Patent Application: US-43950907-A

Abstract:
the present invention relates to vaccine formulation capable of eliciting protective immune response against chikun - gunya virus infection in humans and other mammalian hosts . the immunogenic formulation comprises purified inactivated chikun - gunya virus in a stable formulation . methods of propagation and purification of the virus are discussed . the inactivated virus formulation is non - infectious , immunogenic and elicits protective immune response in mammalian host . the immunogenic composition is formulated for in vivo administration to humans . the invention also discusses the strategy of developing a subunit vaccine using the recombinant viral proteins as antigens for immunization . the recombinant virus antigens that are potentially immunogenic can be used in diagnosing for the presence of the virus .

Description:
the properties of the chikungunya virus particles as an immunogen , adaptation and propagation of the virus in host cell lines to a high titer , determination of the identity of the virus by rt - pcr , electron microscopy ; methods of purification and inactivation of the virus , preparation of stable liquid and lyophilized vaccine formulation ( s ) in a pharmaceutically acceptable carrier suitable for administration in human , viral methods and tests for vaccine potency in animal model have been discussed . the active ingredient or immunogen , of the vaccine described in the current invention is inactivated virus particles of chikungunya virus . the methods described in the current invention are applicable to any genotype / strains of chikungunya virus . the virus particles obtained from the clinical isolates from patients &# 39 ; serum have been adapted and propagated in vitro in cell monolayers for several passages . in alternative protocol , the virus particles have been passaged once through 2 day old suckling mice and the virus re - isolated and passaged in cell monolayers in vitro . the chikungunya ( chik ) virus vaccine according to the present invention refers to an active ingredient ( immunogen ) of an inactivated chikungunya virus that is produced under cgmp conditions by infecting in a monolayer of vero cells or mrc - 5 cells in continuous cell culture where the cells are used as host cells for culturing the chikungunya virus . the cell line is qualified through various quality control tests and is approved by fda / national regulatory authority as a vaccine quality cell line . the virus is propagated in large quantities by growing to a high titer (˜ 10 9 ) in cell culture and purified from infected cells . the virus is inactivated either by heat or with an inactivating agent . a neutralizing antibody titer of the anti - serum obtained by immunization with the above particles in a stable formulation , as measured by in vitro neutralization assay offers protective immunization in animals . the immunogen of a chikungunya virus vaccine is a representative example of an immunogen of a vaccine against infectious diseases caused by chikungunya viruses of any strain or genotypic variants of the chikungunya virus . the vaccine of the present invention is provided in a sealed vial or ampoule in a liquid or lyophilized form . in the case of liquid formulation , it can either be subcutaneously / intramuscularly / intradermally / intravenously injected or orally / intranasally administered to a subject to be vaccinated in an amount of about 0 . 05 ml to 5 ml per person . in the case of a dry lyophilized formulation , it is injected after being re - solubilized with a suitable solubilizing solution . according to the present invention , the method that is applicable to strains of chikungunya virus being used in the current invention is applicable to any chikungunya virus strain with a broad antigenic spectrum . the broad spectrum antigenic response would offer a satisfactory immune protection against plural strains of chik virus in addition to the virus strain used in production of the vaccine . as known to those skilled in the art , a divalent or polyvalent vaccine may be prepared by mixing vaccines produced from two or more chik virus strains that have been genetically confirmed as chik viruses and is mixed in a suitable ratio based on the antigenic protein content . such mixing would provide a vaccine preparation having a broader antigenic spectrum for protection against the infection . according to the current invention , inoculating an appropriate host cell line such as vero cells / mrc - 5 cells with the virus , and maintaining the infected cells in continuous culture a culturing method involves infecting the host cell monolayer with the virus and harvesting the virus