Cueno, ME

Hibi, Y

Karamatsu, K

Laurena, AC

Okamoto, T

Yasutomi, Y

Retrovirology

English

PubMed

ME Cueno

Y Hibi

K Karamatsu

Y Yasutomi

AC Laurena

T Okamoto

Crossref

BioMed Central
Page 1 of 1
(page number not for citation purposes)
Retrovirology
Open AccessPoster presentation
P19-16. Potential of an HIV-1 Tat fusion protein expressed in 
tomato as a plant-based HIV vaccine
ME Cueno*1, Y Hibi1, K Karamatsu2, Y Yasutomi3, AC Laurena4 and 
T Okamoto1
Address: 1Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Nagoya City University Graduate School of Medical Sciences, Nagoya City, Japan, 
2Tsukuba Primate Research Center, Tsukuba, Japan, 3Tsukuba Primate Research Insitute, Tsukuba, Japan and 4University of the Philippines Los 
Banos, Los Banos, Philippines
* Corresponding author    
Background
Utilizing plants to produce pharmaceutical products,
including antigens for AIDS, is a new way to produce vac-
cines. HIV-1 Tat plays a major role in viral replication and
is essential for AIDS disease development making it an
ideal vaccine target provided that both humoral and cellu-
lar immune responses are induced. Previous attempts to
express Tat in tomato only reported successful humoral
immune responses induction while certain physiological
abnormalities were also observed in tomato which would
be detrimental to furthering plant-based HIV vaccine
development. In this study, an in-depth understanding of
the effects of Tat expression in tomato and its immuno-
genicity was determined.
Methods
Codon-optimized Tat gene was synthesized and intro-
duced into tomato plant through bombardment. Recom-
binant tomato extracts were tested for Tat expression and
introduced intradermally to Balb/c mice. Immunogenic
responses were measured through ELISA and ELISPOT.
Concurrently, strategies were made to understand and
hinder the toxic effects of Tat protein in tomato plant.
Results
Tat-GUS fusion protein was preferentially expressed over
the Tat-only protein among bombarded samples, of
which, noticeable physiological abnormalities were
observed in tomato regardless of developmental stage.
Further analyses reveal that plant cytokinin oxidase is
apparently affected by Tat. Interestingly, we found that the
RGD and Arg-rich motifs of Tat have common functional
use in tomato explaining our observed abnormalities and
mutating these regions easily avoided such abnormalities.
Nevertheless, when extracts were obtained from the trans-
genic tomato lines and intradermally introduced to Balb/
c mice, both humoral and cellular immune responses
were induced.
Conclusion
Tat fusion protein is preferentially expressed over the Tat
only protein in tomato plant, though physiological
abnormalities exists in tomato plant when Tat is
expressed, it is still capable of inducing both humoral and
cellular immune responses proving the feasibility of pro-
ducing a plant-based vaccine for HIV provided appropri-
ate mutations on Tat are made.
from AIDS Vaccine 2009
Paris, France. 19–22 October 2009
Published: 22 October 2009
Retrovirology 2009, 6(Suppl 3):P336 doi:10.1186/1742-4690-6-S3-P336
<supplement> <title> <p>AIDS Vaccine 2009</p> </title> <editor>Anna Laura Ross</editor> <note>Meeting abstracts – A single PDF containing all abstracts in this Supplement is available <a href="http://www.biomedcentral.com/content/files/pdf/1742-4690-6-S3-full.pdf">here</a>.</note> <url>http://www.biomedcentral.com/content/pdf/1471-2105-10-S12-info.pdf</url> </supplement>
This abstract is available from: http://www.retrovirology.com/content/6/S3/P336
© 2009 Cueno et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 


P19-16. Potential of an HIV-1 Tat fusion protein expressed in tomato as a plant-based HIV vaccine

Springer - Publisher Connector

https://retrovirology.biomedcentral.com/track/pdf/10.1186/1742-4690-6-S3-P336?site=retrovirology.biomedcentral.com

P19-16. Potential of an HIV-1 Tat fusion protein expressed in tomato as a plant-based HIV vaccine

Abstract

Similar works

Full text

Available Versions

Crossref

Springer - Publisher Connector

Springer - Publisher Connector