Cancer and hepatitis viruses are two of the leading causes of death worldwide. Recombinant Interferon alpha2b (IFNa2b) is used as an immunotherapeutic drug for cancers, hepatitis viruses and several other viral diseases. Interferons are produced in low quantity naturally and production cost for recombinant IFNa2b in E.coli is very high. Since prokaryotes cannot form disulfide bonds, additional techniques have to be employed to create a functional form of IFNa2b. The average cost per patient for treatment with recombinant IFNa2b is $26,000 per year. Around 800 million people in the world are infected with Hepatitis C virus and most of them cannot afford the treatment costs. Producing recombinant IFNa2b in tobacco chloroplasts will overcome these problems and make the drug affordable for many people.
A recombinant IFNa2b chloroplast vector was introduced into the tobacco cultivars Petit Havana (model) and LAMD-609 (low nicotine hybrid plants) in the Daqjell lab by particle gun bombardment. In this research, second-generation transgenic plants with the IFNa2b gene are subjected to various experiments to study the levels of IFNa2b expression. The psbA regulatory sequences present in the chloroplast vector are known to enhance protein expression in the presence of light. To analyze this effect and to find optimal growth conditions for maximal IFN a2b production, continuous light studies were performed. These results can be vital for mass production of IFNa2b.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ucf.edu/oai:stars.library.ucf.edu:honorstheses1990-2015-1448 |
| Date | 01 January 2005 |
| Creators | Cherukumilli, Venkata Sri |
| Publisher | STARS |
| Source Sets | University of Central Florida |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Source | HIM 1990-2015 |
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