Polioviruses have caused crippling disease in humans for centuries, prior to the successful development of vaccines in the mid-1900's, which dramatically reduced disease prevalence. Continued use of these vaccines, however, threatens ultimate disease eradication and achievement of a polio-free world. Virus-like particles (VLPs) that lack a viral genome represent a safer potential vaccine, although they require particle stabilization.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFollowing endocytosis, enveloped viruses employ the changing environment of maturing endosomes as cues to promote endosomal escape, a process often mediated by viral glycoproteins. We previously showed that both high [K] and low pH promote entry of Bunyamwera virus (BUNV), the prototypical bunyavirus. Here, we use sub-tomogram averaging and AlphaFold, to generate a pseudo-atomic model of the whole BUNV glycoprotein envelope.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe production of enterovirus virus-like particles (VLPs) that lack the viral genome have great potential as vaccines for a number of diseases, such as poliomyelitis and hand, foot, and mouth disease. These VLPs can mimic empty capsids, which are antigenically indistinguishable from mature virions, produced naturally during viral infection. Both in infection and , capsids and VLPs are generated by the cleavage of the P1 precursor protein by a viral protease.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFollowing the success of global vaccination programmes using the live-attenuated oral and inactivated poliovirus vaccines (OPV and IPV), wild poliovirus (PV) is now only endemic in Afghanistan and Pakistan. However, the continued use of these vaccines poses potential risks to the eradication of PV. The production of recombinant PV virus-like particles (VLPs), which lack the viral genome offer great potential as next-generation vaccines for the post-polio world.
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