Bárcena Juan, Blanco Esther
Centro de Investigación en Sanidad Animal (INIA), Valdeolmos, 28130, Madrid, Spain,
Subcell Biochem. 2013;68:631-65. doi: 10.1007/978-94-007-6552-8_21.
Virus-like particles (VLPs) are formed by viral structural proteins that, when overexpressed, spontaneously self-assemble into particles that are antigenically indistinguishable from infectious virus or subviral particles. VLPs are appealing as vaccine candidates because their inherent properties (i.e., virus-sized, multimeric antigens, highly organised and repetitive structure, not infectious) are suitable for the induction of safe and efficient humoral and cellular immune responses. VLP-based vaccines have already been licensed for human and veterinary use, and many more vaccine candidates are currently in late stages of evaluation. Moreover, the development of VLPs as platforms for foreign antigen display has further broadened their potential applicability both as prophylactic and therapeutic vaccines. This chapter provides an overview on the design and use of VLPs for the development of new generation vaccines.
病毒样颗粒（VLPs）由病毒结构蛋白形成，当这些蛋白过度表达时，会自发自组装成颗粒，这些颗粒在抗原性上与感染性病毒或亚病毒颗粒无法区分。VLPs作为疫苗候选物很有吸引力，因为它们的固有特性（即病毒大小、多聚体抗原、高度有序和重复的结构、无感染性）适合诱导安全有效的体液和细胞免疫反应。基于VLP的疫苗已获许可用于人类和兽医领域，目前还有更多候选疫苗处于评估后期阶段。此外，将VLPs开发为外源抗原展示平台，进一步拓宽了它们作为预防性和治疗性疫苗的潜在适用性。本章概述了VLPs在新一代疫苗开发中的设计和应用。
