Virus like particles (VLPs) are large particles assembled by one or several structural proteins of multiple viruses. VLPs do not contain viral nucleic acid thus cannot replicate independently. However, VLPs can still stimulate the effective response of immune system through the same way as virus particles, consequently ideal for vaccines development. On top of that, the structural similarity with virus particles endows VLPs with advantages of high security. With the booming of biotechnology, VLP is becoming a powerful tool for not only vaccines but also antibody screening, immunogens production, etc.
The preparation of VLPs is usually conducted in the expression system and then self-assemble in vitro. Insect cell expression system (BEVS) is one of the most commonly used expression systems in the preparation of VLPs.
Creative BioMart provides two approaches refers to VLPs expression service. As an expert in biotechnology, Creative BioMart promises to provide high quality service to our customers and we will always be your reliable partner.
Figure 1. Virus Like Particle Material (Green) and Virus Material (Red)
Typically, the capsid proteins of viruses have natural self-assembly ability, which provides possibility for VPL to be expressed as heterologous proteins. The construction of recombinant VLPs needs to be based on the research of corresponding viruses and the acquisition of virus functional peptides gene sequences.
The novel / recombinant VLPs can be directly isolated from the cell or culture medium expressing viral capsid protein or be assembled in vitro after purification of capsid protein subunits.
The expression approach used to generate recombinant VLPs is based on the Bac-to-Bac. Although the detail of the expression principle may vary from the attribute of the target VLP, the general working mechanism of Creative BioMart’s VLPs expression service is as below.
According to the number of VLP subunits, Creative BioMart offers two expression pathways with different assemble strategies. Please click the link below to see the service detail.
For VLP which contains 4 or less subunits.
Recombinant virus containing 1 or 2 genes of viral structure protein will be constructed via Bac to Bac principle, and then be co-transfected to the host insect cells to assemble the intended VLP.
For multisubunit virus particles (≥4).
Multi gene cassettes will be inserted into one vector and expression all subunits at the same time.
Creative BioMart has more than 10 years of experience in protein expression and is competent to satisfy various protein expression desire. We are expert in protein expression (intracellular or secretory), signal peptide selection, insect cell selection and culture. Choosing our Multi Gene Expression Service, customers only need to provide the coding sequence of your target protein. We will provide customizes service from codon optimization to large-scale expression and purification. For more assistance, please contact us for help.