National Diagnostic Center for Exotic Animal Diseases, China Animal Health and Epidemiology Center, No. 369 Nanjing Road, Qingdao, Shandong 266032, China.
Res Vet Sci. 2012 Oct;93(2):553-9. doi: 10.1016/j.rvsc.2011.10.018. Epub 2011 Nov 17.
Virus-like particle (VLP) composed of outer shell but no genome of virus mimics the natural configuration of authentic virion and has no characteristics of self-replication. A close resemblance to native viruses in molecular scaffolds and an absence of genomes make VLPs effectively elicit both humoral and cell-mediated immune responses even with no requirement of adjuvant for vaccines. As effective immunogens, characterized by high immunogenicity and safety, VLPs have been employed in production of human vaccines, such as the licensed vaccines of hepatitis B virus and human papillomavirus. However, there has been no report of licensed veterinary VLP vaccine worldwide as yet. Despite the wide application in vaccination, both the conventional inactivated and live attenuated vaccines for animals are subject to potential limitations due to incomplete inactivation and reversion to virulence. Therefore, those conventional vaccines may, to some extent, be replaced with the VLP-based vaccines conferring higher protection and safety to vaccinated animals. Here, we review the current status of VLPs as veterinary vaccines, and discuss the characteristics and problems associated with generating VLPs for different animal viruses.
病毒样颗粒（VLP）由外壳组成但不含病毒基因组，模拟了真实病毒粒子的自然结构，并且没有自我复制的特性。由于在分子支架上与天然病毒非常相似，并且没有基因组，因此 VLPs 可以有效地引发体液和细胞介导的免疫反应，甚至不需要佐剂用于疫苗。作为有效的免疫原，VLPs 具有高免疫原性和安全性的特点，已被用于生产人类疫苗，例如已获得许可的乙型肝炎病毒和人乳头瘤病毒疫苗。然而，目前为止，世界范围内还没有获得许可的兽用 VLPs 疫苗。尽管在疫苗接种方面得到了广泛应用，但由于不完全失活和毒力恢复的潜在风险，动物用传统的灭活疫苗和减毒活疫苗都受到一定限制。因此，这些传统疫苗在一定程度上可能会被基于 VLP 的疫苗所取代，这些疫苗可为接种动物提供更高的保护和安全性。在这里，我们综述了 VLPs 作为兽医疫苗的现状，并讨论了针对不同动物病毒产生 VLPs 的特点和相关问题。