in sufficient quantities from the infected host cells . the virus grown in cell layers could include a population of the extracellular virus that is obtained in the supernatant of the infected cell culture that can be harvested by centrifugation , and harvesting the virus that is cell associated by sonication and centrifugation . a cell line that can be propagated in vitro in culture can be used as a host for virus culture . for example , diploid cell lines such as mrc - 5 and wi - 38 and serially passaged cell lines such as vero , bhk - 21 , cho cells etc . can be used . for propagating chikungunya virus strains , preferably permissive cells are selected which allow the virus to grow well . for example vero ( atcc no . ccl - 81 ), bhk - 21 ( atcc no . ccl - 10 ), c6 / c3 ( atcc no . crl - 1660 ) etc . are preferably used . one such cell line used in the current invention is vero cells which have been validated for use as a host cell for vaccine production . the validated vero cell lines conforms to the requirements for biological substances no . 50 regarding requirements for use of cells for the production of biologicals recommended by the world health organization ( who ) thereby confirming these cell lines as qualified for producing a vaccine ( who technical report series , no . 878 , pp 19 - 52 , 1998 ). furthermore cv - 1 , bsc - 1 , ma104 , mdck , caco - 2 etch and dbs - flc - 1 , dbs - flc - 2 , dbs - frh1 - 2 , esk - 4 , hel , imr - 90 , wrl68 , etc . conventionally used for producing a virus vaccine can also be used (“ atcc microbes and cell at work ”, 2 nd edition ., pp 144 , american type culture collection ( atcc ) 1991 , usa ). for maintenance in cell culture of the above - mentioned cell lines , stationary culture in monolayers , perfusion system culture , shake flasks , roller tube / bottle culture , suspension culture , microcarrier culture , cell factories and cell stacks and the like can be adopted . for example commercially available cytodex ( pharmacia biotech , sweden ) of various types are used as a microcarrier , and other commercially available animal cell culture devices can be used . an inactivating agent such as formalin , beta - propiolactone , and glutaraldehyde is added to a virus suspension to inactivate the virus . for example when using formalin and beta - propiolactone , the amount to be added is about 0 . 001 % to 0 . 4 % ( v / v ), the inactivation temperature is about 2 - 8 deg c to about 40 deg c and the inactivation duration mainly depends upon the inactivation temperature . for e . g . it could range between 2 hours to 72 hours at 37 deg c and about 12 hours to 250 hours at 2 - 8 deg c . inactivation is also effective at intermediate temperatures of around 22 deg c for a period of 2 - 120 hours . inactivation of the virus can also be carried out by non - ionic detergents and ascorbic acid . heat inactivation is effective for chikungunya virus at temperatures at around 56 - 58 deg c for one hour . purification of the virus is conducted by physical means or chemical means and preferably by a combination of both . physical methods utilize the physical properties of the virus such as density , size , mass , sedimentation coefficient etc . and includes any of the following techniques but is not limited to : zonal ultra - centrifugation , density gradient centrifugation , ultrafiltration with membranes with size cut offs ranging from 50 - 1000 kda to remove serum and cellular components . purification through chemical means employs methods such as adsorption / desorption through chemical or physiochemical reactions and includes for example purification by ultracentrifugation , density gradient centrifugation , ion exchange chromatography , affinity chromatography , hydrophobic interaction chromatography , gel filtration chromatography , salting with inorganic salts one such example being ammonium sulphate , and by the use of proprietary himax ™ technology , organic salts , organic solvents , aluminium phosphate , aluminium hydroxide and organic compounds such as polyethylene glycol . purification of the virus is achieved by either one or a combination of two or more of the above mentioned methods . concentration of the virus is achieved by low - speed centrifugation with ultrafiltration membrane , precipitation with salts or purification with himax ™ technology inactivation of the virus particles can be achieved either before or after purification of the virus . the virus can be visualized by a negative staining method using 2 % ( w / v ) uranyl acetate can be observed under an electron microscope at a magnification of about 20 , 000 to about 200 , 000 . the genetic identity of the chik virus was confirmed