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In planta production of a candidate vaccine against bovine papillomavirus type 1

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Abstract

Bovine papillomavirus type 1 (BPV-1) is an economically important virus that induces tumourigenic pathologies in horses and cows. Given that the BPV-1 L1 major coat protein can self-assemble into highly immunogenic higher-order structures, we transiently expressed it in Nicotiana benthamiana as a prelude to producing a candidate vaccine. It was found that plant codon optimization of L1 gave higher levels of expression than its non-optimized counterpart. Following protein extraction, we obtained high yields (183 mg/kg fresh weight leaf tissue) of relatively pure L1, which had self-assembled into virus-like particles (VLPs). We found that these VLPs elicited a highly specific and strong immune response, and therefore they may have utility as a potential vaccine. This is the first report demonstrating the viable production of a candidate BPV vaccine protein in plants.

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Abbreviations

BPV:

Bovine papillomavirus

CPMV:

Cowpea mosaic virus

CRPV:

Cottontail rabbit papillomavirus

ELISA:

Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay

HPV:

Human papillomavirus

Mes:

2-Morpholinoethanesulphonic acid

PBS:

Phosphate-buffered saline

SDS-PAGE:

Sodium dodecyl sulphate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis

UTRs:

Untranslated regions

VLP:

Virus-like particle

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank Prof. Lesley Torrance and Graham Cowan (The James Hutton Institute, Invergowrie, Scotland, UK) for helpful and critical discussions. We would also like to thank Profs. Lubna Nasir and Saveria Campo (Glasgow University, Glasgow, Scotland, UK) for provision of the BPV-1 clone. We are very grateful to Prof. Reinhard Kirnbauer and Dr. Sabine Brandt (University of Vienna Medical School, Vienna, Austria) for the provision of insect cell-produced BPV L1 VLPs. This was funded by the EU PLAPROVA KBBE-2008-227056 grant, and the work of AJL, SNC and MT was also partly funded by the Scottish Government’s Rural and Environmental Science and Analytical Services (RESAS) Division.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. The James Hutton Institute (Dundee), Dundee, DD2 5DA, UK

    Andrew J. Love, Sean N. Chapman & Michael Taliansky

  2. Istituto di Virologia Vegetale, CNR, Strada delle Cacce 73, 10135, Turin, Italy

    Slavica Matic & Emanuela Noris

  3. Department of Biological Chemistry, John Innes Centre, Norwich, NR4 7UH, UK

    George P. Lomonossoff

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  1. Andrew J. Love
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  2. Sean N. Chapman
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  3. Slavica Matic
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  5. George P. Lomonossoff
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  6. Michael Taliansky
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Correspondence to Andrew J. Love.

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Love, A.J., Chapman, S.N., Matic, S. et al. In planta production of a candidate vaccine against bovine papillomavirus type 1. Planta 236, 1305–1313 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00425-012-1692-0

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