Tumor Targeting Antibody from Transgenic Rice Cell Culture

The use of monoclonal antibodies is a promising treatment approach for a number of cancer types.  This approach involves the development of specific antibodies directed against antigens present in the surface of tumor cells. Plants are potentially the most economical system available for the large-scale production of monoclonal antibodies. Plant cells are inexpensive to grow and maintain. In addition, plants can carry out many of the posttranslational modifications that occur in human cells.

A group of scientists from Chonbuk University in Korea developed a method for large-scale production of anti-TAG 72 humanized antibody fragments using a transgenic rice cell suspension culture system. Tumor associated glycoprotein 72 (TAG 72) is expressed in the majority of human adenocarcinomas occurring within the colon, ovary, pancreas, breast, and lung. High antibody expression, equivalent to 30 mg/l or about 2% of the total secreted protein, was achieved using the system. The recombinant antibody was found to bind specifically to human colon adenocarcinoma cells with TAG 72, and this binding occurred at the same extent as was seen with animal-derived antibody.

 Read the paper published by Plant Molecular Biology at http://www.springerlink.com/content/k5r3867237nt860v/fulltext.pdf or http://www.springerlink.com/content/k5r3867237nt860v/?p=47ca1713531448a491167c9569769f3f&pi=0