AUTHOR=Granovskiy Dmitriy L. , Ryabchevskaya Ekaterina M. , Evtushenko Ekaterina A. , Kondakova Olga A. , Arkhipenko Marina V. , Kravchenko Tatiana B. , Bakhteeva Irina V. , Timofeev Vitalii S. , Nikitin Nikolai A. , Karpova Olga V. 

TITLE=New formulation of a recombinant anthrax vaccine stabilised with structurally modified plant viruses

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Microbiology

VOLUME=13

YEAR=2022

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/microbiology/articles/10.3389/fmicb.2022.1003969

DOI=10.3389/fmicb.2022.1003969

ISSN=1664-302X

ABSTRACT=<p>Anthrax is a disease caused by <italic>Bacillus anthracis</italic>. The most promising approach to the development of anthrax vaccine is use of the anthrax protective antigen (PA). At the same time, recombinant PA is a very unstable protein. Previously, the authors have designed a stable modified recombinant anthrax protective antigen with inactivated proteolytic sites and substituted deamidation sites (rPA83m). As a second approach to recombinant PA stabilisation, plant virus spherical particles (SPs) were used as a stabiliser. The combination of these two approaches was shown to be the most effective. Here, the authors report the results of a detailed study of the stability, immunogenicity and protectiveness of rPA83m + SPs compositions. These compositions were shown to be stable, provided high anti-rPA83m antibody titres in guinea pigs and were able to protect them from a fully virulent 81/1 <italic>Bacillus anthracis</italic> strain. Given these facts, the formulation of rPA83m + SPs compositions is considered to be a prospective anthrax vaccine candidate.</p>