Production and characterization of chimeric human papillomavirus l1 virus-like particles for use as a contraceptive vaccine
Authors
Jordan, Thomas Brown
ORCID
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Other Contributors
Bystroff, Christopher, 1960-
Koffas, Mattheos A. G.
Forth, Scott T.
Wang, Chunyu
Koffas, Mattheos A. G.
Forth, Scott T.
Wang, Chunyu
Issue Date
2020-08
Keywords
Biology
Degree
PhD
Terms of Use
This electronic version is a licensed copy owned by Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY. Copyright of original work retained by author.
Full Citation
Abstract
The global unplanned pregnancy rate remains high (nearly 50%) despite decades of workto provide contraception to all who want it. Contraceptive availability is good, but manyunplanned pregnancies are the result of contraceptive failure or deliberate non-use. An anti-sperm contraceptive vaccine seems likely to have a low failure rate and to be attractive tocurrent non-users because of ease of use, and a nonhormonal, prefertilization mechanism ofaction. This thesis details the expression in E. coliand characterization by transmissionelectron microscopy, of a potential anti-sperm vaccine consisting of the self-assembling ma-jor capsid protein of Human Papillomavirus, L1, chimerically decorated with extracellularfragments of the sperm specific calcium channel, CatSper, which is necessary for fertility. L1is well suited to be a scaffold for vaccine design because of the size, structure and stabilityof the particles it spontaneously forms, This is the first use of L1 as a scaffold for the pre-sentation of non-viral antigens, and may help pave the way for a broader adoption of L1 asa standardized scaffold for vaccine design.
Description
August 2020
School of Science
School of Science
Department
Dept. of Biological Sciences
Publisher
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY
Relationships
Rensselaer Theses and Dissertations Online Collection
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