process for producing low density flaviviruses from cultured cells and process for producing low density recombinant flaviviruses from cultured cells.

摘要

The object of the invention is a process for the production of virus in cell culture with high yield and low levels of contamination by cell proteins, the virus being appropriate to be used in the preparation of seed lots and vaccines. As used herein, the term "virus" means inactivated virus, attenuated virus and recombinant virus, including chimeric virus. The process comprises the steps of: (a) preparing a culture of cells which are permissive to the virus and acceptable as a substrate for vaccine production; (b) suspending the cells in a suitable medium followed by cell seeding at low densities; (c) incubating the cell culture at 30 to 40 DEG C for an appropriate period of time; (d) removing the medium from the cell culture of step (c) and inoculating with seed virus; (e) incubating the cell culture of step (d) at 25 to 40 DEG C for an appropriate period of time; (f) removing the medium followed by washing the cells once or more times and replacing the medium; (g) incubating the cell culture of step (f) at 25 to 40 DEG C for an appropriate period of time; (h) total or partial harvesting of culture supernatant containing virus with or without addition of stabilizer; (i) optionally, carrying out multiple harvests of virus containing medium, at any desired interval, by replacing the removed medium and re-incubating the culture for an appropriate period; (j) optionally, removing the cell debris and whole cells from the harvested virus; (l) optionally, virus inactivation and; (m) storing the virus at -45 DEG C or lower.