| abstract |
The present invention relates generally to plant viruses, produced by plants, for use as vaccines and the like. More specifically, the present invention relates to simple inactivation methods, and plant virus particles thereby obtained. The invention described herein provides means and methods to produce a safe vaccine based on an epitope display of epitopes derived from a pathogenic agent on the surface of inactivated plant virus-like particles. This invention teaches inactivation of chimeric plant virus particles and integration of the inactivation step into the virus particle purification procedure. The inactivation method renders the virus incapable of infecting plants and the integrity of virus particles is retained. |