VP28 self-assembly and biomedical application

Hussein Reda Hussein1,2, Chia-Yu Chang1, Yini Cheng3, Yu-Chuan Liang4, Chih-Yu Yang 5,6, Li-Hua Li 7, Yi-Tzu Lee8, Jun-Yi Chen 9, Fu-Rong Chen3, Chia-Ching Chang1,10,11*

1Department of Biological Science and Technology, National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University, Hsinchu 30068, Taiwan, Republic of China. 2Department of Botany and Microbiology, Faculty of Science, Al-Azhar University, Assiut branch 71524, Egypt. 3Department of Materials Science and Engineering, City University, Hong Kong, China. 4 Agriculture biotechnology research center, Academia sinica, Taiwan. 5 Institute of Clinical Medicine, School of Medicine, National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University, Taipei, Taiwan. 6 Division of Nephrology, Department of Medicine, Taipei Veterans General Hospital, Taipei Taiwan. 7Department of pathology and laboratory medicine, Taipe veterans general hospital, Taipe, Taiwan. 8Department of emergency, Taipe veterans general hospital, Taipe, Taiwan. 9Institute of clinical medicine, national yang ming chiao tung university, Taipe, Taiwan. 10 Department of Electrophysics, National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University, Hsinchu 30068, Taiwan, Republic of China. 11 Institute of Physics, Academia Sinica, Nankang, Taipei 11529, Taiwan, Republic of China.

Virus-like particle (VLP) is a self-assembled viral capsid peptid-based nanoparticle without viral pathogenic genetic materials. Previous reports indicated that the VLPs can be used for drug delivery or be used as vaccines vehicle. It is known that VLPs self-assembly process is affected significantly by the concentration of capsid proteins, temperature, ionic strength, pH of solvent environments or another species protein, RNA/DNA additives. VP28 is one of two capsid proteins of white spot syndrome virus (WSSV). It will be interesting to reveal its assembly process, alone. The gene of VP28 is synthesized artificially and expressed recombinant inclusion body of E. coli. By using the over-critical refolding processing VP28 can be refolded and the structural transition process is followed the two-steps transition. Furthermore, the VP28-VLP self-assembly process is a concentration-dependent process. The self-assembly VP28-VLPs were reached to plateau at the concentration above 0.25 mg/ml. Furthermore, the ionic strength may affect the size of VP28-VLPs. Immunogenicity tests indicated that VP28-VLPs did not induce immune response. The VP28-VLPs can be conjugated with heparin and exhibited longer anti-thrombosis effect than heparin alone.