Studies on norovirus vaccines and the use of norovirus-like particles as antigen carriers

2017 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 15K15228
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Epidemiology and preventive medicine
• Research Institution: National Institute of Infectious Diseases
• Principal Investigator: SOMEYA YUICHI 国立感染症研究所, ウイルス第二部, 主任研究官 (50283809)
• Project Period (FY): 2015-04-01 – 2018-03-31
• Keywords: ノロウイルス / ウイルス様中空粒子 / VLP / ワクチン

Outline of Final Research Achievements

To get useful information for development of norovirus vaccine, virus-like particles (VLPs) derived from several strains of norovirus were prepared and used to immunize rats. Rats sera reacted with VLPs used as antigens, but did not reacted with VLPs from other strains. It will be important to develop effective vaccines which can control wide variety of norovirus strains.
I tested whether norovirus VLPs could be used as exogenous antigen carriers. Although recombinant baculoviruses including the gene encoding a VP1 protein with a short peptide antigen inserted, no or extremely low expression of recombinant VLPs were found. It is suggested that the interaction between domains in the VP1 protein is important for the formation of a VLP.

Free Research Field

ウイルス生化学