by sequencing the cdna complementary to the genomic rna of the strains . more specifically , genomic rna was extracted from virus infected cells or from the purified chikv after pelleting by ultracentrifugation or isolation on a density gradient . thereafter , a region encoding an envelope protein or non - structural protein was further amplified by reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction ( rt - pcr ) using a pair of primers and the base sequence of the resultant cdna is determined by dideoxy chain termination method . the amino acid sequence encoded by the base sequence was decoded using universal codes and the genetic identity of the virus was confirmed as chikungunya virus . an inactivated virus particle of the present invention is diluted with any suitable diluent that is pharmaceutically acceptable so as to obtain the desired titer . the buffer used in the formulation may be phosphate or phosphate - citrate buffer . a vaccine may optionally contain preservative ( s ), stabilizer ( s ) etc . reducing and non - reducing sugars , sugar alcohols such sorbitol and mannitol , glycerol , amino acids , human serum albumin is added in the range of 0 . 01 % to 10 % for the liquid formulation and upto 60 % of the total solids for a lyophilized formulation . such a stable formulation of the immunogen either in a liquid or in a lyophilized form and after reconstitution in a pharmaceutically acceptable buffer or water is suitable for administration intradermally / subcutaneously / intramuscularly / intravenously in human host and is also suitable for oral and intranasal administration . the vaccine for chikungunya virus alternatively could be a subunit vaccine prepared with the structural proteins such as , capsid , e1 and e2 and e3 glycoproteins of the chikungunya virus strains either cloned and expressed individually and purified for constituting a vaccine formulation , or by expressing the entire structural polyprotein consisting of the capsid , e3 , e2 , 6k polypeptide and e1 proteins that is cloned as a single polypeptide with a potential to assemble into a virus like particle ( vlp ) in eukaryotic host cells such as yeast , in insect cells via baculovirus mediated expression , and in mammalian cells after being processed by host signal peptidases . the vlps are highly immunogenic as they mimic the native virus particle in structure when processed correctly for assembly by the host signal peptidases . they contain multiple copies of the antigenic proteins in their assembled structure . the viral proteins either expressed in prokaryotic or eukaryotic host cells are purified free of host cell proteins . the purified structural proteins can be administered in a formulation and by the methods described above . the addition of histidine residues to either end of the recombinant proteins while cloning facilitates purification of the recombinant proteins . in another aspect of the invention , virus particles obtained according to the present invention , as well the recombinant viral proteins can be used as a reagent ( as an antigen ) in the diagnostic tests e . g . as an antigen in an immunoprecipitation method , a hemagglutination inhibition ( hi ) test , complement fixation ( cf ) reaction , elisa , radioimmunoassay , immunofluorescence , western blot and the like . more specifically using the entire or a part of an inactivated virus particle of the present invention , a diagnostic assay with high sensitivity and specificity for detecting infection by different strains of the chikungunya virus can be provided . as used herein the term “ a part ” of an inactivated virus particle refers to a fraction of the virus which retains desired antigenicity and is derived from the virus particles including for example , structural protein solubilized during the purification step described in the given examples or expressed in a recombinant expression system . polyclonal antibodies or monoclonal antibodies specific for the virus can be used in a diagnostic assay for chikungunya virus infection . for potency testing of the vaccine , the vaccine formulations were tested in balb / c mice and rabbits . the animals in each group were injected intraperitoneally with about 0 . 2 to 0 . 