The Highly Productive Thermothelomyces heterothallica C1 Expression System as a Host for Rapid Development of Influenza Vaccines

(1) Influenza viruses constantly change and evade prior immune responses, forcing seasonal re-vaccinations with updated vaccines. Current FDA-approved vaccine manufacturing technologies are too slow and/or expensive to quickly adapt to mid-season changes in the virus or to the emergence of pandemic strains. Therefore, cost-effective vaccine technologies that can quickly adapt to newly emerged strains are desirable. (2) The filamentous fungal host Thermothelomyces heterothallica C1 (C1, formerly Myceliophthora thermophila) offers a highly efficient and cost-effective alternative to reliably produce immunogens of vaccine quality at large scale. (3) We showed the utility of the C1 system expressing hemagglutinin (HA) and a HA fusion protein from different H1N1 influenza A virus strains. Mice vaccinated with the C1-derived HA proteins elicited anti-HA immune responses similar, or stronger than mice vaccinated with HA products derived from prototypical expression systems. A challenge study demonstrated that vaccinated mice were protected against the aggressive homologous viral challenge. (4) The C1 expression system is proposed as part of a set of protein expression systems for plug-and-play vaccine manufacturing platforms. Upon the emergence of pathogens of concern these platforms could serve as a quick solution for producing enough vaccines for immunizing the world population in a much shorter time and more affordably than is possible with current platforms.

Medienart:

E-Artikel

Erscheinungsjahr:

2022

Erschienen:

2022

Enthalten in:

Zur Gesamtaufnahme - volume:10

Enthalten in:

Vaccines - 10(2022), 2 vom: 20. Jan.

Sprache:

Englisch

Beteiligte Personen:

Keresztes, Gabor [VerfasserIn]
Baer, Mark [VerfasserIn]
Alfenito, Mark R [VerfasserIn]
Verwoerd, Theo C [VerfasserIn]
Kovalchuk, Andriy [VerfasserIn]
Wiebe, Marilyn G [VerfasserIn]
Andersen, Tor Kristian [VerfasserIn]
Saloheimo, Markku [VerfasserIn]
Tchelet, Ronen [VerfasserIn]
Kensinger, Richard [VerfasserIn]
Grødeland, Gunnveig [VerfasserIn]
Emalfarb, Mark [VerfasserIn]

Links:

Volltext

Themen:

Filamentous fungi
Influenza vaccine
Journal Article
Recombinant protein expression
Targeted influenza hemagglutinin
Thermothelomyces heterothallica C1
Trimeric influenza hemagglutinin

Anmerkungen:

Date Revised 01.03.2022

published: Electronic

Citation Status PubMed-not-MEDLINE

doi:

10.3390/vaccines10020148

funding:

Förderinstitution / Projekttitel:

PPN (Katalog-ID):

NLM337461171