Defining a Simplified Process in Yeast for Production of Enveloped VLP Dengue Vaccine

Dengue is a rapidly spreading mosquito-borne viral infection, with increasing reports of outbreaks globally. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), by 30 April 2024, over 7.6 million dengue cases were reported, including 3.4 million confirmed cases, more than 16,000 severe cases, and over 3000 deaths. As dengue remains endemic in many regions, there is a critical need for the development of new vaccines and manufacturing processes that are efficient, cost-effective, and capable of meeting growing demand. In this study, we explore an alternative process development pathway for the future manufacturing of a dengue vaccine, utilizing Komagataella phaffii (Pichia pastoris) as the host organism, one of the most promising candidates for the expression of heterologous proteins in vaccine development. It combines the speed and ease of highly efficient prokaryotic platforms with some key capabilities of mammalian systems, making it ideal for scalable and cost-effective production. The key outcomes of our research include (i) demonstrating the versatility of the Komagataella phaffii platform in the production of dengue viral-like particles (VLPs); (ii) optimizing the culture process using Design of Experiments (DoE) approaches in small-scale bioreactors; (iii) developing a novel purification platform for enveloped VLPs (eVLPs), and (iv) establishing alternative biophysical characterization methods for the dengue vaccine prototype. These findings provide a promising foundation for efficient and scalable production of dengue vaccines, addressing both technical and operational challenges in vaccine manufacturing.