Sissel Haugslien
Lead Engineer
Authors
Ana-Maria Madalina Pantazica Andre van Eerde Mihaela-Olivia Dobrica Iuliana Caras Irina Ionescu Adriana Costache Catalin Tucureanu Hege Særvold Steen Catalin Lazar Inger Heldal Sissel Haugslien Adrian Onu Crina Stavaru Norica Branza-Nichita Jihong Liu ClarkeAbstract
The recent SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has taught the world a costly lesson about the devastating consequences of viral disease outbreaks but also, the remarkable impact of vaccination in limiting life and economic losses. Vaccination against human Hepatitis B Virus (HBV), a major human pathogen affecting 290 million people worldwide, remains a key action towards viral hepatitis elimination by 2030. To meet this goal, the development of improved HBV antigens is critical to overcome non-responsiveness to standard vaccines based on the yeast-produced, small (S) envelope protein. We have recently shown that combining relevant immunogenic determinants of S and large (L) HBV proteins in chimeric antigens markedly enhances the anti-HBV immune response. However, the demand for cost-efficient, high-quality antigens remains challenging. This issue could be addressed by using plants as versatile and rapidly scalable protein production platforms. Moreover, the recent generation of plants lacking β-1,2-xylosyltransferase and α-1,3-fucosyltransferase activities (FX-KO), by CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing, enables production of proteins with “humanized” N-glycosylation. In this study, we investigated the impact of plant N-glycosylation on the immunogenic properties of a chimeric HBV S/L vaccine candidate produced in wild-type and FX-KO Nicotiana benthamiana. Prevention of β-1,2-xylose and α-1,3-fucose attachment to the HBV antigen significantly increased the immune response in mice, as compared with the wild-type plant-produced counterpart. Notably, the antibodies triggered by the FX-KO-made antigen neutralized more efficiently both wild-type HBV and a clinically relevant vaccine escape mutant. Our study validates in premiere the glyco-engineered Nicotiana benthamiana as a substantially improved host for plant production of glycoprotein vaccines.
Authors
Hang Su Andre van Eerde Hege Særvold Steen Inger Heldal Sissel Haugslien Irene Ørpetveit Stefanie Caroline Wüstner Makoto Inami Marie Løvoll Espen Rimstad Jihong Liu ClarkeAbstract
Cardiomyopathy syndrome (CMS) is a severe cardiac disease occurring in the grow-out sea phase of farmed Atlantic salmon with approximately 100 outbreaks annually in Norway. Piscine myocarditis virus (PMCV) is believed to be the causative agent of CMS. There is no vaccine available to control CMS, partially because PMCV withstands propagation in known cell cultures. In the present study, we selected the putative capsid protein of PMCV as the candidate antigen for immunization experiments and produced it in the plant Nicotiana benthamiana by transient expression. The recombinant PMCV antigen formed virus-like particles (VLPs). To evaluate the efficacy of the plant made VLP vaccine, a PMCV infection model was established. In an experimental salmon vaccination trial, the VLP vaccine triggered innate immunity, and indicative but not significant inhibition of viral replication in heart, spleen and kidney tissues was observed. Similarly, a reduction of inflammatory lesions in cardiomyocytes and subendocardial infiltration by mononuclear leukocytes were observed. Therefore, there was no difference in efficacy or immune response observed post the plant made PMCV VLP antigen vaccination. Taken together, this study has demonstrated that plant made VLP antigens should be investigated further as a possible platform for the development of PMCV antigens for a CMS vaccine.
Authors
Mihaela-Olivia Dobrica Andre van Eerde Catalin Tucureanu Adrian Onu Lisa Paruch Iuliana Caras Ene Vlase Hege Særvold Steen Sissel Haugslien Dominic Alonzi Nicole Zitzmann Ralph Bock Jean Dubuisson Costin-Ioan Popescu Crina Stavaru Jihong Liu Clarke Norica Branza-NichitaAbstract
No abstract has been registered