Purified transmission-stage vaccine antigens (Pfs25 and Pfs230) were produced as chimeric VLPs with ARTES’ METAVAX® platform. The study results demonstrated that the VLPs effectively induced functional transmission-reducing antibodies, assessed with the widely used standard membrane feeding assays for evaluation of malaria vaccines.
Malaria is one of the major threats to human health globally, and the elimination of malaria depends on the development of an effective vaccine. Currently, the most advanced malaria vaccine has been found to be moderately efficacious. Thus, it is crucial to develop new strategies for improved vaccine formulations that can generate potent immunity to malaria. Chimeric VLPs displaying target antigens have emerged as a promising strategy to develop and accelerate new malaria vaccine candidates.
ARTES Biotechnology, the German biopharmaceutical contract research and development company specializes in microbial cell line and process development for recombinant proteins and vaccines together with colleagues at Burnet Institute, Australia, have recently published data on the use of chimeric VLPs (METAVAX® technology platform).Two original articles are available in the international open-access journal, PLOS ONE.
Under the title “Display of malaria transmission-blocking antigens on chimeric duck hepatitis B virus-derived virus-like particles produced in Hansenula polymorpha” the development of the Hansenula yeast cell lines and processes for the expression of transmission-blocking malaria vaccine candidates, Pfs25 and Pfs230, as VLPs are described. The accompanying article entitled “Malaria vaccine candidates displayed on novel virus-like particles are immunogenic and induce transmission-blocking activity” further present data supporting the successful induction of an immune response against the VLPs using animal studies.
The results demonstrated that the incorporation of leading transmission-stage antigens into the METAVAX® platform is a promising and novel strategy for their display on nano-scaled particles. The VLP platform is suitable for the development of multi-component vaccines to elicit functional transmission-blocking immunity. Furthermore, competitive processes for efficient production and purification are now available and can be transferred to other promising VLP vaccine targets. Future work to evaluate immune responses in larger studies of animal models using different immunization regimens and to optimize antigen presentation by VLPs will be highly beneficial to accelerate the use of this platform for malaria vaccine development.
“With the production of new malaria vaccine candidates, another milestone in the application of our yeast based VLP platform METAVAX® for the development of human and veterinary vaccines is showcased, Managing Director of ARTES, Dr Michael Piontek said.
The generation of antibodies that block malaria transmission in animal studies, is a promising step forward and highlights the potential use of this approach for malaria vaccine development, said Prof James Beeson, Head of the Malaria Immunity and Vaccines group at Burnet Institute.
ARTES Biotechnology is a pharmaceutical contract research & development organization that provides cell line and process development for and manufacturing of bio-pharmaceutical products. The company is a well-established partner for many of the biggest names in the industry, with more than 20 years of business experience, a track record of products developed for and marketed by clients as well as safe, reliable and highly competitive microbial production platforms. ARTES specializes in recombinant protein production, process and vaccine development from microbial expression systems, marketing the unique METAVAX® (dHepB-VLP) technology in combination with yeast expression. ARTES operates worldwide from its 850m2 S1 facilities in Langenfeld, from where it also offers cell line engineering based on yeast (Hansenula polymorpha, syn. Pichia angusta; Saccharomyces cerevisiae) and bacterial (E. coli) expression platforms, lab scale up- and downstream process development, supply of non-GMP bulk material (API) for activity and toxicity tests and technology transfer to cGMP facilities and scale-up support.
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