5 ml / mouse of serially diluted vaccine preparation ranging in dose from 1 μg to about 500 μg for the different test groups . a booster dose was given 7 - 14 days after the first administration of the antigen . a formulation of the inactivated virus preparation formulated in aluminium hydroxide in combination with oligonucleotides gave a higher immune response . the resultant serum was assayed by in vitro neutralization tests and the antibody titer was determined by elisa . seroconversion was observed in the animals immunized with the vaccine formulation . the following examples are included solely to aid in a more complete understanding of the invention described and claimed herein . the examples do not limit the scope of the claimed invention in any fashion it should not construe the scope of the protection of the claims . however , one of the ordinary skilled in the art appreciates the modifications and changes can be made without departing from the scope of the present invention as set forth in the claims below . the benefits , advantages , solutions to problems , and any element ( s ) that may cause any benefit , advantage , or a solution to occur or become more pronounced are not to be construed as critical , required , or essential features or elements of any or all the claims . the invention is defined solely by the appended claims including any amendments made during the dependency of this application and all equivalents of those claims as issued . proliferation in a cell line for virus culture : vero cell line ( atcc no . ccl - 81 ), bhk - 21 cells and mrc - 5 cells were used as candidate cell lines for chikungunya virus ( chikv ) culture and good viral propagation in each cell line was observed . vero cells and bhk - 21 cells were each prepared in a growth medium consisting of dmem ( dulbecco &# 39 ; s modified eagle medium ; sigma - aldrich catalog # d5523 and used per the manufacturer &# 39 ; s instructions ) containing 5 % fetal bovine serum ( fbs ). they were statically incubated at 37 ° c . until reaching 80 - 100 % confluence of the monolayer . thereafter the number of cells was counted . mrc - 5 cells were prepared in growth medium consisting of mem ( minimal eagle &# 39 ; s medium ) buffered to neutral ph with hepes buffer and consisting of 5 % fbs , was statically incubated at 37 ° c . for 6 days and thereafter the cells were counted . in an alternate procedure , vero cells and mrc - 5 cells were cultured in serum free medium . for scaling the production of cells for virus infection , one cryo vial containing 5 × 10 6 viable vero cells from working cell bank were used for seeding one t175 cell culture grade flask . dmem containing 5 % fbs and 50 μg / ml of neomycin sulfate was used for revival and replenishing the cells . after 90 % of the confluence of the cell monolayer in t175 flasks , the cells were trypsinized and propagated further in cell factories / cell stacks ( cf 10 ). the same dmem medium is used for propagation (˜ 2 . 0 l / cf10 ). chikungunya virus ( chikv ) was isolated from serum of infected patients who had the classical clinical symptoms of chikungunya virus infection . the indian isolate ( s ) of the virus were used in the development of the vaccine formulation . of the many isolates obtained , two isolates namely , chk / 03 / 06 and chk / 01 / 06 were characterized . the blood sample drawn from the patient was transported at 4 ° c . and the serum was separated . the serum was diluted 1 : 1 with phosphate buffered saline ( pbs ) and 0 . 5 ml of the diluted serum was used for infection of vero cells ( atcc no . ccl - 81 ) in 25 2 cm flask and incubated at 34 ° c . to 37 ° c . in serum free medium . the control flask of vero cells was treated with equal volume of 1 × pbs . post - infection , the medium for propagation of vero cells was dmem containing 1 % fetal bovine serum ( fbs ) in an alternate method , the cell and virus culture were carried out in serum free medium . the virus was harvested 30 - 48 hours after infection . the cytopathic effect ( cpe ) of chikungunya virus isolate chk / 03 / 06 in infected vero cells was as observed in fig1 b , and 1 a is the uninfected control . the virus was also cultured under similar conditions in mrc - 5 cells and the cytopathic effect of chk / 03 / 06 observed in mrc - 5 cells is depicted in fig1 d . 1c is the uninfected control mrc - 5 cells . the cpe of the virus in bhk21 cells is observed in fig1 f and that of the control uninfected bhk - 21 cells is depicted in fig1 e . in one of the alternate methods tried , vero and mrc - 5 cells were treated with chemical agents such as trypsin at low concentrations ranging from 0 . 