ABSTRACT
This chapter extends Chapter 9 and describes applications of VLPs for medically important viruses causing emerging and reemerging diseases. Here, we focus on viruses from the Baltimore’s group of the negative single-stranded RNA (minus-ssRNA) viruses with antisense, or minus-strand, RNA as a genome. Although somewhat underrepresented among published VLP approaches and technologies, this group nevertheless includes a number of VLP structures and experimental vaccines. Some of these were used for the
construction of chimeric VLPs or involved in the generation of novel bionanomaterials. This is hardly surprising since the members of the group generally represent highly pathogenic viruses requiring special high-level biocontainment facilities, which hampers research efforts. In addition, these viruses exhibit the least symmetrical morphology, possess only traces of icosahedral symmetry, and demonstrate at the same time rather complicated organization and self-assembly mechanisms that impede structural reconstructions and molecular manipulations. Nevertheless, this group is very important because of unprecedented medical and veterinary
24.1 Introduction ..................................................................................................................................................................... 391 24.2 Arenaviruses: Lassa Virus, LCMV, and Others .............................................................................................................. 392
24.2.1 General Considerations ........................................................................................................................................ 392 24.2.2 Production of Arenaviral VLPs in Standard Expression Systems ...................................................................... 392 24.2.3 High-Resolution Structure ................................................................................................................................... 396 24.2.4 VLP Applications: Arenaviruses as Objects and Subjects of VLP Nanotechnology .......................................... 396
24.2.4.1 Arenaviruses as VLP Objects: Potential VLP Carriers ........................................................................ 396 24.2.4.2 Arenaviruses as VLP Subjects: Pseudotyping and a Source of Epitopes ............................................. 397
24.3 Bunyaviruses: Hantaan Virus, Crimean-Congo Hemorrhagic Fever Virus, Bunyamwera Virus, Rift Valley Fever Virus, Tomato Spotted Wilt Virus, and Others ............................................................................................................... 398 24.3.1 General Considerations ........................................................................................................................................ 398 24.3.2 Production of Bunyaviral VLPs in Standard Expression Systems ...................................................................... 398 24.3.3 High-Resolution Structure ................................................................................................................................... 399 24.3.4 VLP Applications: Bunyaviruses as Objects and Subjects of VLP Nanotechnology ......................................... 399
24.3.4.1 Bunyaviruses as VLP Objects: Potential VLP Carriers ....................................................................... 399 24.3.4.2 Bunyaviruses as VLP Subjects: Pseudotyping and a Source of Epitopes ............................................400
