Biomolecules & Therapeutics

The Korean Society of Applied Pharmacology (한국응용약물학회)
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Immune Responses to Plant-Derived Recombinant Colorectal Cancer Glycoprotein EpCAM-FcK Fusion Protein in Mice

  • Lim, Chae-Yeon (Department of Medicine, College of Medicine, Chung-Ang University) ;
  • Kim, Deuk-Su (Department of Medicine, College of Medicine, Chung-Ang University) ;
  • Kang, Yangjoo (Department of Medicine, College of Medicine, Chung-Ang University) ;
  • Lee, Ye-Rin (Vegetable Research Division, National Institute of Horticultural and Herbal Science, Rural Development Administration) ;
  • Kim, Kibum (Department of Medicine, College of Medicine, Chung-Ang University) ;
  • Kim, Do Sun (Vegetable Research Division, National Institute of Horticultural and Herbal Science, Rural Development Administration) ;
  • Kim, Moon-Soo (Department of Chemistry, Ogden College of Science and Engineering, Western Kentucky University) ;
  • Ko, Kisung (Department of Medicine, College of Medicine, Chung-Ang University)
  • Received : 2022.07.26
  • Accepted : 2022.08.27
  • Published : 2022.11.01
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Abstract

Epidermal cell adhesion molecule (EpCAM) is a tumor-associated antigen (TAA), which has been considered as a cancer vaccine candidate. The EpCAM protein fused to the fragment crystallizable region of immunoglobulin G (IgG) tagged with KDEL endoplasmic reticulum (ER) retention signal (EpCAM-FcK) has been successfully expressed in transgenic tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum cv. Xanthi) and purified from the plant leaf. In this study, we investigated the ability of the plant-derived EpCAM-FcK (EpCAM-FcKP) to elicit an immune response in vivo. The animal group injected with the EpCAM-FcKP showed a higher differentiated germinal center (GC) B cell population (~9%) compared with the animal group injected with the recombinant rhEpCAM-Fc chimera (EpCAM-FcM). The animal group injected with EpCAM-FcKP (~42%) had more differentiated T follicular helper cells (Tfh) than the animal group injected with EpCAM-FcM (~7%). This study demonstrated that the plant-derived EpCAM-FcK fusion antigenic protein induced a humoral immune response in mice.

Keywords

Acknowledgement

This research was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) grant funded by the Korea government (MSIT) [2021R1F1A1063869] and Cooperative Research Program for Agriculture Science & Technology Development (Project No. PJ0162662022) Rural Development Administration, Republic of Korea. Finally, we thank Prof. Yoon Kyung Do for assistance with the Cytokine assays for comments that greatly improved the manuscript.

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