Plant chimeric viruses

Piazolla, G., Nuzzaci, M., and Tortorella, C. et al. (2005). Immunogenic properties of a chimeric plant virus expressing hepatitis C virus (HCV)-derived epitope new prospects for an HCV vaccine. J. Clin. Immunol. 25 142-152. 

Yusibov, V., Modelska, A., Steplewski, K., Agadjanyan, M., Weiner, D., and Hooper, C. (1997). Antigens produced in plants by infection with chimeric plant viruses immunize against rabies virus and HlV-1. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 94 5784-5788. 

Brennan, F.R., Bellaby, T., Helliwell, S.M., Jones, T.D., Kamstrup, S., Dalsgaard, K., Elock, J.-L, and Hamilton, D.O. (1999). Chimeric plant virus particles administered nasally or orally induce systemic and mucosal immune responses in mice. J. Virol. 73(2) 930-938. 

The coat proteins of plant viruses have been used as carrier molecules for presentation of antigenic epitopes from heterologous proteins (Brennan et al, 2001). In infected plants, the recombinant coat proteins assemble into chimeric particles with the underlying morphology of the native virus and purified particles can elicit specific antibodies to the heterologous epitope when injected into mice (Dalsgaard et al, 1997). Even feeding mice with infected plant material can lead to humoral and mucosal responses to the expressed epitope (Modelska et al, 1998). 

Marusic, C. Rizza, P. Lattanzi, L. Mancini, C. Spada, M. Belardelli, F. Benvenuto, E. Capone, I. Chimeric plant viruss particles as immunogens for inducing murine and human immune responses against human immunodeficiency virus type 1. J. Virol. 2001, 75, 8434-8439. 

---