Virus-like particles (VLPs) are of great interest in vaccination, gene therapy and drug delivery, but their potential has yet to be fully realized. This is because existing laboratory processes, when scaled, do not easily give a compositionally and architecturally consistent product. Recently, Prof Ian Frazer, University ofBrisbanehad successfully developed vaccine for cervical cancer using VLPs. The approach is to get rid of the infectious genes out of the virus and to retain its cell capsule called capsomeres. These capsomeres can be used as a carrier when target DNA is infused into it (gene therapy and drug delivery) or just as a native particle (without any recombinant DNA) to neutralise the target receptor (vaccination). Research suggests that new process routes might ultimately be based on chemical processing by self-assembly, involving the precision manufacture of precursor capsomeres followed by in vitro VLP self-assembly and scale-up to required levels. A synergistic interaction of biomolecular design and bioprocess engineering (i.e. biomolecular engineering) is required if these alternative process routes and, thus, the promise of new VLP products, are to be realized. More recently, VLPs have been used to develop a vaccine against chikungunya virus, a mosquito borne pathogen that infects millions of people on Africa andAsia.
Virus Like Particles
