• Journal of Plant Biotechnology
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.151-161
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• 2004

Transgenic plants have been studied as delivery system for edible vaccine against various diseases. Edible plant vaccines have several potential advantages as follows: an inexpensive source of antigen, easy administration, reduced need for medical personnel, economical to mass produce and easy transport, heat-stable vaccine without refrigerator, generation of systemic and mucosal immunity and safe antigen without fetal animal-virus contaminants. The amount of recombinant antigens in transgenic plants ranged from 0.002 to 0.8％ in total soluble protein, depending on promoters for the expression of interested genes and plants to be used for transformation. Throughout the last decade, edible plant vaccine made notable progresses that protect from challenges against virus or bacteria. However edible plant vaccines have still problems that could be solved. First, the strong promoter or inducible promoter or strategy of protein targeting could be solved to improve the low expression of antigens in transgenic plants. Second, the transformation technique of target plant should be developed to be able to eat uncooked. Third, marker-free vector could be constructed to be more safety. In this review we describe advances of edible plant vaccines, focusing on the yields depending on plants/promoters employed and the results of animal/clinical trials, and consider further research for the development of a new plant-derived vaccine.

• Journal of Plant Biotechnology
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• v.37 no.3
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• pp.250-261
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• 2010

The expression of vaccine antigens in transgenic plants has the potential to provide a convenient, stable, safe approach for oral vaccination alternative to traditional parenteral vaccines. Over the past two decades, many different vaccine antigens expressed via the plant nuclear genome have elicited appropriate immunoglobulin responses and have conferred protection upon oral delivery. Up to date, efforts to produce antigen proteins in plants have focused on potato, tobacco, tomato, banana, and seed (maize, rice, soybean, etc). The choice of promoters affects transgene transcription, resulting in changes not only in concentration, but also in the stage tissue and cell specificity of its expression. Inclusion of mucosal adjuvants during immunization with the vaccine antigen has been an important step towards the success of plant-derived vaccines. In animal and Phase I clinical trials several plant-derived vaccine antigens have been found to be safe and induce sufficiently high immune response. Future areas of research should further characterize the induction of the mucosal immune response and appropriate dosage for delivery system of animal and human vaccines. This article reviews the current status of development in the area of the use of plant for the development of oral vaccines.

• Journal of Plant Biotechnology
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• v.41 no.1
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• pp.50-55
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• 2014

Plant-based vaccines possess some advantages over other types of vaccine biotechnology such as safety, low cost of mass vaccination programs, and wider use of vaccines for medicine. This study was undertaken to develop the transgenic maize as edible vaccine candidates for humans. The immature embryos of HiII genotype were inoculated with A. tumefaciens strain C58C1 containing the binary vectors (V662 or V663). The vectors carrying nptII gene as selection marker and scEDIII (V662) or wCTB-scEDIII (V663) target gene, which code EIII proteins inhibite viral adsorption by cells. In total, 721 maize immature embryos were transformed and twenty-two putative transgenic plants were regenerated after 12 weeks selection regime. Of them, two- and six-plants were proved to be integrated with scEDIII and wCTB-scEDIII genes, respectively, by Southern blot analysis. However, only one plant (V662-29-3864) can express the gene of interest confirmed by Northern blot analysis. These results demonstrated that this plant could be used as a candidated source of the vaccine production.

• Korean Journal of Veterinary Research
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• v.53 no.4
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• pp.217-224
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• 2013

Transgenic plants have been tested as an alternative host for the production and delivery of experimental oral vaccines. Here, we developed transgenic potatoes that express the major antigenic sites A and D of the glycoprotein S from transmissible gastroenteritis coronavirus (TGEV-$S_{0.7}$) under three expression vector systems. The DNA integration and mRNA expression level of the TGEV-$S_{0.7}$ gene were confirmed in transgenic plants by PCR and northern blot analysis. Antigen protein expression in transgenic potato was determined by western blot analysis. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay results revealed that based on a dilution series of Escherichia coli-derived antigen, the transgenic line P-2 had TGEV-$S_{0.7}$ protein at levels that were 0.015% of total soluble proteins. We then examined the immunogenicity of potato-derived TGEV-$S_{0.7}$ antigen in mice. Compared with the wild-type potato treated group and synthetic antigen treated group, mice treated with the potato-derived antigen showed significantly higher levels of immunoglobulin (Ig) G and IgA responses.

• Journal of Animal Science and Technology
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• v.57 no.4
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• pp.10.1-10.7
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• 2015

Control and prevention of foot and mouth disease (FMD) by vaccination remains unsatisfactory in endemic countries. Indeed, consistent and new FMD epidemics in previously disease-free countries have precipitated the need for a worldwide control strategy. Outbreaks in vaccinated animals require that a new and safe vaccine be developed against foot and mouth virus (FMDV). FMDV can be eradicated worldwide based on previous scientific information about its spread using existing and modern control strategies.

• Korean Journal of Veterinary Research
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• v.51 no.2
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• pp.151-158
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• 2011

The study evaluated whether a transgenic carrot vaccine could induce a K88-specific immune response in sows and whether the resultant maternal antibody could protect piglets against enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli (ETEC) K88ac infection. Sows (n = 15) selected randomly from a farm in Korea were assigned to three groups (n = 5 per group: control [untreated]), group A (orally inoculated with a nontransgenic and transgenic carrot vaccines at 2 and 4 weeks ante partum, respectively), and group B (conventionally vaccinated according to the manufacturer's instructions). After 7 days of lactation, 5 piglets selected randomly from each group were challenged with $1{\times}10^{10}$ colony forming units/mL ETEC K88ac. Group C had the lowest mean fecal consistency score on post-challenge days 1 and 7. Histiologically, On post-challenge day 7, group C showed an increased duodenum and ileum villus:crypt ratio, compared to group A in the duodenum, with group B displaying the highest ratio. Groups B and C had more increased villus width than group A in the jejunum. Group C displayed the greatest increase in villus width in the ileum. The colostrums and serum from groups B and C displayed higher concentrations of IgA and IgG against ETEC K88, compared to group A. Based on the results, it was concluded that the transgenic carrot vaccine in sow per oral may have an effect on preventing piglet diarrhea as good as commercial recombinant vaccine.

