Person: Gil Dones, Félix
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First Name
Félix
Last Name
Gil Dones
Affiliation
Universidad Complutense de Madrid
Faculty / Institute
Ciencias Biológicas
Department
Genética, Fisiología y Microbiología
Area
Genética
Identifiers
2 results
Search Results
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Item A novel methodology to develop a foot and mouth disease virus (FMDV) peptide-based vaccine in transgenic plants(2002) Dus Santos, María ; Wigdorovitz, Andrés; Trono, Karina; Rı́os, Raúl ; Franzone, Pascual ; Gil Dones, Félix; Moreno, Javier; Carrillo, Consuelo; Escribano, José ; Borca, ManuelThe 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. Strategies to allow the evaluation of a high number of the transgenic individuals, usually an expensive and very time consuming process, would permit the selection of those plants presenting the highest levels of recombinant protein expression. Here, we present the development of an experimental immunogen based in the expression of a highly immunogenic epitope from foot and mouth disease virus (FMDV) fused to the glucuronidase (gus A) reporter gene, which allows selection of the transgenic plants by the ß-glucuronidase (ßGUS) enzymatic activity. We produced transgenic plants of alfalfa expressing the immunogenic site between amino acid residues 135–160 of structural protein VP1 (VP135–160), fused to the ßGUS protein. Plants expressing the highest levels of the immunogenic epitope VP135–160, analyzed by Western blot, were efficiently selected based on their levels of ßGUS enzymatic activity. The FMDV epitope expressed in plants was highly immunogenic in mice which developed, after immunization, a strong anti-FMDV antibody response against a synthetic peptide representing the region VP135–160, to native virus VP1, and to purified FMDV particles. Additionally, these mice were completely protected against experimental challenge with the virulent virus. To our knowledge, this constitutes the first report of a peptide-based vaccine produced in transgenic plants that induces a protective immune response when used in experimental hosts. Also, these results demonstrated the possibility of using a novel and simple methodology for obtaining transgenic plants expressing high levels of foreign immunogenic epitopes, which could be directly applied in the development of plant-based vaccines.Item High‐yield expression of a viral peptide vaccine in transgenic plants(FEBS Letters, 2001) Gil Dones, Félix; Brun, Alejandro; Wigdorovitz, Andrés; Catalá, Rafael; Martı́nez-Torrecuadrada, Jorge ; Casal, Ignacio; Salinas, Julio; Borca, Manuel ; Escribano, JoséA high-yield production of a peptide vaccine in transgenic plants is described here. A 21-mer peptide, which confers protection to dogs against challenge with virulent canine parvovirus, has been expressed in transgenic plants as an amino-terminal translational fusion with the GUS gene. Transformants were selected on the basis of their GUS activities, showing expression levels of the recombinant protein up to 3% of the total leaf soluble protein, a production yield comparable to that obtained with the same epitope expressed by chimeric plant viruses. The immunogenicity of the plant-derived peptide was demonstrated in mice immunized either intraperitoneally or orally with transgenic plant extracts, providing the suitability of the GUS fusions approach for low-cost production of peptide vaccines.