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Genes, greens, and vaccines

Nature Biotechnology volume 18, pages 1141–1142 (2000)Cite this article

Their report presents preliminary data to demonstrate the oral immunogenicity in mice of recombinant hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) expressed in transgenic potato. Mice were fed three weekly doses of transgenic potato tuber, containing 5.5 μg HBsAg along with 10 μg of the adjuvant cholera toxin. They developed a primary systemic response that was short-lived, but a subimmunogenic boost by injection with commercial HBsAg vaccine subsequently gave rise to a rapid and enhanced secondary immune response. Further immunization studies are certainly required, but these data provide encouragement and additional evidence that plant-derived pharmaceuticals and vaccines are likely to become a reality.

Indeed, this paper is the latest installment from this group, of a research story that started in 1992 with the description of HBsAg expressed in transgenic plants2. The original host plant was tobacco, the expression levels were low (∼0.01% of soluble leaf protein); but the antigen assembled into spherical particles similar to those seen in infected human serum or from yeast-derived preparations. Three years later, the immunogenicity of the tobacco-derived HBsAg was demonstrated by systemic immunization of experimental mice3. The present paper represents the next advance, the transfer of recombinant HbsAg production to an edible plant, as well as the demonstration of oral immunogenicity.

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Figure 1: Pharmaceutical production, present and future.

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  1. senior lecturer and consultant in Immunology and Oral Immunotherapy at the Department of Oral Medicine and Pathology, Guy's Hospital, London Bridge, London, SE1 9RT, UK

    Julian K-C. Ma

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Ma, JC. Genes, greens, and vaccines. Nat Biotechnol 18, 1141–1142 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1038/81113

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