Page 8 - C. Biotechnology and molecular imaging

[C. Biotechnology and molecular imaging-6]

Efficient chromatographic method for non-structural protein

removal in the process of foot-and-mouth disease vaccine

production

Sun Young Park¹, Jung-min Lee¹, Ah-Young Kim¹, Sang Hyun Park¹, Jae-Seok Kim¹, Hyejin Kim¹,

Jong-Hyeon Park¹, Young-Joon Ko¹

¹Center for FMD Vaccine Research, Animal and Plant Quarantine Agency, Gimcheon 39660, Republic of Korea

Foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) is one of the most highly contagious viral disease that affects swine, cattle and

other cloven-hoofed animals. In 2010, a severe outbreak of FMD occurred in South Korea, and the FMD vaccination
policy was implemented for livestock. The FMD vaccines are currently under development to replace the imported

FMD vaccines. One of the important elements in FMD vaccine antigen production is the elimination of viral non-
structural proteins (NSPs) because antibodies to NSPs are used as indicators of distinguishing between vaccinated

from naturally infected animals. However, FMD vaccines made by polyethylene glycol (PEG) precipitation method
contain residual NSPs. Therefore, in this study, the purification method of FMD vaccine antigens was established

that can remove NSPs using affinity chromatography based on a specific interaction between the heparin ligands
and the FMD virus (FMDV) particles. NSPs were removed from the purified FMD vaccine antigen and 90% of protein

impurities were also eliminated. In conclusion, a method for purifying FMDV while effectively removing NSPs has
been established, which is applicable to the FMD vaccine manufacturing process.