Several Dynamic Models of Large-Scale Insect Cell Infection at Low Multiplicity of Infection

Virus-like particles (VLPs), which produce from the baculovirus insect cell expression system, constitute potential vaccines for prevention of the epidemic diseases. The expression efficiency of the baculovirus insect cell system used for VLPs production is closely related with the dynamics of infection. In a large scale production process for VLPs with a low multiplicity of infection (MO!), how do we quantitatively determine the relation of the highest virus concentration and culture conditions? When is the optimal time of harvest (TOH)? To address these issues, several new mathematical models that describe the dynamic process of cell infection with baculovirus at low MOI have been developed and numerical results are given. The results indicate a quantitative relationship among the uninfected cells concentration, the infected cells concentration and virus concentration, and also show that the harvest time is dependent on the MOI and the attachment coefficient. These results provide useful instruction for the industrial scale production of VLPs vaccines.