Bioencapsulation of the hepatitis B surface antigen and its use as an effective oral immunogen. Academic Article uri icon

abstract

  • Hepatitis B remains a major global health problem despite the availability of a safe and effective vaccine. Segments of the population lack access to or respond poorly to the parenteral vaccine, perpetuating the infection-transmission cycle. A low cost, orally delivered vaccine has the potential to alleviate many of these problems. Here we describe the expression of a bioencapsulated hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) in maize and its immunogenicity, demonstrating for the first time a commercially feasible oral subunit vaccine production system for a major disease. This work surmounts previous barriers to plant-produced vaccines by expressing HBsAg at much higher levels and retaining antigen immunogenicity post-processing: factors which facilitated a robust immune response in mice without the need for an adjuvant. This method provides a practical solution to the delivery of a low-cost, stable oral vaccine.

published proceedings

  • Vaccine

altmetric score

  • 3

author list (cited authors)

  • Hayden, C. A., Streatfield, S. J., Lamphear, B. J., Fake, G. M., Keener, T. K., Walker, J. H., ... Howard, J. A.

citation count

  • 38

complete list of authors

  • Hayden, Celine A||Streatfield, Stephen J||Lamphear, Barry J||Fake, Gina M||Keener, Todd K||Walker, John H||Clements, John D||Turner, Debra D||Tizard, Ian R||Howard, John A

publication date

  • April 2012