Table 2.

Comparison of VLP production in bacterial, yeast, insect cell, mammalian cell and plant expression systems based on specified parameters.

Parameters	Bacteria	Yeasts	Insect cells	Mammalian cells	Plants
VLP yield	Up to 250 mg/L culture (Mohsen et al., 2022)	Up to 270 mg/L culture (Yang et al., 2020)	Up to 171 mg/L culture (Lin et al., 2015)	Up to 33.7 mg/L culture (Hirschberg et al., 2023)	Up to 200 μg/g fresh leaf tissue (Mardanova et al., 2022)
Growth period prior to VLP production	< 1 day (Sazegari et al., 2023; Yong et al., 2015)	∼1 to 2 days (Sanchooli et al., 2020; Wetzel et al., 2019)	∼2 to 3 days	∼2 to 3 days	28 days to 42 days (D'Aoust et al., 2008; Rutkowska et al., 2019)
VLP production period	5 h – 18 h (Sazegari et al., 2023; Yong et al., 2015)	66 h – 96 h (Sanchooli et al., 2020; Wetzel et al., 2019)	72 h – 144 h (Tretyakova et al., 2013; Xu et al., 2019)	48 h - 144 h (Buffin et al., 2019; Xu et al., 2020)	96 h - 192 h (Mardanova et al., 2022; Rutkowska et al., 2019)
VLP complexity	Simple	Simple	Complex	Complex	Complex
Antigen displaying strategy	Genetic fusion, protein conjugation	Genetic fusion, protein conjugation	Genetic fusion, co-expression with viral protein monomers, protein conjugation	Genetic fusion, co-expression with viral protein monomers, protein conjugation	Genetic fusion, protein conjugation
Post-translational modification (PTM) pattern	Lacks PTM	High mannosylation (causes adverse immune reaction and reduces serum half-life) (Khan et al., 2017; Wildt and Gerngross, 2005)	Paucimannosylation and lacks terminal sialylation (reduces serum half-life) (Khan et al., 2017; Tomiya et al., 2004)	Highly resembles human cells (Khan et al., 2017)	Contains xylose and fucose residues (potential allergen), lacks terminal sialylation (Khan et al., 2017; Mercx et al., 2017)
Scalability	Easy	Easy	Difficult	Difficult	Easy
Production cost	Low	Low	High	High	Low