01 % to 1 % and with or without divalent ions such as calcium and magnesium before infection . propagation of the chk / 01 / 06 and chk / 03 / 06 virus isolates : the chk / 01 / 06 and chk / 03 / 06 virus isolates were propagated in continuous cell culture in vero cells ( atcc no . ccl - 81 ) and in bhk - 21 cells and mrc - 5 cells . the medium for the infection was dmem containing 0 %- 1 % fbs . at the end of 48 hours of infection , the cytopathic effect was near total in vero and bhk21 cells and the virus was present largely in the extracellular medium . a tcid 50 of the virus upto 10 9 / ml was obtained . the virus isolates were passaged serially 23 times in vero cells and were found to be stable in continuous cell culture . the virus titer significantly enhanced after passaging through mouse brain . virus infection and propagation were also alternately tested in a serum free medium . purification of the virus : the two virus isolates were purified from the infected vero cell monolayers by methods that include but not is limited to : low - speed centrifugation to remove much of the cellular debris and serum components , ultracentrifugation , sucrose density gradient centrifugation , and ultrafiltration through 100 - 1000 kda membrane . the virus was further purified by ion exchange column chromatography and by gel filtration in sepharose cl 4b or a matrix of similar property . the fractions containing the virus were pooled and precipitated with salts that included one of the following : peg in the presence of 0 . 020m - 0 . 20 m nacl , precipitation using himax ™ technology , ammonium sulphate , alum etc . the infectivity of the virions was checked by re - infection of the vero , bhk 21 and mrc - 5 cells and was found to be infectious . the concentrated virus was resuspended in phosphate buffer , ph 7 . 2 for checking in 7 . 5 %- 12 % sds - page and virus proteins were visualized by silver staining . high purification of the virus was achieved also by ion exchange chromatography and hydrophobic interaction column chromatography and by the use of monolith ™ columns with salt elution . the purity of the virus preparation was checked by silver staining of sds - page gel and by western blot using anti - chikv antisera raised in rabbit . purification on the monolith anion exchange columns gave a higher recovery of infectivity . infectivity of the virus was also monitored during different steps of a pilot scale purification that eliminates serum and host cell contamination of the virus and tcid 50 of 10 5 to 10 7 / ml could be routinely obtained and is being further optimized . the purity of the virus preparation was checked by sds - page was found to be of good purity . the e1 and e2 envelope glycoproteins could be easily detected . see fig2 . the purified virus was had infectivity as determined by determining the infectious count of the virus and by intracerebral injection of the purified virus fraction in 2 - day old mice , at various dilutions . neat purified virus and several serial dilutions resulted in death when injected intracerebrally . the mice showed severe retarded growth when compared to pbs injected control mice as observed in fig3 electron microscopy of the virus : the transmission electron microscopy ( hitachi h - 7500 ) of the chik virus after ultracentrifugation was carried out by negative staining method using 2 % uranyl acetate is depicted in fig4 . the genetic identity of the chk / 01 / 06 and chk / 03 / 06 chikungunya virus isolates grown in vero cells was confirmed by reverse - transcription - polymerase chain reaction ( rt - pcr ) of the viral genomic rna of the chik virus isolates . the virus genomic rna was extracted from the virus culture in vero cells using standard protocols . the total rna was reverse transcribed in different reactions using oligodt ( 18 mer ) and by primers specific for chikungunya virus sequences . alternatively , the pcr was carried out on the reverse transcribed product using gene specific forward and reverse primers as given below . the pcr was carried out using vent dna polymerase ( new england biolabs ). a few examples of the rt - pcr of the cdna of chik virus isolates are depicted in fig5 . the sequence of few of the forward primers and reverse primers used in the some of the pcr reactions are as follows : the rt - pcr amplified cdna fragments were sequenced by dideoxy chain termination method . the deduced protein sequences were determined using universal genetic codes . additional regions of the chikungunya virus genome sequences were amplified with other gene specific primers , and sequences of the amplified dna were determined by dideoxy chain termination method . the sequence of the rt - pcr products confirmed the identity of the chikungunya virus isolates . the purified virions of chk / 03 / 06 isolates were heat inactivated at temperatures ranging from 50 ° c .- 60 ° c . for 30 - 60 min . the infectivity of the virions was checked by re - infection of the vero cells . no re - infection was observed . the purified virions of chic / 03 / 06 isolate were inactivated by chemical methods that includes but is not limited to one of the following methods : inactivation at concentrations ranging from 0 . 