• 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.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.

• Journal of Plant Biotechnology
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.97-103
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• 2005

This study was carried out to obtain basic information for gene manipulation in potent edible tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum cv. TI 516). N. tabacum cv. TI 516 is a plant for a possible candidate to use as an edible vaccine, since it contains a low level of nicotine. The effective plant regeneration system through leaf disc culture was achieved using a MS basal medium supplemented with 0.1 mg $1^{-1}$ NAA and 0.5 mg $1^{-1}$ BA. In order to transform the N. tabacum cv. TI 516 with the green fluorescent protein (GFP) gene, Agrobacterium tumefaciens LBA 4404 containing the GFP gene was used. Genomic PCR confirmed the integration of the GFP gene into nuclear genome of transgenic plants. Expression of the GFP gene was identified in callus, apical meristem and root tissue of transgenic N. tabacum cv. TI 516 plants using fluorescence microscopy. Western blot analysis revealed the expression of GFP protein in the transgenic edible tobacco plants. The amount of GFP protein detected in the transgenic tobacco plants was approximately 0.16% of the total soluble plant protein (TSP), which was determined by ELISA.

• Journal of Plant Biotechnology
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.233-241
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• 2005

Plants have considerable advantages for the production of antigenic proteins because they provide an inexpensive source of protein and an easy administration of vaccine. Since a publication describing edible plant vaccine of HBsAg in 1992, a number of laboratories around the world have studied the use of plants as the bioreactor to produce antigenic proteins of human or animal pathogens. Over the last ten years, these works have been mainly focused on three major strategies for the production of antigenic proteins in plants: stable genetic transformation of either the nuclear or plastid genome, or transient expression in plants using viral vectors. As many antigenic proteins have been expressed in tobacco, also several laboratories have succeeded to express genes encoding antigenic proteins in other crop plants: potato, tomato, maize, carrot, soybean and spinach. At present many works for the production of edible plant vaccine against bacteria-mediated diseases have mostly performed the studies of enterotoxins and adhesion proteins. Also the development of new-type antigens (pili, flagella, surface protein, other enterotoxin and exotoxin etc.) is required for various targets and more efficacy to immunize against microorganism pathogens. Many works mostly studied in experimental animals had good results, and phase I clinical trial of LTB clearly indicated its immunogenic ability. On the other hand, edible plant vaccines have still problems remained to be solved. In addition to the accumulation of sufficient antigen in plants, human health, environment and agriculture regulation should be proven. Also oral tolerance, the physiological response to food antigens and commensal flora is the induction of a state of specific immunological unresponsiveness, needs to be addressed before plant-derived vaccine becomes a therapeutic option.

• Applied Biological Chemistry
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• v.48 no.4
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• pp.301-310
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• 2005

Foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) is a highly contagious disease of mammals and has a great potential for causing severe economic loss in susceptible cloven-hoofed animals, such as cattle, pigs, sheep, goats and buffalo. FMDV, a member of the Aphthovirus genus in the Picornaviridae family, is a non-enveloped icosahedral virus that contains a positive sense RNA of about 8.2 kb in size. The genome carries one open reading frame consisting of 3 regions: capsid protein coding region P1, replication related protein coding region P2, and RNA-dependent RNA polymerase coding region P3. FMDV infects pharynx epithelial cell in the respiratory tract and viral replication is active in lung epithelial cell. Morbidity is extremely high. A FMD outbreak in Korea in 2002 caused severe economic loss. Although intense research is undergoing to develop appropriate drugs to treat FMDV infection, there is no specific therapeutic for controlling FMDV infection. Moreover, there is an increasing demand for the development of vaccine strategies against FMDV infection in many countries. In this report, more effective prevention strategies against FMDV infection were reviewed.

• 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.

• KSBB Journal
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• v.25 no.6
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• pp.497-506
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• 2010

Vaccine is a protective clinical measure capable of persuading immune system against infectious agents. Vaccine can be categorized as live attenuated and inactivated. Live attenuated vaccines activate immunity similar to natural infection by replicating living organisms whereas inactivated vaccines are either whole cell vaccines, eliciting immune response by killed organisms,or subunit vaccines, stimulating immunity by non-replicating sub cellular parts. The components of vaccine play a critical role in deciding the immune response mediated by the vaccine. The innate immune responds against the antigen component. Adjuvants represent an importantcomponent of vaccine for enhancing the immunogenicity of the antigens. Subunit vaccines with isolated fractions of killed and recombinant antigens are mostly co-administered with adjuvants. The delivery system of the vaccine is another essential component to ensurethat vaccine is delivered to the right target with right dosage form. Furthermore, vaccine delivery system ensures that the desired immune response is achieved by manipulating the optimal interaction of vaccine and adjuvantwith the immune cell. The aforementioned components along with routes of administration of vaccine are the key elements of a successful vaccination procedure. Vaccines can be administered either orally or by parenteral routes. Many groups had made remarkable efforts for the development of new vaccine and delivery system. The emergence of new vaccine delivery system may lead to pursue the immunization goals with better clinical practices.

• 한국생물공학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2003.10a
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• pp.186-189
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• 2003

Helicobacter pylori is the etiologic agent of human gastritis and peptic ulceration and produces urease as the major protein component on its surface. H. pylori urease is known to serve as a potent immunogen as well as major virulence factor. In order to express the recombinant urease in tobacco plants, a DNA fragment containing the minimal H. pylori urease gene cluster was subcloned into a plant expression vector. The recombinant vector was transformed to tobacco plants. The integration of the recombinant plasmids into tobacco chromosomal genome was verified by genomic PCR. Expression to mRNA was confirmed by Northern blot analysis, and expression to recombinant urease protein was observed by Western blot analysis. These results showed that the recombinant urease can be produced in tobacco plants and will be tested for immune response to use as an edible vaccine.

• Journal of Plant Biotechnology
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• v.37 no.3
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• pp.269-274
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• 2010

As the capture fishing industry has declined, the aquaculture industry has become an important source of seafood. With this tendency all fish farming will be performed by large-scale farms where the fish are cultivated in much high density and as a result the incidence of infectious diseases increases. Therefore, vaccination has become an increasingly important part of aquaculture as a cost effective method of controlling various diseases. The early fish vaccines were the formalin inactivated bacteria or virus cultures, which were administered by either immersion or injection. Recombinant DNA biotechnology allowed us to develop orally administrated DNA and recombinant vaccines. In terms of the manufacturing process and cost, Lemna and Spirodela is the most efficient and reliable plant expression system for the production of edible vaccine.

• 한국생물공학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2005.04a
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• pp.545-545
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• 2005