Host receptors: the key to establishing cells with broad viral tropism for vaccine production

Abstract

Cell culture-based vaccine technology is a flexible and convenient approach for vaccine production that requires adaptation of the vaccine strains to the new cells. Driven by the motivation to develop a broadly permissive cell line for infection with a wide range of viruses, we identified a set of the most relevant host receptors involved in viral attachment and entry. This identification was done through a review of different viral entry pathways and host cell lines, and in the context of the Baltimore classification of viruses. In addition, we indicated the potential technical problems and proposed some solutions regarding how to modify the host cell genome in order to meet industrial requirements for mass production of antiviral vaccines. Our work contributes to a finer understanding of the importance of breaking the host–virus recognition specificities for the possibility of creating a cell line feasible for the production of vaccines against a broad spectrum of viruses.

Keywords:

• Virus
• attachment factor
• entry receptor
• entry pathway
• vaccine production
• susceptible cell line

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Author contributions

XFD selected the topic, initiated the project, conceptualized the ideas, and drafted the manuscript. XFD and XZ prepared the figures and tables. LA introduced critical references and revised the manuscript. All authors contributed to literature search, analysis, interpretation and manuscript preparation. KO coordinated the collaboration among authors. All authors have critically reviewed, discussed, and approved all the content of the manuscript for publication. The authors would like to thank Mackenzie Waltke for proofreading this manuscript.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China [grant number 81972789], the National Science and Technology Major Project [grant number 2018ZX10302205-004-002], the Six Talent Peaks Project in Jiangsu Province [grant number SWYY-128], Technology Development Funding of Wuxi [Grant No. WX18IVJN017], and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada Discovery Grant [grant number RPGIN-2017-04897].