Expression in Plants of a Recombinant Protein Based on Flagellin Linked to Conservative Fragments of M2 Protein and Hemagglutintin of Influenza Virus

Abstract

The composition of traditional influenza vaccines require nearly annual updates due to the high variability of the influenza virus. The use of conservative viral antigens, the extracellular domain of the transmembrane protein M2, and fragments of the second subunit of hemagglutinin provides the opportunity to create recombinant broad-spectrum vaccines. Bacterial flagellin was used as a mucosal adjuvant to increase the immunogenicity of these conservative antigens. Recombinant proteins based on flagellin simultaneously containing M2e and a fragment of the hemagglutinin stem region were expressed in Nicotiana benthamiana plants using a self-replicating vector based on the potato virus X genome. Methods for their isolation from plants and purification have been developed. The developed expression system can be used to produce a new candidate influenza vaccine in plants.