Mammalian Virus-Like Particles (VLPs) System

Introduction

The virus-like particle (VLP) is a protein structure formed by the self-assembly of multiple subunits. It does not contain viral nucleic acid and cannot replicate autonomously. Its overall structure is the same as or highly related to its corresponding native virus. After decades of development, VLP has become a universal technology in many fields, especially in membrane protein expression, vaccines and antibody development, delivery systems, bioimaging, and cell targeting, etc. At present, a variety of available VLP systems have been established, including E. coli VLP systems, yeast VLP systems, insect VLP systems, etc. However, statistics show that more than half of the recombinant proteins in the pharmaceutical industry are produced in mammalian cell systems.

Figure 1. Morphology of purified mammalian VLPs (Wu, C.Y.; et al. 2010)

Although mammalian cells are more expensive and complicated to operate than other cells, they do provide a flexible and excellent alternative to our research. In the mammalian VLP system, without concerns over inadequate presentation of immune antigens or limitations imposed by the manipulation of real viruses. It allows rapid and scalable production, has high stability and biological safety, and can ensure the efficient folding, assembly and natural PTM, etc.

Figure 2. Schematic outline of SARS-CoV-2 VLPs constructions in mammalian expression system (Xu, R.D.; et al. 2020)

Our Platform

Creative BioMart has accumulated nearly 20 years of experience in virus-like particles (VLPs) technical services. We continue to introduce advanced technology and professional technical personnel to successfully build the enveloped VLPs technology platform based on mammalian expression systems such as HEK293. The enveloped VLPs display correctly folded multi-pass transmembrane proteins on their inherent vesicle membranes, showing the complete biological activity. According to the different research needs of customers, our experts can also provide customized one-stop service to ensure that the most efficient and cost-effective strategy is used to accelerate the progress of customers' projects.

Strengths

• Improve immunogenicity and break self-tolerance
• Display the natural conformation of multi-pass transmembrane proteins with complete biological activity
• Can be used for ELISA/SPR/BLI to help lead antibody discovery
• The abundance of target antigen in enveloped VLPs is higher than that in overexpressing cells
• The size is 100-150nm, which is the best target for phage display

References

1. Wu, C.Y.; et al. Mammalian Expression of Virus-Like Particles for Advanced Mimicry of Authentic Influenza Virus.PLoS One. 2010; 5(3).
2. Xu, R.D.; et al. Construction of SARS-CoV-2 Virus-Like Particles by Mammalian Expression System. Front. Bioeng. Biotechnol. 2020.