Biomol Ther.  2022 Nov;30(6):546-552. 10.4062/biomolther.2022.103.

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

Affiliations
  • 1Department of Medicine, College of Medicine, Chung-Ang University, Seoul 06974, Republic of Korea
  • 2Vegetable Research Division, National Institute of Horticultural and Herbal Science, Rural Development Administration, Wanju 55365, Republic of Korea
  • 3Department of Chemistry, Ogden College of Science and Engineering, Western Kentucky University, Bowling Green, KY 42101, USA

Abstract

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-FcKP ) to elicit an immune response in vivo. The animal group injected with the EpCAM-FcKP showed a higher differentiated germinal center (GC) B cell population (~9%) compared with the animal group injected with the recombinant rhEpCAM-Fc chimera (EpCAM-FcM ). The animal group injected with EpCAM-FcKP (~42%) had more differentiated T follicular helper cells (Tfh) than the animal group injected with EpCAM-FcM (~7%). This study demonstrated that the plant-derived EpCAM-FcK fusion antigenic protein induced a humoral immune response in mice.

Keyword

Colorectal cancer; EpCAM; Germinal center B cells; Transgenic plants
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