Bioreactor-Scale Production of Infectious Laryngotracheitis Virus-Glycoprotein G using a Baculovirus/Insect Cells Culture System

Infectious Laryngotracheitis virus (ILTV) causes an important respiratory disease in poultry. Glycoprotein G (gpG) is a virulence factor in ILTV that was identified as a viral chemokine binding protein (vCKBP) with the ability the bind chemokine’s from chickens and other species and modulate their activity. To further study the functional and structure characteristics of gpG are important to have enough quantities of protein available. This paper describes a method for the production of ILTV-encoded gpG in a stirred tank, expressed in an insect cell line of Spodoptera frugiperda (Sf-9) after infection with baculovirus BV-gpG. For this purpose, it was necessary a previous characterization of Sf-9 cells growth and the optimization of gpG production on a small scale. After that, we defined operational parameters in the Biostat B plus bioreactor to ensure the optimal hydrodynamic environment in order to guarantee cells growth and infection.