Abstract

Virus-like
particles (VLPs) have
been used for several decades as scaffolds for the display of vaccine antigens.
This has proven to be a an
effective strategy- selected antigens derived from
diverse pathogens have been incorporated into VLPs
and used as candidate vaccines against
influenza, malaria, tuberculosis and other infectious diseases. A common approach to fuse antigen is
genetic fusion,
where the antigen is joined to the capsid protein as a single polypeptide. This
method is unreliable, however, arising
from inaccuracies in predicting the consequences of protein engineering. This
invention relates to a specific method for
attachment of any combination of antigens to a
modified VLP without any further modification of the scaffold. The scaffold consists of the Hepatitis
B core particle (HBc) which has been modified to incorporate an
antibody-binding protein at its surface. It will therefore bind any protein containing an
antibody Fc fragment. A
separate avenue of investigation in vaccinology relates to the use of
monoclonal antibodies against surface receptors common
to immune cells for receptor-mediated uptake of antigen-antibody complex. The complex
can be delivered effectively to a specific subset of immune cells of
interest.