tetano
Editor, Senior Moderator
Vaccines (Basel)
. 2021 Nov 17;9(11):1337.
doi: 10.3390/vaccines9111337.
Production and Characterization of Nucleocapsid and RBD Cocktail Antigens of SARS-CoV-2 in Nicotiana benthamiana Plant as a Vaccine Candidate against COVID-19
Tarlan Mamedov[SUP] 1 [/SUP], Damla Yuksel[SUP] 1 [/SUP], Merve Ilgın[SUP] 1 [/SUP], Irem Gürbüzaslan[SUP] 1 [/SUP], Burcu Gulec[SUP] 1 [/SUP], Gulshan Mammadova[SUP] 1 [/SUP], Aykut Ozdarendeli[SUP] 2 3 [/SUP], Hazel Yetiskin[SUP] 2 3 [/SUP], Busra Kaplan[SUP] 2 3 [/SUP], Shaikh Terkis Islam Pavel[SUP] 2 3 [/SUP], Muhammet Ali Uygut[SUP] 2 [/SUP], Gulnara Hasanova[SUP] 1 [/SUP]
Affiliations
Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic has put global public health at high risk, rapidly spreading around the world. Although several COVID-19 vaccines are available for mass immunization, the world still urgently needs highly effective, reliable, cost-effective, and safe SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus vaccines, as well as antiviral and therapeutic drugs, to control the COVID-19 pandemic given the emerging variant strains of the virus. Recently, we successfully produced receptor-binding domain (RBD) variants in the Nicotiana benthamiana plant as promising vaccine candidates against COVID-19 and demonstrated that mice immunized with these antigens elicited a high titer of RBD-specific antibodies with potent neutralizing activity against SARS-CoV-2. In this study, we engineered the nucleocapsid (N) protein and co-expressed it with RBD of SARS-CoV-2 in Nicotiana benthamiana plant to produce an antigen cocktail. The purification yields were about 22 or 24 mg of pure protein/kg of plant biomass for N or N+RBD antigens, respectively. The purified plant produced N protein was recognized by N protein-specific monoclonal and polyclonal antibodies demonstrating specific reactivity of mAb to plant-produced N protein. In this study, for the first time, we report the co-expression of RBD with N protein to produce a cocktail antigen of SARS-CoV-2, which elicited high-titer antibodies with potent neutralizing activity against SARS-CoV-2. Thus, obtained data support that a plant-produced antigen cocktail, developed in this study, is a promising vaccine candidate against COVID-19.
Keywords: COVID-19; RBD of SARS-CoV-2; SARS-CoV-2; nucleocapsid protein; plant; transient expression system.
. 2021 Nov 17;9(11):1337.
doi: 10.3390/vaccines9111337.
Production and Characterization of Nucleocapsid and RBD Cocktail Antigens of SARS-CoV-2 in Nicotiana benthamiana Plant as a Vaccine Candidate against COVID-19
Tarlan Mamedov[SUP] 1 [/SUP], Damla Yuksel[SUP] 1 [/SUP], Merve Ilgın[SUP] 1 [/SUP], Irem Gürbüzaslan[SUP] 1 [/SUP], Burcu Gulec[SUP] 1 [/SUP], Gulshan Mammadova[SUP] 1 [/SUP], Aykut Ozdarendeli[SUP] 2 3 [/SUP], Hazel Yetiskin[SUP] 2 3 [/SUP], Busra Kaplan[SUP] 2 3 [/SUP], Shaikh Terkis Islam Pavel[SUP] 2 3 [/SUP], Muhammet Ali Uygut[SUP] 2 [/SUP], Gulnara Hasanova[SUP] 1 [/SUP]
Affiliations
- PMID: 34835268
- DOI: 10.3390/vaccines9111337
Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic has put global public health at high risk, rapidly spreading around the world. Although several COVID-19 vaccines are available for mass immunization, the world still urgently needs highly effective, reliable, cost-effective, and safe SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus vaccines, as well as antiviral and therapeutic drugs, to control the COVID-19 pandemic given the emerging variant strains of the virus. Recently, we successfully produced receptor-binding domain (RBD) variants in the Nicotiana benthamiana plant as promising vaccine candidates against COVID-19 and demonstrated that mice immunized with these antigens elicited a high titer of RBD-specific antibodies with potent neutralizing activity against SARS-CoV-2. In this study, we engineered the nucleocapsid (N) protein and co-expressed it with RBD of SARS-CoV-2 in Nicotiana benthamiana plant to produce an antigen cocktail. The purification yields were about 22 or 24 mg of pure protein/kg of plant biomass for N or N+RBD antigens, respectively. The purified plant produced N protein was recognized by N protein-specific monoclonal and polyclonal antibodies demonstrating specific reactivity of mAb to plant-produced N protein. In this study, for the first time, we report the co-expression of RBD with N protein to produce a cocktail antigen of SARS-CoV-2, which elicited high-titer antibodies with potent neutralizing activity against SARS-CoV-2. Thus, obtained data support that a plant-produced antigen cocktail, developed in this study, is a promising vaccine candidate against COVID-19.
Keywords: COVID-19; RBD of SARS-CoV-2; SARS-CoV-2; nucleocapsid protein; plant; transient expression system.