as tri-stalk protein). In the present study, we investigated the immunogenicity and efficacy of a panel of broadly protective influenza vaccine prototypes based on both influenza tri-stalk and triple M2e (3M2e) antigens integrated into phage AP205 virus-like particles (VLPs). While VLPs containing the 3M2e alone induced protection against standard homologous and heterologous virus challenge in mice, only the combination of both conserved influenza antigens into a single VLP fully protected mice from a high-dose homologous H1N1 influenza infection. We propose that a combination of genetic fusion and chemical coupling techniques to expose two different foreign influenza antigens on a single particle is a perspective approach for generation of a broadly-effective vaccine candidate that could protect against the constantly emerging influenza virus strains.

Plant-based virus-like particle (VLP) vaccines have been studied for years, demonstrating their potential as antigen-presenting platforms. In this paper, we describe the development of, and compare between, simple Escherichia coli-based antigen display platforms for the generation of potato virus Y (PVY) VLP-derived vaccines, thus allowing the production of vaccines from a single bacterial cell culture. We constructed four systems with the major cat allergen Fel d 1; namely, direct fusion with plant virus PVY coat protein (CP), mosaic PVY VLPs, and two coexpression variants of conjugates (SpyTag/SpyCatcher) allowing coexpression and conjugation directly in E. coli cells. For control experiments, we included PVY VLPs chemically coupled with Fel d 1. All constructed PVY–Fel d 1 variants were well expressed and soluble, formed PVY-like filamentous particles, and were recognized by monoclonal Fel d 1 antibodies. Our results indicate that all vaccine variants induced high titers of anti-Fel d 1 antibodies in murine models. Mice that were immunized with the chemically coupled Fel d 1 antigen exhibited the highest antibody titers and antibody–antigen interaction specificity, as detected by binding avidity and recognition of native Fel d 1. IgG1 subclass antibodies were found to be the dominant IgG class against PVY–Fel d 1. PVY CP-derived VLPs represent an efficient platform for the comparison of various antigen presentation systems to help evaluate different vaccine designs.