臺灣自2015年起,出現在禽流感病毒演化分支上屬於clade 2.3.4.4的新型高病原性H5亞型的禽流感病毒,毒力強大,造成臺灣養禽場除雞隻陸禽外,鵝隻與鴨隻等水禽的大量死亡,損失慘重,至今每年都有疫情傳出。類病毒顆粒是具有病毒結構蛋白質但不含感染性基因遺傳物質的微顆粒,可以激起宿主的免疫活性,而達到疫苗性的安全防護功能。本研究主要目的為發展製造針對clade 2.3.4.4的新型高病原性H5亞型的禽流感病毒的類病毒顆粒,以備防疫所需。利用重組桿狀病毒以及昆蟲細胞系統,我們成功的產出新型高病原性禽流感病毒的類病毒顆粒,該顆粒大小約100nm並具有病毒表面棘突,且具有凝集雞隻紅血球的生物活性。雖然該類病毒顆粒的免疫效力,有待進一步雞隻免疫學與臨床攻毒的實驗;本研究的結果,將提供政府在家禽流行性感冒防疫策略上的另一思考與選擇。
Outbreaks caused by clade 2.3.4.4 highly pathogenic H5 subtype avian influenza have been prevalent in Taiwan since 2015. The virus is highly virulent and has led to large-scale death not only in land fowls but also in waterfowls, including ducks and geese, causing massive economic losses. Epidemics caused by this novel virus occur annually. Virus-like particles are nanostructures assembled from viral structural proteins and are devoid of any infectious genetic material, which induce immunogenicity in hosts and are shown to be protective vaccines against viral diseases. This study develops virus-like particles against the novel clade 2.3.4.4 highly pathogenic H5 subtype avian influenza to prevent future epidemics in Taiwan. With recombinant baculovirus and insect cells, we successfully produced clade 2.3.4.4 HA/M1 virus-like particles. These showed hemagglutination bio-activity toward chicken RBCs, and the particle sizes were around 100 nm with viral spikes on the surfaces. Although immunogenicity of the developed virus-like particles needs to be verified by further immunogenic experiments and virus challenge study in vivo, this study could indicates an alternative direction to the current prevention measures for epidemic avian influenza.