Expression of H5 hemagglutinin vaccine antigen in common duckweed (Lemna minor) protects against H5N1 high pathogenicity avian influenza virus challenge in immunized chickens.

A synthetic hemagglutinin (HA) gene from the highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) virus A/chicken/Indonesia/7/2003 (H5N1) (Indo/03) was expressed in aquatic plant Lemna minor (rLemna-HA). In Experiment 1, efficacy of rLemna-HA was tested on birds immunized with 0.2μg or 2.

An afucosylated anti-CD20 monoclonal antibody with greater antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity and B-cell depletion and lower complement-dependent cytotoxicity than rituximab.

The objective of this study was to characterize the in vitro and in vivo activity of a novel afucosylated rituximab (BLX-300) expressed in a Lemna aquatic plant-based system free of zoonotic pathogens. The glycosylation of BLX-300 was shown to be homogeneous, composed of a single major N-glycan species without detectable fucose or xylose. Target cell binding and induction of apoptosis were similar for BLX-300 and rituximab.

Glycan optimization of a human monoclonal antibody in the aquatic plant Lemna minor.

N-glycosylation is critical to the function of monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) and distinguishes various systems used for their production. We expressed human mAbs in the small aquatic plant Lemna minor, which offers several advantages for manufacturing therapeutic proteins free of zoonotic pathogens. Glycosylation of a mAb against human CD30 was optimized by co-expressing the heavy and light chains of the mAb with an RNA interference construct targeting expression of the endogenous alpha-1,3-fucosyltransferase and beta-1,2-xylosyltransferase genes.