• KSBB Journal
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• v.26 no.6
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• pp.491-504
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• 2011

This review article provides an overview of the evolution of diphtheria vaccine, its value and its future. Diphtheria is an infectious illness caused by diphtheria toxin produced by pathogenic strains of Corynebacterium diphtheriae. It is characterized by a sore throat with membrane formation due to local tissue necrosis, which can lead to fatal airway obstruction; neural and cardiac damage are other common complications. Diphtheria vaccine was first brought to market in the 1920s, following the discovery that diphtheria toxin can be detoxified using formalin. However, conventional formalin-inactivated toxoid vaccines have some fundamental limitations. Innovative technologies and approaches with the potential to overcome these limitations are discussed in this paper. These include genetic inactivation of diphtheria toxoid, innovative vaccine delivery systems, new adjuvants (both TLR-independent and TLR-dependent adjuvants), and heat- and freeze-stable agents, as well as novel platforms for producing improved conventional vaccine, DNA vaccine, transcutaneous (microneedle-mediated) vaccine, oral vaccine and edible vaccine expressed in transgenic plants. These innovations target improvements in vaccine quality (efficacy, safety, stability and consistency), ease of use and/or thermal stability. Their successful development and use should help to increase global diphtheria vaccine coverage.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.123-128
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• 2009

Production of highly valuable immunotherapeutic proteins such as monoclonal antibodies and vaccines using plant biotechnology and genetic engineering has been studied as a popular research field. Plant expression system for mass production of such useful recombinant therapeutic proteins has several advantages over other existing expression systems with economical and safety issues. Immunotherapy of multiple monoclonal antibodies, which can recognize multiple targeting including specific proteins and their glycans highly expressed on the surface of cancer cells, can be an efficient treatment compared to a single targeting immunotherapy using a single antibody. In this study, we have established plant production system to express two different targeting monoclonal antibodies in a single transgenic plant through crossing fertilization between two different transgenic plants expressing anti-colorectal cancer mAbCO17-1A and anti-breast cancer mAbBR55, respectively. The F1 seedlings were obtained cross fertilization between the two transgenic parental plants. The presence, transcription, and protein expression of heavy chain (HC) and light chain (LC) genes of both mAbs in the seedlings were investigated by PCR, RT-PCR, and immunoblot analyses, respectively. Among all the seedlings, some seedlings did not carry or transcribe the HC and LC genes of both mAbs. Thus, the seedlings with presence and transcription of HC and LC genes of both mAbs were selected, and the selected seedlings were confirmed to have relatively stronger density of HC and LC protein bands compared to the transgenic plant expressing only each mAb. These results indicate that the F1 seedling plant with carrying both mAb genes was established. Taken together, plant crossing fertilization can be applied to generate an efficient production system expressing multiple monoclonal antibodies for immunotherapy in a single plant.

• Journal of Plant Biotechnology
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• v.37 no.3
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• pp.275-282
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• 2010

Chloroplast transformation in higher plants offers many attractive advantages over nuclear transformation, including a high-level accumulation of foreign proteins, multi-gene expression in single transformation event via transgene stacking in operons and no position effect due to site-specific integration of transgenes by homologous recombination. Most importantly, chloroplast transgenic plants are eco-friendly because their transgenes are maternally inheritance in most crop plants. However, chloroplast transformation system has limited success in crops alike nuclear transformation. In the past two decades, great progress has been made to overcome the limitations of chloroplast transformation, thus expending chloroplast bioreactor to several important crops including soybean, carrot, lettuce, and oilseed. Therefore, it has become possible that chloroplast transformation of crops can be used not only for the improvement of agronomic traits, but also for the production of vaccines and high valuable therapeutic proteins in pharmaceutical industry.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.16 no.12
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• pp.1919-1927
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• 2006

Tumor cells genetically engineered to secrete cytokines are effective in tumor therapy, but various unexpected side effects are observed, which may result from the bulk activation of various bystander cells. In this study, we tested tumor vaccines expressing various membrane-bound forms of IL-2 (mbIL-2) on MethA fibrosarcoma cells to focus antitumor immune responses to CTL. Chimeric forms of IL-2 with whole CD4, deletion forms of CD4, and TNF were expressed on the tumor cell surface, respectively. Tumor clones expressing mbIL-2 or secretory form of IL-2 were able to support the cell growth of CTLL-2, an IL-2-dependent T cell line, and the proliferation of spleen cells from 2C TCR transgenic mice that are responsive to the $p2Ca/L^d$ MHC class I complex. Expression of mbIL-2 on tumor cells reduced the tumorigenicity of tumor cells, and the mice that once rejected the live IL-2/TNF tumor clone acquired systemic immunity against wild-type MethA cells. The IL-2/TNF clone was inferior to other clones in tumor formation, and superior in the stimulation of the CD8+ T cell population in vitro. These results suggest that the IL-2/TNF clone is the best tumor vaccine, and may stimulate CD8+ T cells by direct priming. Expression of IL-2/TNF on tumor cells may serve as an effective gene therapy method to ameliorate the side effects encountered in the recombinant cytokine therapy and the conventional cytokine gene therapy using the secretory form of IL-2.