Improved control of endemic foot-and-mouth disease by development of virus like particle vaccines

We have developed a system to express virus like particles (VLP) for foot-and- mouth disease virus (FMDV) in insect cells, primarily for use as a rapidly deployable control measure for an outbreak in the UK. This is the only technology currently available with the potential to be a commercially viable alternative to conventional killed vaccines. Immunisation of cattle with VLP results in the induction of protective antibody titres for up to 9 months. The utility of these VLP can be further enhanced by improving their thermostability and pH sensitivity, using knowledge from a Wellcome Trust supported programme of work to develop methods to significantly increase virus stability by targeted mutation of recoverable virus genomes. Our novel technology is patented and VLP are undergoing assessment by our commercial partner. We intend now to focus on developments specifically for endemically infected countries by enhancing the duration of immunity and increasing the breadth of protection against different virus strains. We will develop methods to enhance long-term T-dependent antibody responses and combine data from several high throughput techniques to identify cross-strain specific epitopes that will then be made more prominent in VLP. The validation of our methods will be a FMD vaccine with improved immunogenic properties but the research will also have application to other current and new vaccines.