A multi-plug socket for building vaccines | Biochemistry Skip to main content intranet login Login Login intranet login Search form Search intranet login Biochemistry This is a new website What we do Our community Sharing biochemistry Events News Study with us Undergraduates Graduates Studentships Summer Research Opportunities Work with us Support our research Teach & run a research group Work at the bench Job opportunities Casual Teaching Our research Research themes Meet our researchers Our facilities Microscopy Proteomics Spectroscopy Biophysics Crystallography Contact us Contact us Visit us What we do Our community Angelika Feldmann Paula Dobrinic Sharing biochemistry Events News Study with us Undergraduates Our courses Recommended Reading List Student Stories Charles Underwood Katherine Rollins Lauren Turrell Undergraduate Fees and Funding Undergraduate admissions Undergraduate international students Undergraduate open days Graduates Admissions Funding opportunities Graduate academic supervisors Graduate international students Graduate open days Studentships Summer Research Opportunities Work with us Support our research Teach & run a research group Work at the bench Job opportunities Casual Teaching Our research Research themes Cell Biology, Development and Genetics Chromosomal and RNA Biology Infection and Disease Processes Microbiology and Systems Biology Structural Biology and Molecular Biophysics Meet our researchers Our facilities Microscopy Proteomics Spectroscopy Biophysics Crystallography Contact us Contact us Visit us Search form Search A multi-plug socket for building vaccines A multi-plug socket for building vaccines As highlighted by the Covid-19 pandemic, there is a need for platforms to accelerate the generation of effective vaccines. Virus-like particles bearing many copies of a viral antigen are a potent way to induce strong antibody responses, usually exceeding the response induced by adenoviral vectors or nucleic acid vaccines. The Howarth group have been working to increase the range of proteins that can be successfully displayed on virus-like particles (VLP). One obstacle is the different symmetry of target antigens from different pathogenic proteins. If a VLP has a three-fold axis of symmetry, one may be able to genetically fuse a monomeric or trimeric antigen from a certain virus, but dimeric or tetrameric antigens would not assemble properly, so preventing vaccine generation. Rolle Rahikainen in the Howarth group led a project to explore this challenge, taking proteins of different symmetry from different important diseases, including a monomer from SARS-CoV-2, a dimer from Lyme disease, and trimers or tetramers from Influenza. The project was a collaboration with Hung-Jen Wu and Anne-Marie Andersson from Biochemistry, Alain Townsend’s group at the WIMM, Simon Draper’s group at the Jenner Institute, and Thomas Bowden at Strubi. Rolle found that modular vaccine assembly using spontaneous amide bond formation with his SpyCatcher003-mi3 VLP allowed efficient display of all these antigen symmetries. The immune response was tested in detail for influenza, where most vaccines have focused on the trimeric haemagglutinin, ignoring the important tetrameric neuraminidase. Using this modular assembly, strong immune responses in animal models were found to both haemagglutin and neuraminidase, which encourages future work towards a broadly protective influenza vaccine. Rolle said, “The process of making vaccines has normally been based on trial and error, making it slow and unreliable. Hopefully some principles from this study can help make the process a bit easier for everyone.” This work has recently been published here. A related pre-print looks at the immune response generated using this VLP strategy for a SARS-CoV-2 vaccine candidate. Rolle’s work was funded by the MRC, the EU and the Finnish Cultural Foundation. Mark Howarth 31st August 2020 Section Links: What we do Study with us Work with us Our research Our facilities Contact us Keep in touch Twitter Facebook Support our research: Donate to Biochemistry Popular Pages: Latest News Current Projects Job Opportunities Undergraduate Open Days Privacy policy Host Platform Accessibility Statement Accessibility Report © 2020 University of Oxford - Department of Biochemistry powered by oxford mosaic List of site pages