01 % to 0 . 5 % formalin ( formaldehyde ) for 2 hours at 37 ° c . followed by incubation at 4 ° c . for a period of 48 - 96 hours . the virions inactivated at the various concentrations of formalin were found to be non - infectious when re - infected in vero cells after at least three serial passages . in an alternative inactivation method , the purified virions were inactivated with beta - propiolactone ( bpl ) at various concentrations ranging from 1 : 500 to 1 : 3000 of the bpl : virus and for two hours at 37 deg c , followed by incubation at varying time intervals of 48 - 200 hours at 4 ° c . no re - infection of the virus was observed after three serial passages of the virus at a ratio of bpl : virus at 1 : 500 dilution to 1 : 1000 dilution . inactivation of the virus could also be successfully carried out 22 deg c for varying number of hours ranging from 48 - 96 hrs . no infectivity was observed with the formalin and beta - propiolactone inactivated virions at the range of concentrations and for the various time periods tested . measurement of the virus infectious titer : the virus infection titer of chk / 03 / 06 isolate was counted in pfus ( plaque - forming units / ml ) by a plaque - counting method using vero cells and by determining the tcid 50 ( tissue culture infectious dose ) by standard protocols . the plaques could be ready by 36 - 48 hours and the titers could be determined by 30 - 48 hours . in vero cells , various passages of the vero - adapted virus yielded titers ranging upto 10 8 . 5 tcid 50 an increase in titer was observed after passaging the virus through 2 - day old mouse brain . the virus was plaque purified from passage 2 sample in vero cells . an amount of the chikungunya virus antigen of the chk / 03 / 06 isolate was measured by protein estimation by bca method and by elisa using rabbit anti - chikungunya virus antisera . polyclonal antibodies were raised in rabbit by injecting 100 μg of the purified chikungunya virus chk / 03 / 06 isolate intradermally / subcutaneously / intramuscularly and injecting a similar amount of antigen as a booster dose 7 - 14 days after the first antigen administration . injection of a single dose of virus purified from bhk21 cells gave an elisa titer of ˜ 6400 , and a titer of & gt ; 80 by virus neutralization assay compared to normal rabbit serum of ˜ 4 . four samples of convalescent human antisera gave a varying titer of 80 - 240 as against control human serum that gave a titer of ˜ 4 . antisera was also raised against both the chk / 01 / 06 and chk / 03 / 06 isolates of the virus . good seroconversion was observed as determined by elisa and by in vitro neutralization assay . the neutralizing assay titer observed after single booster injection was higher . the hemagglutination titer was estimated by standard procedure using goose red blood cell suspension . haemagglutination inhibition of the immune sera from rabbit and convalescent human sera were determined by standard protocols . both the rabbit antisera and convalescent human sera showed haemagglutination inhibition . the ha titer of the purified virus was higher than the harvested neat virus sample . the ha titer of infected virus sample and the purified virus sample after serial dilutions are depicted in fig6 fifteen one month old balb / c mice were used in each group . the animals in each group were injected intraperitoneally with about 0 . 2 ml to 0 . 5 ml / mouse of serially diluted vaccine preparation of the chk / 03 / 06 isolate ranging in dose from 1 μg to about 200 μgfor the different test groups . the animals were boosted 14 days after the first immunization . blood was collected either at 7 and 14 days after the booster injection . equal amount of serum was pooled for each group and complement was inactivated at 56 ° c . for about 30 min . the resultant serum was used for neutralizing test as an immune serum and for estimation of antibody titer by elisa . in an alternate experiment , similar amount of the inactivated virus preparation was administered intramuscularly . the antibody response was higher with intramuscular injection . all the formulations contained the viral antigen along with aluminium hydroxide in 40 mm phosphate buffer , ph 6 . 8 - 7 . 2 containing 150 mm nacl , 50 μg / dose oligonucleotides and varying amounts of excipients as mentioned in the example below . the formulation of chikungunya virus antigen chk / 03 / 06 was prepared in 40 mm phosphate buffer , ph 6 . 9 - 7 . 2 with or without 154 mm nacl . the viral preparations were formulated in a liquid formulation with aluminium hydroxide / aluminium phosphate containing either one or combination of sugars such as sucrose , maltose , trehalose , lactose , glucose , mannitol or sorbitol . the presence of sugars in the range of 0 . 