Table 1.

Advantages and disadvantages of the different VLP production platforms.

Production platform	Advantages	Disadvantages
E. coli	• Ease of expression • Ability to scale-up • Low production cost	• Does not allow for glycosylation. • Endotoxins
Yeast	• Ease of expression • Ability to scale-up • Low production cost	• Non-appropriate protein glycosylation (i.e. high mannose glycoprotein modification). • Risk of incorrect folding & assembly.
Insect cells	• Can produce large amounts of correctly folded VLP in high density cell culture conditions • Ability to scale-up • The risk of culturing opportunistic pathogens is minimised compared to mammalian cell culture • Host-derived insect cell/baculovirus components may act as vaccine adjuvants, help trigger a more effective immune response	• Limited to high mannose glycoprotein modification. • Baculovirus contaminants may be difficult to remove • Host-derived insect cell/baculovirus components may also mask the immune response against the desired epitope
Mammalian cells	• Producer cells more closely related to the natural host • Appropriate PTMs and authentic assembly of VLPs	• Higher production cost • Lower productivities
Plants	• Ease of expression • Ability to scale-up • No human-derived virus contamination	• Cannot undergo PTMs and VLP assembly • Low expression levels • Stability: antigen degradation