PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases
March 2013
http://www.plosntds.org/article/browseIssue.action

Research Article
Effective Chikungunya Virus-like Particle Vaccine Produced in Insect Cells
Stefan W. Metz, Joy Gardner, Corinne Geertsema, Thuy T. Le, Lucas Goh, Just M. Vlak, Andreas Suhrbier, Gorben P. Pijlman

Abstract
The emerging arthritogenic, mosquito-borne chikungunya virus (CHIKV) causes severe disease in humans and represents a serious public health threat in countries where Aedes spp mosquitoes are present. This study describes for the first time the successful production of CHIKV virus-like particles (VLPs) in insect cells using recombinant baculoviruses. This well-established expression system is rapidly scalable to volumes required for epidemic responses and proved well suited for processing of CHIKV glycoproteins and production of enveloped VLPs. Herein we show that a single immunization with 1 µg of non-adjuvanted CHIKV VLPs induced high titer neutralizing antibody responses and provided complete protection against viraemia and joint inflammation upon challenge with the Réunion Island CHIKV strain in an adult wild-type mouse model of CHIKV disease. CHIKV VLPs produced in insect cells using recombinant baculoviruses thus represents as a new, safe, non-replicating and effective vaccine candidate against CHIKV infections.