RESUMO
In the rapidly evolving field of nanotechnology, plant virus nanoparticles (pVNPs) are emerging as powerful tools in diverse applications ranging from biomedicine to materials science. The proteinaceous structure of plant viruses allows the capsid structure to be modified by genetic engineering and/or chemical conjugation with nanoscale precision. This means that pVNPs can be engineered to display peptides and proteins on their external surface, including immunodominant peptides derived from pathogens allowing pVNPs to be used for active immunization. In this context, pVNPs are safer than VNPs derived from mammalian viruses because there is no risk of infection or reversion to pathogenicity. Furthermore, pVNPs can be produced rapidly and inexpensively in natural host plants or heterologous production platforms. In this review, we discuss the use of pVNPs for the delivery of peptide antigens to the host immune in pre-clinical studies with the final aim of promoting systemic immunity against the corresponding pathogens. Furthermore, we described the versatility of plant viruses, with innate immunostimulatory properties, in providing a huge natural resource of carriers that can be used to develop the next generation of sustainable vaccines.
Assuntos
Nanopartículas/química , Nanotecnologia/métodos , Nicotiana/genética , Vírus de Plantas/imunologia , Vacinas de Partículas Semelhantes a Vírus/administração & dosagem , Vigna/genética , Animais , Antígenos Virais/química , Antígenos Virais/genética , Antígenos Virais/imunologia , Capsídeo/química , Capsídeo/imunologia , Avaliação Pré-Clínica de Medicamentos , Engenharia Genética/métodos , Humanos , Imunização , Imunogenicidade da Vacina , Camundongos , Nanopartículas/administração & dosagem , Peptídeos/química , Peptídeos/genética , Peptídeos/imunologia , Vírus de Plantas/genética , Nicotiana/virologia , Vacinas de Subunidades Antigênicas , Vacinas de Partículas Semelhantes a Vírus/biossíntese , Vacinas de Partículas Semelhantes a Vírus/genética , Vigna/virologiaRESUMO
Plant molecular farming is the use of plants to produce molecules of interest. In this perspective, plants may be used both as bioreactors for the production and subsequent purification of the final product and for the direct oral delivery of heterologous proteins when using edible plant species. In this work, we present the development of a candidate oral vaccine against Type 1 Diabetes (T1D) in edible plant systems using deconstructed plant virus-based recombinant DNA technology, delivered with vacuum infiltration. Our results show that a red beet is a suitable host for the transient expression of a human derived autoantigen associated to T1D, considered to be a promising candidate as a T1D vaccine. Leaves producing the autoantigen were thoroughly characterized for their resistance to gastric digestion, for the presence of residual bacterial charge and for their secondary metabolic profile, giving an overview of the process production for the potential use of plants for direct oral delivery of a heterologous protein. Our analysis showed almost complete degradation of the freeze-dried candidate oral vaccine following a simulated gastric digestion, suggesting that an encapsulation strategy in the manufacture of the plant-derived GAD vaccine is required.