title: Soybean seeds: a practical host for the production of functional subunit vaccines.
abstract: Soybean seeds possess several inherent qualities that make them an ideal host for the production of biopharmaceuticals when compared with other plant-based and non-plant-based recombinant expression systems (e.g., low cost of production, high protein to biomass ratio, long-term stability of seed proteins under ambient conditions, etc.). To demonstrate the practicality and feasibility of this platform for the production of subunit vaccines, we chose to express and characterize a nontoxic form of S. aureus enterotoxin B (mSEB) as a model vaccine candidate. We show that soy-mSEB was produced at a high vaccine to biomass ratio and represented ~76 theoretical doses of human vaccine per single soybean seed. We localized the model vaccine candidate both intracellularly and extracellularly and found no difference in mSEB protein stability or accumulation relative to subcellular environment. We also show that the model vaccine was biochemically and immunologically similar to native and recombinant forms of the protein produced in a bacterial expression system. Immunization of mice with seed extracts containing mSEB mounted a significant immune response within 14 days of the first injection. Taken together, our results highlight the practicality of soybean seeds as a potential platform for the production of functional subunit vaccines.
authors.affiliation: Soymeds, Inc., Davidson, NC 28036, USA.
authors.forename: Laura C
authors.initials: LC
authors.lastname: Hudson
authors.affiliation: Soymeds, Inc., Davidson, NC 28036, USA ; CSIR-Institute of Microbial Technology, Sector 39A, Chandigarh 160036, India.
authors.forename: Renu
authors.identifier: 0000-0001-5573-7956
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Garg
authors.affiliation: Soymeds, Inc., Davidson, NC 28036, USA ; Department of Biology, University of North Carolina at Charlotte, 9201 University City Boulevard, Charlotte, NC 28223, USA.
authors.forename: Kenneth L
authors.initials: KL
authors.lastname: Bost
authors.affiliation: Soymeds, Inc., Davidson, NC 28036, USA ; Department of Biology, University of North Carolina at Charlotte, 9201 University City Boulevard, Charlotte, NC 28223, USA.
authors.forename: Kenneth J
authors.initials: KJ
authors.lastname: Piller
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D000907:Antibodies, Bacterial / Q000097:blood; D004768:Enterotoxins; D005260:Female; D051379:Mice; D008807:Mice, Inbred BALB C; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D030821:Plants, Genetically Modified / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D021382:Protein Sorting Signals / Q000235:genetics; D011993:Recombinant Fusion Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology / Q000378:metabolism*; D012639:Seeds / Q000378:metabolism*; D030262:Soybean Proteins / Q000235:genetics; D013025:Glycine max / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D022223:Vaccines, Subunit / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D000907:Antibodies, Bacterial; D004768:Enterotoxins; D021382:Protein Sorting Signals; D011993:Recombinant Fusion Proteins; D030262:Soybean Proteins; D022223:Vaccines, Subunit; C031818:enterotoxin B, staphylococcal