Poster Presentation 8th Australasian Virology Society Meeting and 11th Annual Meeting of the Australian Centre for Hepatitis & HIV Virology Meeting 2015

MicroCubes: a Novel Vaccine Platform against Infectious Diseases (#114)

Ashlee M Burt 1 2 , Keith Al-Hasani 3 , Samantha Brandler 1 , Chan-Sien Lay 3 , Emily J Fairmaid 4 , Timothy Patton 1 2 , Rob Center 1 , Damian Purcell , Lorena E Brown 4 , Rosemary Ffrench 1 2 , Fasseli Coulibaly 3
  1. Centre for Biomedical Research, Burnet Institute, Prahran, Victoria, Australia
  2. Department of Immunology, Monash University, Prahran, Victoria, Melbourne
  3. Department of Biochemistry, Monash University, Clayton, Victoria, Australia
  4. Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

The MicroCube vaccine platform is a vaccine delivery technology based on the Bombyx Mori Cypovirus which forms a crystalline matrix from repeating units of the polyhedrin protein. The crystalline matrix of the MicroCube represents an inherently stable platform which is heat and proteinase resistant and may alleviate the strict requirements for cold-chain. To demonstrate the ability of the MicroCube vaccine platform to elicit robust neutralising antibody responses our group has engineered MicroCubes to accommodate and present the haemagglutinin protein (HA) of influenza virus or the envelope (ENV) glycoprotein of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). To direct incorporation of the antigens of interest with the crystalline matrix, antigens of interest were tagged. Full-length HA and ENV glycoproteins were incorporated within the crystalline matrix. Using ELISA, and western blot incorporation of HA and ENV was confirmed. Using ELISA, ENV was demonstrated to bind a panel of neutralising antibodies suggesting that incorporated ENV was in the correct conformational state. Proof-of-concept studies have demonstrated that immunization with HA MicroCubes in absence of adjuvant elicited robust antibody responses in mice. Partial protection was observed following challenge with lethal dose of influenza H1N1 virus, protection was observed in mice which mounted robust antibody responses to the HA antigen. These experiments establish MicroCubes as a vaccine platform for complex antigens, particularly surface viral glycoproteins.