5 %- 10 % and preferably in the range of 0 . 5 % to 5 % conferred good stability on the formulation as determined by accelerated stability at 37 deg c for three weeks . a significantly high titer of antibody response was obtained when oligonucleotides at a dose of 50 μg / dose was included in the liquid formulation . similar formulation was also tested with phosphate - citrate buffer of ph 6 . 8 - 7 . 2 and no difference was observed . higher concentration of above sugars , buffer and salt as upto 60 % of the total solids conferred good stability on lyophilized formulation of the vaccine . the stability of the formulation was tested by potency tests in mice . recombinant cloning and expression of the viral antigens in prokaryotic and eukaryotic expression systems the chk / 03 / 06 virus isolate was used as the source for cloning and expression of all viral antigens with the sequences given in seq id no . 1 to seq id no . 10 . the complete open reading frame of the chikungunya virus structural polyprotein encoded by the seq id no . 1 was amplified by rt - pcr of the viral genomic rna using the primers chkcpfp as the forward primer and chke1rp as the reverse primer to obtain a ˜ 3776 bp pcr fragment . the pcr fragment was digested with nde1 and bamh1 and cloned into the nde1 and bamh1 sites of the prokaryotic expression vector , pet11b and the recombinant plasmid containing the insert was transformed in e . coli dh5a . in an alternative method , the open reading frame encoding the chikungunya virus structural polyprotein , the seq id no . 2 was cloned and expressed in a similar manner using chkckozakfp as the forward primer and chke1rp2 as the reverse primer to obtain a fragment of similar size . the seq id no . 2 has been amplified with a primer sequence that introduces a kozak &# 39 ; s consensus sequence at the 5 ′ end for enhanced expression in eukaryotic expression system . the primer sequence chkckozakfp has ecor1 site and chke1rp2 has a hindiii and not1 sites to facilitate cloning into baculovirus vector pfastbac ( invitrogen corporation , carlsbad , usa ) and pichia vector ppic3 . 5k ( invitrogen corporation , carlsbad , usa ) respectively . the seq id no . 2 was further amplified with a c - terminal primer that introduced 6 - histidine residues at the c - terminal end to obtain seq id no . 3 . seq id no . 1 and seq id no . 2 encode the protein of seq id no . 4 . seq id no . 3 encodes the protein of seq id no . 5 that has the 6 his residues at the c - terminal end . the 6 - histidine residues at the c - terminal end of seq id no . 5 , facilitates the purification of the expressed protein on ni + affinity column . both seq id no . 4 and seq id no . 5 have been expressed for assembly of the virus like particle in yeast and in baculovirus mediated expression in sf9 cells the pcr gene fragments corresponding to seq id no . 2 , and seq id no . 3 were digested with ecor1 and not 1 and gel purified by standard protocols and cloned into ecor1 and not1 sites of the yeast expression vector ppic3 . 5k ( invitrogen corporation , carlsbad , usa ). the positive clones were selected after confirmation by pcr using the same primers . the recombinant plasmid encoding the complete structural protein of seq id no . 4 and seq id no . 5 was transformed into pichia pastoris gs 115 as per the manufacturers ( invitrogen ) instruction and as outlined in their protocols . the pcr amplified fragment has been cloned into the aox1 locus and expressed under the aox1 promoter by methanol induction . the cloning , screening , isolation of the recombinant pichia strains and induction of the cloned gene with methanol were carried out as per the user &# 39 ; s manual “ a manual of methods for expression of recombinant proteins in pichia pastoris ” version m january 2002 , of pichia expression kit , catalog # k1710 - 01 , invitrogen corporation , carlsbad , usa ). the complete open reading frame ( orf ) of the chikungunya virus structural polyprotein encoded by the seq id no . 2 and seq id no . 3 amplified by rt - pcr were digested with ecor1 and hind iii , gel purified and cloned into the ecor1 and hind iii sites of the pfastbac vector under the control of the polyhedron promoter ( invitrogen corporation , carlsbad , usa ). the methods for cloning and selection of the recombinant baculovirus vector as are exactly outlined in the user &# 39 ; s manual of bac to bac baculovirus expression system (“ an efficient site - specific transposition system to generate baculovirus for high - level expression of recombinant proteins ” version d , 6 april 2004 , invitrogen corporation , carlsbad , usa ). in brief , the method utilizes a site specific transposition of the expression cassette such as the recombinant pfastbac vector with the cloned inserts as described above into a baculovirus shuttle vector ( bacmid ) propagated in e . coli . recombinant pfastbac vector containing one of the inserts seq id no . 