Rotavirus VP6 protein expressed in cell culture by HSV-1-based vectors.

Herpes simplex virus (HSV)-based vectors have been used as platforms for the generation of genetic vaccines against different viruses. Some of the advantages of defective HSV-1 vectors include: (a) HSV-1 can infect most cell types, including antigen-presenting cells; (b) HSV-1 vectors have a large transgene capacity (up to 150-kbp); (c) HSV-1 vectors can be designed to cause no toxicity; (d) different studies showed that mice vaccinated with such vectors encoding antigens from different pathogens were partially protected, indicating that HSV-1 based vectors are attractive tools for the development of safe genetic vaccines. There are two main platforms of HSV-1-derived vectors: defective recombinant viruses (deleted in ICP4, ICP27 and ICP22 genes) and amplicons. Defective HSV-1 viruses can only be propagated using a complementing cell line. Production of amplicons depends on helper functions, provided in trans. In both systems, different genetic elements were intentionally introduced to conduct the heterologous gene expression and to allow the titration of the vector stocks in different cell lines. In our group, HSV-1 vectors were developed for the expression of several rotavirus genes. Genes from other pathogens were also expressed, thus generating a set of