Baculovirus Display: A Novel Tool for Vaccination

Abstract

Baculoviruses are enveloped DNA viruses that infects insect mainly from the order Lepidoptera. The virus is replicated and transcribed in the nucleus of infected cells. They only infect insects in nature and are non-pathogenic to vertebrates. The name Baculovirus derives from the Latin word baculum, which refers to the rod-shaped morphology. They have large, circular double stranded DNA genomes that range from 80-180 kbp and encode 90-180 genes. Among the numerous baculoviruses, Autographa californica multiple nucleopolyhedron virus (AcMNPV) is the most widely studied and used in biotechnology. These are extensively utilized as an excellent tool for production of recombinant protein in insect cells. They are also used in the development of strategies for displaying foreign peptides and proteins on the virus surface as well as on mammalian cell. This is achieved by fusing the protein of interest with the major viral envelope glycoprotein (Gp64). The surface displaying of antigenic epitopes make viruses efficient vaccine vehicles capable of mounting a strong specific immune response. The baculovirus expression vector system (BVES) is an excellent tool for the production of recombinant vaccine. Many subunit vaccines have been expressed in this system. Thecapability to transduce a wide variety of mammalian cells leads to the emergence of baculovirus as a novel vector for in-vivo and in-vitro gene delivery. Due to its biosafety, large cloning capacity, low cytotoxicity and non-replication nature in the transduced cells as well as the ease of manipulation and production, they has been utilized as gene delivery and vaccine vectors for a wide variety of application.