Novel plant virus particles and methods of inactivation thereof
AssigneeDow Global Technologies LLC
InventorsLada Rasochova, Jamie Phelps
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Abstract
The present invention relates generally to plant viruses, produced by plants, for use as vaccines and the like. More specifically, the present invention relates to simple inactivation methods, and plant virus particles thereby obtained. The invention described herein provides means and methods to produce a safe vaccine based on an epitope display of epitopes derived from a pathogenic agent on the surface of inactivated plant virus-like particles. This invention teaches inactivation of chimeric plant virus particles and integration of the inactivation step into the virus particle purification procedure. The inactivation method renders the virus incapable of infecting plants and the integrity of virus particles is retained.
Claims26
A method of inactivating a plant virus comprising:
- administering ammonium sulfate to plant material expressing a virus-like particle wherein the plant material is selected from the group consisting of plants, plant tissue, plant cells and protoplasts at a pH above 8.0;
- incubating the plant material for at least ten hours to produce an inactivated virus-like particle (VLP);
- and
- harvesting the inactivated VLP from the plant material.
A method of producing a non-infectious VLP comprising:
- administering ammonium sulfate to plant material selected from the group consisting of plants, plant tissue, plant cells and protoplasts and lacks at least a portion of RNA present in a plant virus at a pH above 8.0;
- incubating the plant material for at least ten hours;
- and
- harvesting the inactivated VLP from the plant material, wherein said VLP is not capable of replicating.
A vaccine comprising a VLP wherein said vaccine comprises a plant virus wherein said virus comprises at least one foreign peptide incorporated into the virus and the vaccine is produced by a method comprising administering ammonium sulfate to plant material selected from the group consisting of plants, plant tissue, plant cells and protoplasts at a pH above 8.0 to produce an inactivated VLP;
- incubating the plant material for at least ten hours;
- and harvesting the inactivated VLP from the plant material.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.