Production of Murray Valley Encephalitis Virus-Like Particles for Vaccine Studies

Abstract

The aim of this research is to produce virus-like particles (VLPs) for Murray Valley Encephalitis Virus (MVEV) Genotype 1 and Genotype 2. This research will incorporate strategies previously shown to increase production yield and to increase neutralizing antibody titers. The incorporated envelope protein will include a modification substituting phenylalanine at position 108 with alanine to increase the production yield of VLPs (Urakami et al. 2017). The co-expression of the capsid, pre-membrane, and envelope (CprME) proteins along with non-structural protease proteins (NS2B/NS3) in Expi293F™ cells will be used to produce self-assembling VLPs which lack viral RNA. The self-assembly of VLPs is expected to enable the development of native, properly configured VLPs necessary for inducing a high neutralizing antibody response (Boigard et al. 2017).