Bacteriophage Virus-Like Particles: Platforms for Vaccine Design

Virus-like particles (VLPs) derived from bacteriophages have many applications in biomedical sciences, especially in the development of candidate vaccines against viral and bacterial infections. Bacteriophage VLPs can be manufactured cheaply and in large quantities in bacteria compared to eukaryotic expression systems. In addition to this, bacteriophage VLPs are excellent platforms for vaccine design for the following reason: Humans do not have preexisting antibodies against bacteriophage VLPs. Thus, antigens displayed on bacteriophage VLP platforms are expected to be highly immunogenic. As such, VLPs derived from MS2, PP7, Qβ, AP205, P22 bacteriophages, etc. have been used to develop candidate vaccines against human infectious and noninfectious agents. This mini-review summarizes data from some of the candidate bacteriophage-based VLP peptide vaccines that have been developed. The review also highlights some strategies used to develop the candidate bacteriophage-based VLP peptide vaccines.