Journal of Vaccines & Vaccination

Virus like particles as dengue vaccine candidate

6^th Euro Global Summit and Expo on Vaccines & Vaccination

August 17-19, 2015 Birmingham, UK

Ankur Poddar

Posters-Accepted Abstracts: J Vaccines Vaccin

Abstract:

Currently, many strategies have been adopted for an ideal vaccine design. However, recent advancement of Virus Like
Particle (VLPs) based platform for vaccine designing has shown great potential. Intrinsic properties of self assembly,
antigen expression in repetitive manner, non-replicating, non-infectious nature, have made VLPs as a prospective vaccine
design. The rationale of this work lies in exploring Envelope (E) protein based VLPs as dengue vaccine candidate. E protein
of dengue virus has been reported to mediate virus-host interaction, facilitate viral entry into host cell and contain serotype
specific, virus neutralizing epitopes. A customized gene encoding E protein ectodomain was designed and expressed in P.
pastoris host. Protein was purified from the membrane fraction with the aid of histidine tag. Purified protein was characterized
for the assembly into VLPs via Electron Microscopy (EM) and Dynamic Light Scattering (DLS) studies. E protein was further
characterized for molecular weight by Mass Spectroscopy (MS), nature of glycosylation by N-linked oligosaccharide profiling
(MALDI-TOF MS), stability assessment of VLPs by DLS. E protein was found to be N-linked glycosylated and assembled
VLPs were stable in various conditions. Surface accessibility and integrity of various critical, neutralizing epitopes (previously
characterized) on E VLPs were analyzed through reactivity with various mice and human monoclonal antibodies which
revealed the surface exposure of these epitopes in correct conformation. Further, E VLPs were found to elicit serotype specific,
neutralizing antibody immune response in BALB/c mice. In nutshell, DENV-E VLPs based vaccine candidate has shown
promising results in mice model.

Biography :

Ankur Poddar is currently pursuing her PhD from a reputed institute, International Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (ICGEB), New Delhi, India.
She had completed her Bachelors in Biomedical Sciences from Delhi University and Masters from All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), India. Her
research interest lies in applied research and is currently working on dengue vaccine designing project from past 4 years as a part of her PhD. She had a first author
publication in a reputed journal from her PhD work.