Immune Responses to Plant-Derived Recombinant Colorectal Cancer Glycoprotein EpCAM-FcK Fusion Protein in Mice

• Published in: Biomolecules & therapeutics Vol. 30; no. 6; pp. 546 - 552
• Main Authors: Lim, Chae-Yeon, Kim, Deuk-Su, Kang, Yangjoo, Lee, Ye-Rin, Kim, Kibum, Kim, Do Sun, Kim, Moon-Soo, Ko, Kisung
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: The Korean Society of Applied Pharmacology 01.11.2022
• Subjects: Original
• ISSN: 1976-9148; 2005-4483
• DOI: 10.4062/biomolther.2022.103

Epidermal cell adhesion molecule (EpCAM) is a tumor-associated antigen (TAA), which has been considered as a cancer vaccine candidate. The EpCAM protein fused to the fragment crystallizable region of immunoglobulin G (IgG) tagged with KDEL endoplasmic reticulum (ER) retention signal (EpCAM-FcK) has been successfully expressed in transgenic tobacco ( Nicotiana tabacum cv. Xanthi) and purified from the plant leaf. In this study, we investigated the ability of the plant-derived EpCAM-FcK (EpCAM-FcK P ) to elicit an immune response in vivo . The animal group injected with the EpCAM-FcK P showed a higher differentiated germinal center (GC) B cell population (~9%) compared with the animal group injected with the recombinant rhEpCAM-Fc chimera (EpCAM-Fc M ). The animal group injected with EpCAM-FcK P (~42%) had more differentiated T follicular helper cells (Tfh) than the animal group injected with EpCAM-Fc M (~7%). This study demonstrated that the plant-derived EpCAM-FcK fusion antigenic protein induced a humoral immune response in mice.