Experts Develop COVID-19 Vaccine from Rice

Yangzhou University researchers in China developed a rice-derived SARS-CoV-2 glycoprotein S1 subunit vaccine. The results are reported in the Plant Biotechnology Journal.

The SARS-CoV-2 virus, causing COVID-19, continues to spread and mutate globally despite the approval and use of commercial vaccines. Thus, the development of safe, effective, and affordable vaccines remains to be a global demand. Plants have emerged as an effective platform to express recombinant proteins for pharmaceutical and vaccine use, leading researchers to use rice plants in the development of a COVID-19 vaccine.

Two binary vectors with distinct promoters were constructed and used to transform rice using Agrobacterium. This process resulted in the regeneration of 56 independent transgenic rice lines. Expression analysis confirmed the production of the rice-derived S1 (rS1) protein in transgenic rice seeds under the control of the pGt1 promoter. The purified rS1 protein was then used to evaluate its interaction with human angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 and its immunogenicity when administered to mice with different adjuvants. The findings suggest that rS1 can induce both humoral and cellular immune responses.

Based on the reported findings, rS1 protein can be used for affordable COVID-19 vaccine development and can also be applied to other viral vaccines.

Read the open-access article in Plant Biotechnology.