Increased production of human granulocyte-macrophage colony stimulating factor (hGM-CSF) by the addition of stabilizing polymer in plant suspension cultures

Development of a highly efficient system for assessing recombinant gene expression in plant cell suspensions via Agrobacterium tumefaciens transformation

A transient gene-expression system was developed and used to characterize promoter strength, to verify suitability of bacterial gene modifications for expression in plant cells, and to express active antibody molecules. The system is based on suspension tobacco cells transformed by Agrobacterium in a transient way. Conditions such as pre-culture of tobacco cells and the co-cultivation period were identified as determinants to achieve high expression levels. Under established conditions the activity strength of CaMV (cauliflower mosaic virus) 35 S and ToMoTV (tomato mottle taino virus) AL1 promoters were compared. A modified cry gene sequence from Bacillus thuringiensis was expressed and detected by Western-blot analysis. A monoclonal antibody against anti-(hepatitis B virus surface antigen) was produced in such quantities as to allow testing of biological activity and preliminary characterization.

Induction of antigen-specific systemic and mucosal immune responses by feeding animals transgenic plants expressing the antigen

A report from that the presence of lactogenic immunity in pigs protected suckling piglets from porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PEDV) infection suggested that inducing mucosal immune responses in lactating pigs is an effective way of protecting swine from PEDV infection. In this study, we developed transgenic tobacco plants that express the antigen protein corresponding to the neutralizing epitope of PEDV spike protein, and tested whether feeding the plants to pigs induced an effective immune response against PEDV infection. First, we confirmed the immunogenicity of the plant-derived antigen by using a plaque reduction neutralization assay with serum obtained after injecting mice with protein extracted from the transgenic plants. Feeding the transgenic plants to mice induced both systemic and mucosal immune responses against the antigen. The induced antibodies inhibited virus infection in the plaque reduction neutralization assay. These results suggest that feeding animals transgenic plants carrying antigen genes is an effective strategy to induce protective immune responses against PEDV infection.

High level of expression of recombinant human granulocyte-macrophage colony stimulating factor in transgenic rice cell suspension culture

Recombinant human granulocyte-macrophage colony stimulating factor (hGM-CSF) has been previously produced in tobacco cell suspension cultures. However, the amount of hGM-CSF accumulated in the culture medium dropped quickly from its maximum of 150 microg/L at 5 d after incubation. To overcome this problem, we sought an expression system in which heterologous gene expression could be induced at high levels. We selected a rice amylase expression system in which the promoter Ramy3D is induced to express recombinant protein by sucrose starvation. This induction system was found to give good yield of recombinant hGM-CSF in transgenic rice cell suspension culture and protease activity of this culture medium was low compared to that of tobacco culture system.

Expression and secretion of the heterodimeric protein interleukin-12 in plant cell suspension culture

It has been suggested that plant cell culture is the most suitable system for producing small-to-medium quantities of specialized, expensive, and high-purity proteins. Here, we report that a heterodimeric protein, human interleukin-12 (hIL-12), was expressed and secreted into culture medium in a biologically active form. A transgenic plant expressing hIL-12 was constructed by sexual crossing of plants that expressed each subunit of the protein. From a piece of transgenic plant, callus was induced and cell suspension culture was established. The biological activity and amount of hIL-12 secreted into culture medium were analyzed using bioassays and ELISA. Analysis of cellular localization demonstrated that the protein was secreted into the culture medium together with its intrinsic signal peptide.