Protective lactogenic immunity conferred by an edible peptide vaccine to bovine rotavirus produced in transgenic plants.

Vaccines produced in transgenic plants constitute a promising alternative to conventional immunogens, presenting the possibility of stimulating secretory and systemic immunity against enteric pathogens when administered orally. Protection against enteric pathogens affecting newborn animals requires, in most cases, the stimulation of lactogenic immunity. Here, the group presents the development of an experimental immunogen based on expression of an immunorelevant peptide, eBRV4, of the VP4 protein of bovine rotavirus (BRV), which has been described as harbouring at least one neutralizing epitope as well as being responsible for the adsorption of the virus to epithelial cells.

A novel methodology to develop a foot and mouth disease virus (FMDV) peptide-based vaccine in transgenic plants.

The expression of antigens in transgenic plants has been increasingly used as an alternative to the classical methodologies for antigen expression in the development of experimental vaccines. However, an important limitation in most cases is the low concentration of the recombinant antigens in the plant tissues, which reduces the possibilities of practical applications. Because the site of insertion of the transferred DNA into the cellular chromosomal DNA is at random, different levels of foreign protein expression in independent transformants is expected.