Transgenic Rice Expressing Amyloid β-peptide for Oral Immunization

Abstract

Various vaccine therapies for Alzheimer's disease (AD) have been investigated. Here we report transgenic rice expressing amyloid β-peptide (Aβ). The Aβ42 gene fused with a green fluorescent protein gene was introduced into rice using the Agrobacterium method. When transgenic brown rice expressing Aβ was orally administered to mice, serum anti-Aβ antibody titers were elevated. The same results were observed when mice were fed boiled, transgenic brown rice. The results indicate that an edible vaccine against AD using rice may be feasible. A vaccine derived from rice would be far cheaper than existing medical vaccines.

Edible Vaccines: An Advancement in Oral Immunization

“…Plasmid/vector carrier system: Agrobacterium tumifaciens method One way of generating EVs depends on the microorganism species to deliver into plant cells the genetic blueprints for an infectious agent or microorganism "antigens" proteins that elicit a targeted immunologic response within the recipient [13]. A. tumifaciens is present in soil which is employed to transfer a little phase of DNA into plant ordination and this method is termed transformation.…”

“…Developments in transgenic research have created the production of transgenic plants expressing antigenic proteins which are induced by plant transgenic vectors. This will help to produce special vaccines with high anti-disease ability [13,14]. During the last decade, different types of efficient plant-based expression systems have been studied, and more than 100 different types of transgenic proteins including plant-derived vaccine antigens have been successfully expressed in different types of plant tissues.…”

Novel Transgenic Rice-Based Vaccines

“…Not only injectable but also mucosal vaccines, including plant-based ones, have effects on AD in animal models (Ishii-Katsuno et al 2010;Kim et al 2003Kim et al , 2005. Nojima and his coworkers introduced the Ab gene fused with the green fluorescent protein (Nojima et al 2011a, b;Yoshida et al 2011). Nojima et al (2011b) injected subcutaneously AD model mice with the fusion protein mixed with CTB as a carrier.…”

Aβ induces oxidative stress in senescence-accelerated (SAMP8) mice

“…Because of this gut immunity, not only IgG but also IgA is produced. 16) We previously developed a rice vaccine, 17,18) and immunized familial AD model mice (Tg2576); as a result, the antibody titer increased and Aβ accumulation in the mouse brain was prevented compared with Tg2576-fed wild type (WT) rice. 19) In this study, we immunized senescence-accelerated mouse prone 8 (SAMP) mice, a sporadic AD model, 20) with the rice vaccine.…”

“…Thus, we quantified the accumulation of Aβ40. A standard peptide and the samples were incubated in microplates coated with the monoclonal antibody BNT77, which recognizes human and rat Aβ (11)(12)(13)(14)(15)(16)(17)(18)(19)(20)(21)(22)(23)(24)(25)(26)(27)(28), for 1 h at 4°C. After washing five times, the plates were incubated with an HRP-conjugated antibody raised against the C-terminus of Aβ40 for 1 h at 4°C.…”