Abstract
Emerging viruses pose a major threat to humans and livestock
with global public health and economic burdens. Vaccination
remains an effective tool to reduce this threat, and
yet, the conventional cell culture often fails to produce sufficient
vaccine dose. As an alternative to cell-culture based
vaccine, virus-like particles (VLPs) are considered as a highpriority
vaccine strategy against emerging viruses. VLPs represent
highly ordered repetitive structures via macromolecular
assemblies of viral proteins. The particulate nature allows efficient
uptake into antigen presenting cells stimulating both
innate and adaptive immune responses towards enhanced
vaccine efficacy. Increasing research activity and translation
opportunity necessitate the advances in the design of VLPs
and new bioprocessing modalities for efficient and cost-effective
production. Herein, we describe major achievements
and challenges in this endeavor, with respect to designing
strategies to harnessing the immunogenic potential, production
platforms, downstream processes, and some exemplary
case
s in developing VLP-based vaccines.
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