A plant‐produced influenza subunit vaccine protects ferrets against virus challenge

Abstract

Background Influenza A viruses are of major concern for public health, causing worldwide epidemics associated with high morbidity and mortality. Vaccines are critical for protection against influenza, but given the recent emergence of new strains with pandemic potential, and some limitations of the current production systems, there is a need for new approaches for vaccine development. Objective To demonstrate the immunogenicity and protective efficacy of plant‐produced influenza antigens. Method We engineered, using influenza A/Wyoming/3/03 (H3N2) as a model virus, the stem and globular domains of hemagglutinin (HA) produced in plants as fusions to a carrier protein and used purified antigens with and without adjuvant for ferret immunization. Results These plant‐produced antigens were highly immunogenic and conferred complete protection against infection in the ferret challenge model. The addition of plant‐produced neuraminidase was shown to enhance the immune response in ferrets. Conclusions Plants can be used as a production vehicle for vaccine development against influenza. Domains of HA can generate protective immune responses in ferrets.

A Plant-Produced Pfs230 Vaccine Candidate Blocks Transmission of Plasmodium falciparum

“…Data are shown as mean serum IgG endpoint titers Ϯ standard deviations. get expression ranging from 100 mg to over 1 g/kg of fresh whole leaf tissue (7,19,23,26,40). Due to the complexity of the Pfs230 protein, we endeavored to use our transient-expression system in N. benthamiana to express the portion of Pfs230C (230CMB) that was shown to have TB activity using an in vitro translation system (40a).…”

Optimization and Utilization of <em>Agrobacterium</em>-mediated Transient Protein Production in <em>Nicotiana</em>

“…The most advanced transient expression system is based on the use of 'launch vectors' that combine components of plant viruses and binary plasmids, and are delivered by agroinfiltration 17,18 . Agroinfiltration of a launch vector based on Tobacco mosaic virus (TMV) has been successfully applied at lab scale to produce vaccine antigens against pathogens such as human papilloma virus 19 , Yersinia pestis 20 , influenza viruses A 21,22 , Bacillus anthracis 23 , and smallpox virus 24 in N. benthamiana leaves. Agrobacterium-mediated transient expression is also a promising method for the simultaneous production of multiple proteins 2, [25][26][27] .…”

Plant-Produced Human Recombinant Erythropoietic Growth Factors Support Erythroid Differentiation In Vitro

“…In previous studies conducted at FhCMB, the launch vectorbased plant transient expression system has been used for producing a wide range of target proteins at levels ranging from 50 mg to more than 1 g per kg of fresh leaf biomass [58,61,62,64,66,73]. Here,we extended the utilityof this system to the field of hematopoietic growth factors, and have successfully expressed four human growth factors-EPO, SCF, IGF-1, and IL-3-either as non-fused proteins or as fusions with LicKM in N. benthamiana.…”

“…Introduction of Agrobacteria harboring the launch vector into an entire plant by vacuum infiltration and amplification of the target gene sequence through the use of the viral replication machinery result in high levels of target protein accumulation in a short period of time [57]. The targets produced in plants using this transient expression system include subunit vaccine candidates against seasonal and pandemic influenza [58][59][60][61][62], plague [63,64], anthrax [65], and human papilloma virus-associated cancer [66,67]. These vaccine candidates have been shown to induce cellular and humoral immune responses conferring protection against pathogen challenge when tested in animal models [58,61,63,64,67].…”