Virus-like particles as vaccine adjuvants

Virus-like particles (VLPs) consist of one or more viral coat proteins that assemble into particles. They can be taken up by antigen presenting cells (APC), peptides derived from them are presented on MHC class I molecules at the cell surface, and thereby prime a CD8(+) T cell response, either against the particle-forming protein itself (such as Hepatitis B surface antigen) or additional peptide sequences that are produced as fusions with the particle-forming protein. This article describes the preparation of Ty-VLPs in Saccharomyces cerevisiae, a system that can easily be handled in the laboratory or scaled up for manufacture, and is safe in use.