In vivo activity of plant-based interleukin-12 in the lung of Balb/c mouse.
BACKGROUND
In the last years, plants are being used for the production of a wide variety of biopharmaceuticals, including cytokines, and have the potential to serve as vehicles for mucosal administration of these molecules. We had previously reported the expression of a cytokine, interleukin-12 (IL-12), in transgenic tomato plants and had demonstrated that it retained its biologic activity in vitro.


RESULTS
In this work, we administered crude extracts of IL-12-containing tomato fruits to mice through the intratracheal route, measuring endogenous IL-12 and determining biologic activity by quantification of interferon-gamma (IFN-gamma) in lungs and by histological analysis. IFN-gamma expression in lungs, as well as histological analysis, indicate that tomato-expressed IL-12 retains its biologic activity and, most importantly, its effects are restricted to the site of administration.


CONCLUSIONS
Our results indicate that the functional activity of tomato-expressed IL-12 is comparable to that of commercial recombinant IL-12 when given via the mucosal route. This opens the possibility of using crude extracts prepared from tomatoes expressing IL-12 for certain immunotherapies.
Sánchez-Hernández
Carla
C
Centro de Investigación y Asistencia en Tecnología y Diseño del Estado de Jalisco A,C,, Guadalajara, Jalisco, México. agutierrster@gmail.com.
Gutiérrez-Ortega
Abel
A
Aguilar-León
Diana
D
Hernández-Pando
Rogelio
R
Gómez-Lim
Miguel
M
Gómez-García
Beatriz
B