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Recombinant DNA Technology and Gene Therapy Using Viruses
Published in Patricia G. Melloy, Viruses and Society, 2023
Besides using viruses as vaccines to induce antibody protection in the body, scientists are developing viruses to deliver the antibodies themselves, by expressing broadly neutralizing antibodies for therapy (Mietzsch and Agbandje-McKenna 2017; Lin and Balazs 2018). Bacteriophages, viruses that infect bacteria, are experiencing renewed interest as alternatives to antibiotics or as a treatment in cases of antibiotic resistance (Salmond and Fineran 2015; Lostroh 2019). Other researchers are exploring the use of viruses and virus-like particles (VLPs) derived from viruses to bring drugs to certain areas of the body that cannot be reached through conventional drug delivery methods. For example, scientists are using VLPs derived from a flock house virus to deliver a chemotherapy drug directly to tumor cells (Ghosh and Banerjee 2021). As you can see, modified viruses are being utilized for many different types of therapies to treat all different kinds of diseases, from the preventative stage as a vaccine onward to first-line treatments and beyond.
The Challenge of Parasite Control
Published in Eric S. Loker, Bruce V. Hofkin, Parasitology, 2023
Eric S. Loker, Bruce V. Hofkin
Other innovative strategies may finally get us over the hump in terms of anti-helminth vaccines. For example, virus-like particles (VLPs) may be a breakthrough in terms of vaccine delivery. VLPs are synthesized structures that closely resemble viruses (Figure 9.31). Their structure depends on viral proteins, but as they contain no viral genetic material, they are unable to cause infection. Other, non-viral proteins can be incorporated into the VLPs. And because they are naturally phagocytosed by antigen-presenting cells, these non-viral proteins can be processed and presented to CD4+ T-cells, eliciting a powerful immune response.
Synthesis and Characterization of Nanoparticles as Potential Viral and Antiviral Agents
Published in Devarajan Thangadurai, Saher Islam, Charles Oluwaseun Adetunji, Viral and Antiviral Nanomaterials, 2022
Deepthi Panoth, Sindhu Thalappan Manikkoth, Fabeena Jahan, Kunnambeth Madam Thulasi, Anjali Paravannoor, Baiju Kizhakkekilikoodayil Vijayan
Viruses are naturally evolved creatures that carry the cargo of genetic material to specific host cells with greater efficiency. Thus, viruses are an epitome for the targeted delivery of molecules such as imaging reagents and drugs. Also, prodigious replication of viruses allows inexpensive and industrial-scale production of virus-derived materials. Therefore, advancements and applications of virus-based materials such as viral nanoparticles (VNPs) and virus-like particles (VLPs) are gaining keen interest and impact of chemists, biologists, and biomedical engineers. VNPs are nanoparticle formulations of viruses and are employed as an essential entity for several materials having diverse features. Several types of viruses are used for the synthesis of VNPs, including bacteriophages and animal and plant viruses; they can be infectious or noninfectious. VLPs are identified as a subset of VNPs in heterologous systems and, the exception of genomic nucleic acid makes them noninfectious. VNPs are genetically encoded and self-assembled into monodisperse and discrete structural designs with a high degree of atomic resolution. This kind of top-level structural engineering and quality control is exclusive for VNPs and cannot be accomplished with synthetic materials. The high symmetry, polyvalency, and robustness render them superior to the synthetic counterparts. The highly advanced and versatile materials exhibit programmable scaffolds where the outer surface can be functionalized with targeting ligands for cyto-specific delivery and the inner cavity can be impregnated with imaging reagents, quantum dots, drug molecules, etc.
Use of genetically modified lactic acid bacteria and bifidobacteria as live delivery vectors for human and animal health
Published in Gut Microbes, 2022
Romina Levit, Naima G. Cortes-Perez, Alejandra de Moreno de Leblanc, Jade Loiseau, Anne Aucouturier, Philippe Langella, Jean Guy LeBlanc, Luis G. Bermúdez-Humarán
Virus infections. HPV-16 is one of the viruses with oncogenic potential found (along with type 18) in more than 90% of cervical cancers (300,000 deaths per year worldwide).101,102 Current strategies to prevent or treat the infection with this virus are promising but expensive, limiting their use in developing countries where there are about 80% of HPV-related cancer deaths. Prophylactic vaccines based on virus-like particles (VLPs) have recently induced significant reductions in HPV-16 and HPV-18 infections and associated cancers in human clinical trials. L. lactis was GM to deliver two proteins: i) the HPV-16 E7 antigen, a protein consistently found in carcinomas caused by HPV infections and one of the candidate antigens for the development of anti-HPV therapy, and ii) interleukin-12 (IL-12), a stimulatory molecule of the cellular immune response during infections.103
Mechanisms of cellular and humoral immunity through the lens of VLP-based vaccines
Published in Expert Review of Vaccines, 2022
Hunter McFall-Boegeman, Xuefei Huang
While recent work has led to amazing advances in the field of virus-like particle-based vaccines, there is still more work to be done. It is time for the field to move beyond the current trend of empirical research design towards rational design based on solid theoretical and mechanistic understandings. An excellent example being the work done exploring cross-presentation of antigens delivered by VLPs [86,87,122,123]. Another example being the work exploring the effect of stereochemistry on antigen stability[175]. General advances in the field of immunology have allowed for a deeper understanding of the complex interactions of immune cells. VLPs have the potential to probe the immune responses due to their ability to accommodate a wide variety of functionalization approaches. Furthermore, the use of enveloped VLPs could act as ‘simplified’ cells for investigating specific receptor interactions, while care would have to be taken to account for multi-receptor/ligand interactions, including size discrimination-based interactions, like the need for CD45 exclusion from the binding site, for efficient opsonization of by macrophages[106].
Microneedles enable the development of skin-targeted vaccines against coronaviruses and influenza viruses
Published in Pharmaceutical Development and Technology, 2022
Thuy Trang Nguyen, Thi Thuy Dung Nguyen, Nguyen-Minh-An Tran, Huy Truong Nguyen, Giau Van Vo
Virus-like particles seem closely resemble viruses with noninfectious due to no viral genetic material in the component (Fuenmayor et al. 2017) to protect from some infections such as HIV, influenza, Norwalk virus, enterovirus 71, rotavirus, as well as for CoV (Ghorbani et al. 2020). They may be also grouped as an enveloped and nonenveloped virus-like particles due to base on their structure. Several virus-like particles vaccines have been currently developing; however, the clinical results have not been reported to date. For instant, the Clover Biopharmaceuticals Inc. are evaluating multivalent virus-like particles vaccine potential candidate that encode viral antigenic components from SARS-CoV-1, SARS-CoV-2, and MERS-CoV proteins together on the same particle (Li et al. 2020; Malik et al. 2021). In addition, another recombinant receptor binding domain subunit of the spike protein expressed in Pichia pastoris yeast was used to develop an Abdala vaccine. Its first clinical trial, a Phase-I/Phase = II trial, began on 7 December 2020 and the Phase-III trial was started on 22 March 2021 (mLemos-Pérez et al. 2021). It demonstrated high efficacy (92.28%) in phase III clinical trials for reducing transmission, and more than 90% effectiveness in reducing disease severity and mortality (mLemos-Pérez et al. 2021).