title: Potential Application of Plant-derived Bioengineered Human VEGF for Tissue Regeneration.
abstract: The design and development of novel biological drugs are among the most exciting new areas of biotechnology which are gaining the attention of scientists. In the last few decades several fabrication processes have been proposed and developed for the production of recombinant growth factors. However, traditional production processes have several limitations in terms of scale- up, cost-efficiency and purity grade of the proteins. In the present study, we propose for the first time the proof-of-concept of large-scale production of growth factors in plants as a new alternative to other production processes. We have decided to select vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) as model assuming its key role in cell survival and regenerative medicine. Results show that the present protocol is efficient to scale up a purification procedure of rh VEGF isoform 165 in Nicotiana benthamiana plants. Our procedure resulted in dimeric VEGF protein with high purity degree and yield, which showed full biological activity over endothelial and epithelial cells, suggesting great potential for its use in regenerative medicine. This protein could be exploited not only in tissue repair and regeneration but also as a biologically active ingredient in dermocosmetics.
authors.forename: Williams
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Laura
authors.affiliation: Agrenvec S.L., Santiago Grisolía 2, Madrid 28760, Spain. pablo.lunello@plantaderma.es.
authors.forename: Lunello
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Pablo
authors.forename: Ajuria
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Arantxa
authors.forename: Bronchalo
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Isabel
authors.forename: Romualdo
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Alberto
authors.forename: Jurado
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Silvia
authors.forename: Canas
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Noelia
authors.lastname: de Francisco Ana
authors.forename: Cobos
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Raquel
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Technology, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of the Basque Country, Vitoria, Spain. gorka.orive@ehu.es.
authors.forename: Orive
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Gorka
mesh_terms: D001483:Base Sequence; D002460:Cell Line; D002465:Cell Movement; D018076:DNA, Complementary / Q000235:genetics; D006801:Humans; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D015202:Protein Engineering; D016415:Sequence Alignment; D012689:Sequence Homology, Nucleic Acid; D014026:Nicotiana / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D042461:Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor A / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D018076:DNA, Complementary; C467484:VEGFA protein, human; D042461:Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor A