Production of Chloroplast-Derived Anthrax Vaccines Antigens

Introduction

Anthrax is a disease caused by the large bacterium Bacillus anthracis. Anthrax spores are extremely resilient and can withstand extreme environments. Anthrax is classified as a class A biological agent due to the severity of the infection. Anthrax is a major threat in biological weapons today. Bacillus anthracis carries the paga, LEFA and ga genes, which encode protective antigen (PA), lethal factor (LF) and edema factor (EF), respectively. Among them, PA is considered to have strong immunogenicity and is a key component in vaccine production. Scientists develop anthrax vaccines by using different expression systems (roundworm and yeast), gene therapy techniques, and more. However, these methods are limited by being very cumbersome, expensive, and requiring high-tech purification and fermentation facilities. Plants are safe and ideal expression systems. Studies have shown that chloroplast-derived anthrax protective antigens provide complete protection against attack by the lethal anthrax toxin.

Fig. 1. Picture of anthrax vaccine and Bacillus anthracis display.

Solutions

Our engineers are passionate about engineering chloroplasts to produce edible vaccines to help control human and animal disease. Lifeasible is an expert in vaccine development with a variety of mature and comprehensive platforms and technologies to  provide global customers with professional solutions for the production of chloroplast-derived anthrax vaccines. We developed a tobacco transformation system to express anthrax vaccine antigens that provides a clean, safe, and effective vaccine. Our strategy is as follows:

(1) Construction of pLD-VK1 vector for chloroplast transformation.
(2) We cloned the PA gene (pag) into tobacco chloroplasts using the psbA regulatory signal.
(3) PCR and Southern blot analysis whether the pagA gene is stably integrated into the chloroplast genome.
(4) The expression of PA protein in transgenic plants was detected by Western blot.
(5) The function of chloroplast-derived PA was tested by macrophage lysis assay.

Features of Our Solutions

• Safe and does not cause any side effects.
• Avoiding expensive purification, refrigerated shipping, and oral shipping.
• PA can efficiently bind to anthrax toxin receptors and form heptamers.
• Chloroplast-derived PAs are as potent as those produced in Bacillus anthracis.
• Easily mass-produce anthrax vaccine free of foreign bacterial contaminants.
• It can maintain its function stably from production, transportation, storage to delivery to the host.
• 360 million doses of vaccine produced in one acre of genetically modified plants.

Chloroplast-transformed oral anthrax vaccines are safe and effective, and have important implications for protecting humans or animals from Bacillus anthracis. Lifeasible has extensive knowledge and experience in the development and production processes of chloroplast-derived anthrax vaccines. Our mission is to provide customers with comprehensive, reliable, professional solutions to accelerate your research. If you are interested in our solutions for the production of chloroplast-derived anthrax vaccines, please contact us at any time.

References

1. Koya V, Moayeri M, Leppla SH, Daniell H. (2005) Plant-based vaccine: mice immunized with chloroplast-derived anthrax protective antigen survive anthrax lethal toxin challenge. Infect Immun. 73(12): 8266-74.
2. Kamarajugadda S, Daniell H. (2006) Chloroplast-derived anthrax and other vaccine antigens: their immunogenic and immunoprotective properties. Expert Rev Vaccines. 5(6):839-49.