Abbreviated Journal Title
Plant Biotechnol. J.
Keywords
antitumour; antiviral; gene containment; molecular 'pharming'; plant-made cytokine; HUMAN ALPHA-INTERFERON; TRANSGENIC CHLOROPLASTS; TOBACCO CHLOROPLASTS; PROTECTIVE ANTIGEN; GENE-EXPRESSION; CELL-ACTIVITY; PROTEIN; MICE; PLANTS; VACCINE; Biotechnology & Applied Microbiology; Plant Sciences
Abstract
Type I interferons (IFNs) inhibit viral replication and cell growth and enhance the immune response, and therefore have many clinical applications. IFN-alpha 2b ranks third in world market use for a biopharmaceutical, behind only insulin and erythropoietin. The average annual cost of IFN-alpha 2b for the treatment of hepatitis C infection is $26 000, and is therefore unavailable to the majority of patients in developing countries. Therefore, we expressed IFN-alpha 2b in tobacco chloroplasts, and transgenic lines were grown in the field after obtaining United States Department of Agriculture Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (USDA-APHIS) approval. Stable, site-specific integration of transgenes into chloroplast genomes and homoplasmy through several generations were confirmed. IFN-alpha 2b levels reached up to 20% of total soluble protein, or 3 mg per gram of leaf (fresh weight). Transgenic IFN-alpha 2b had similar in vitro biological activity to commercially produced PEG-Intron (TM) when tested for its ability to protect cells against cytopathic viral replication in the vesicular stomatitis virus cytopathic effect (VSV CPE) assay and to inhibit early-stage human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection. The antitumour and immunomodulating properties of IFN-alpha 2b were also seen in vivo. Chloroplast-derived IFN-alpha 2b increased the expression of major histocompatibility complex class I (MHC I) on splenocytes and the total number of natural killer (NK) cells. Finally, IFN-alpha 2b purified from chloroplast transgenic lines (cpIFN-alpha 2b) protected mice from a highly metastatic tumour line. This demonstration of high levels of expression of IFN-alpha 2b, transgene containment and biological activity akin to that of commercial preparations of IFN-alpha 2b facilitated the first field production of a plant-derived human blood protein, a critical step towards human clinical trials and commercialization.
Journal Title
Plant Biotechnology Journal
Volume
5
Issue/Number
4
Publication Date
1-1-2007
Document Type
Article
Language
English
First Page
511
Last Page
525
WOS Identifier
ISSN
1467-7644
Recommended Citation
Arlen, Philip A.; Falconer, Regina; Cherukumili, Sri; Cole, Amy; Cole, Alexander M.; Oishi, Karen K.; and Daniell, Henry, "Field production and functional evaluation of chloroplast-derived interferon-alpha 2b" (2007). Faculty Bibliography 2000s. 6838.
https://stars.library.ucf.edu/facultybib2000/6838
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