4 or seq id no . 5 cloned under the control of the polyhedron promoter is transformed into competent cells of e . coli max efficiency dh10bac ™, that contains a baculovirus shuttle vector ( bmon 14272 ) and a helper plasmid ( pmon7124 ) that facilitates transposition to allow efficient re - generation of the recombinant bacmid following the transposition of the pfastbac recombinant constructs containing the seq id no . 4 or seq id no . 5 . the recombinant bacmid were selected on ampicillin , gentamicin and kanamycin containing plates by blue / white selection using bluo - gal and iptg . the recombinant bacmid was isolated by standard protocols similar to that of isolation of plasmid dna and 1 μg of the bacmid dna was used for transfection with the use of cellfectin ™ reagent into sf9 insect cells that were grown in grace &# 39 ; s insect cell medium ( invitrogen corporation , usa ). the methods used for transfection , isolation and titration of p1 viral stock are exactly as described in the user &# 39 ; s manual of bac - to - bac baculovirus expression system as given above . the open reading frame of each of the structural antigens such as the capsid , e3 , e2 , 6k polypeptide and e1 structural proteins corresponding to the following sequence ids : seq id no . 6 , seq id no . 7 , seq id no . 8 , seq id no . 9 and seq id no . 10 respectively encoded in the structural polyprotein sequence were amplified by pcr using gene specific primers as outlined below in the first step of amplification . in the second step reverse primers that encode for 6 histidine residues were used for pcr ( primer sequences not given ) of each of the individual genes and cloned into pet11 b for prokaryotic expression in e . coli and in pfastbac vector for baculovirus mediated expression in insect cells . some of the pcr primers originally designed for e . coli and baculovirus cloning did not have suitable restriction sites for cloning into ppic3 . 5 k for expression in pichia pastoris , those pcr fragments that had ecor1 site at the 5 ′ end and bamh1 site in the c - terminal by virtue of the presence of these restriction sites in the forward and reverse primers respectively , were initially cloned into the ecor1 and bamh1 sites of the vector pbluescript sk +. the selected recombinant clone was digested with ecor1 and not1 and the digested fragment was then subcloned in ppic3 . 5k for yeast transformation as described above . the primer sequences used for various amplifications are as indicated below . expression of e1 antigens in e . coli and the capsid protein in yeast is shown in fig8 and in fig9 . the recombinant antigens expressed in either prokaryotic or eukaryotic expression system can be used for diagnostic purpose such as in elisa . elisa has been established using the inactivated whole virus and using rabbit antisera . similar technique can be established using the purifed recombinant antigens instead of the whole virus as antigen . polyclonal antisera or monoclonal antibody against the virus antigens particularly the structural antigens can be used as immunotherapeutic agent . 1 . banerjee k and ranadive s n . 1988 . oligonucleotide fingerprinting of chikungunya virus strains . ind . j . med . res . 87 : 531 - 541 . 2 . bedekar s d and pavri k m . 1969a . studies with chikungunya virus . part i . susceptibility of birds and small mammals . ind . j . med . res . 57 : 1181 - 1192 . 3 . bedekar s d and pavri k m . 1969b . studies with chikungunya virus . part ii . serologiacl survey of humans and animals in india . ind . j . med . res . 57 : 1193 - 1197 . 4 . casals j . 1957 . the arthropod - borne group of animal viruses . trans . n . y . acad . sci . 19 : 219 - 235 . 5 . chain m m t , doane r w and mclean d m . 1966 . morphological development of chikungunya virus . can . j . microbiol . 12 : 895 - 899 . 6 . chakravarthy s k and sarkar j k . 1969 . susceptibility of new born and adult laboratory animals to chikungunya virus . ind . j . med . res . 57 : 1157 - 1164 . 7 . chaturvedi u c , mehrotra n k , mathur a , kapoor a k and mehrotra r m . 1970 . chikungunya virus hi antibodies in the population of lucknow and kanpur . ind . jour . med . res . 58 : 297 - 301 . 8 . eckels k h , harrison v r and hetrick f m . 1970 . chikungunya virus vaccine prepared by tween - 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