Biotech Updates

Plant-Derived West Nile Infection-Fighting Antibodies as Effective as Conventional Version

February 12, 2010

Plant-derived antibodies are as effective as monoclonal antibodies (mAb) developed from mammalian cells at preventing infection and fighting existing infections, according to researchers at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and Arizona State University. The team of researchers successfully demonstrated the efficacy of Hu-E16 mAb antibodies produced from Nicotiana benthamiana in treating West Nile Virus (WNV) infection in mice. WNV is a virus of the family Flaviviridae and part of the Japanese encephalitis (JE) antigenic complex of viruses. In the United States alone, more than 29,000 human cases have been diagnosed with severe WNV infection during the past decade.

The researchers, reporting in a paper published by PNASΒΈ said that they produced 0.8 g of Hu-E16 per kilogram of fresh Nicotiana benthamiana leaves within 8 days of infiltration. They also showed that a single dose of plant Hu-E16 protected mice against WNV-induced mortality even 4 days after infection at rates that were indistinguishable from mammalian-cell-produced Hu-E16.

Read the paper published by PNAS at http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0914503107