Cowpea mosaic virus as a vaccine carrier of heterologous antigens

The plant virus, cowpea mosaic virus (CPMV), has been developed as an expression and presentation system to display antigenic epitopes: derived from a number of vaccine targets including infectious disease agents and tumors. These chimeric virus particles (CVPs) could represent a cost-effective and safe alternative to live replicating virus and bacterial vaccines. A number of CVPs have now been generated and their immunogenicity examined ill a number of animal species. This review details the humoral and cellular immune responses generated by these CVPs following both par-enteral and mucosal delivery and highlights the potential of CVPs to elicit protective immunity from both viral and bacterial infection.