The recent Ebola virus outbreak has highlighted the therapeutic potential of antisera and renewed interest in this treatment approach. While human convalescent sera may not be readily available in the early stages of an outbreak, antisera of animal origin can be produced in a short time frame. Here, we compared adjuvanted virus-like particles (VLP) with recombinant modified vaccinia virus Ankara and vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV), both expressing the Ebola virus antigens. The neutralizing antibody titers of rabbits immunized with adjuvanted VLPs were similar to those immunized with the replication-competent VSV, indicating that presentation of the antigen in its native conformation rather than de novo antigen expression is essential for production of functional antibodies. This approach also yielded high-titer antisera against Nipah virus glycoproteins, illustrating that it is transferable to other virus families. Multiple-step immunoglobulin G purification using a two-step 20–40% ammonium sulfate precipitation followed by protein A affinity chromatography resulted in 90% recovery of functionality and sustained in vivo stability. Adjuvanted VLP-based immunization strategies are thus a promising approach for the rapid generation of therapeutic antisera against emerging infections.

最近的埃博拉病毒暴发凸显了抗血清的治疗潜力，并对这种治疗方法产生了新的兴趣。虽然在爆发的早期阶段可能无法轻易获得人类恢复性血清，但可以在很短的时间内生产出动物源性抗血清。在这里，我们比较了佐剂病毒样颗粒（VLP）与重组修饰的痘苗病毒安卡拉和水泡性口炎病毒（VSV），它们均表达埃博拉病毒抗原。用佐剂性VLP免疫的兔的中和抗体滴度与用复制型VSV免疫的兔的中和抗体滴度相似，表明以天然构象呈递抗原而不是从头表达抗原对于产生功能性抗体至关重要。这种方法还产生了针对尼帕病毒糖蛋白的高滴度抗血清，说明它可以转移到其他病毒家族。多步免疫球蛋白G纯化使用两步20–40％硫酸铵沉淀，然后进行蛋白A亲和层析，可回收90％的功能并保持体内稳定性。因此，基于辅助VLP的免疫策略是快速产生针对新兴感染的治疗性抗血清的一种有前途的方法。