Poster Presentation Asia-Pacific Vaccine and Immunotherapy Congress 2023

Development and production of particulate vaccines against Hepatitis C virus infection (#159)

Anjali Kakkanat 1 , Shuxiong Chen 1 , Bernd Rehm 1 2
  1. Griffith Institute for Drug Discovery (GRIDD), Griffith University, Nathan, Queensland, Australia
  2. Menzies Health Institute Queensland (MHIQ), Griffith University, Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is a major causative agent of chronic liver disease causing 180 million infections annually with a high socioeconomic impact. HCV is considered as the major cause of cirrhosis, hepatocellular carcinoma, and liver failure. In spite of the efficiency of direct-acting antivirals, the available treatment options are expensive and not able to protect from recurrent infection. Hence, an affordable efficient vaccine is still an urgent demand for reducing transmission and eradicating the infection. In this study, an endotoxin free production host, Escherichia coli was used to produce polyhydroxy butyrate (PHB) beads displaying selected HCV antigens to develop a novel vaccine against HCV. Genetic engineering techniques were used for the modification of PHB synthase (PhaC), which catalyses the PHB bead formation and to develop PHB beads displaying antigens of interest. These particulate vaccines are expected to provide a good immune response and protection against HCV infection.