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Antigen production in plantto tackle infectious diseases flare up: The case of SARS

TitoloAntigen production in plantto tackle infectious diseases flare up: The case of SARS
Tipo di pubblicazioneArticolo su Rivista peer-reviewed
Anno di Pubblicazione2016
AutoriDemurtas, Olivia Costantina, Massa Silvia, Illiano E., De Martinis D., Chan P.K.S., Di Bonito P., and Franconi Rosella
RivistaFrontiers in Plant Science
Volume7
Paginazione54
ISSN1664462X
Abstract

Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) is a dangerous infection with pandemic potential. It emerged in 2002 and its aetiological agent, the SARS Coronavirus (SARS-CoV), crossed the species barrier to infect humans, showing high morbidity and mortality rates. No vaccines are currently licensed for SARS-CoV and important efforts have been performed during the first outbreak to develop diagnostic tools. Here we demonstrate the transient expression in Nicotiana benthamiana of two important antigenic determinants of the SARS-CoV, the nucleocapsid protein (N) and the membrane protein (M) using a virus-derived vector or agro-infiltration, respectively. For the M protein, this is the first description of production in plants, while for plant-derived N protein we demonstrate that it is recognized by sera of patients from the SARS outbreak in Hong Kong in 2003. The availability of recombinant N and M proteins from plants opens the way to further evaluation of their potential utility for the development of diagnostic and protection/therapy tools to be quickly manufactured, at low cost and with minimal risk, to face potential new highly infectious SARS-CoV outbreaks. © 2016 Demurtas, Massa, Illiano, De Martinis, Chan, Di Bonito and Franconi.

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cited By 1

URLhttps://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-84958582190&doi=10.3389%2ffpls.2016.00054&partnerID=40&md5=a10460dfecf3f3b1f6c6f028c0bb33dc
DOI10.3389/fpls.2016.00054
Citation KeyDemurtas2016