Swine-origin pandemic H1N1 influenza virus-like particles produced in insect cells induce hemagglutination inhibiting antibodies in BALB/c mice

Florian Krammer (1) , Sabine Nakowitsch (2) , Paul Messner (3) , Dieter Palmberger (4) , Boris Ferko (2) , Reingard Grabherr (4)

1 Department of Biotechnology
2 Avir Greenhills Biotechnology AG
3 Department of Nanobiotechnology
4 Vienna Institute of BioTechnology, Department of Biotechnology

Recent outbreaks of influenza A highlight the importance of rapid and sufficient supply for pandemic and inter-pandemic vaccines. Classical manufacturing methods for influenza vaccines fail to satisfy this demand. Alternatively, cell culture based production systems and virus-like particle (VLP) based technologies have been established. We developed swine-origin pandemic H1N1 influenza VLPs consisting of hemagglutinin (A/California/04/2009) and matrix protein. Hemagglutinin and matrix protein (M1) were co-expressed in insect cells by the baculovirus expression system. VLPs were harvested from infection supernatants, purified and used for intraperitoneal immunization of BALB/c mice. Immunization induced high serum antibody titers against A/California/04/2009 as well as hemagglutination inhibiting antibodies. Additionally we compared VLP production in two different insect cell lines, namely Sf9 and BTI-TN5B1-4 (High FiveTM). Taken together VLPs represent a potential strategy for the fight against new pandemic influenza viruses.

Mots clés: Life Sciences

Florian Krammer, Sabine Nakowitsch, Paul Messner, Dieter Palmberger, Boris Ferko, et al.. Swine-origin pandemic H1N1 influenza virus-like particles produced in insect cells induce hemagglutination inhibiting antibodies in BALB/c mice. Biotechnology Journal, 2009, 5 (1), pp.17. ⟨10.1002/biot.200900267⟩. ⟨hal-00550604⟩