Animal-free Membrane Protein Expression

Cytokines and growth factors are a family of signaling proteins that can control the cellular activities through intercellular communications. Members of this family bind to several specific receptors on the surface of the target cells, inducing the activation of intracellular signaling pathways that regulate the biological processes, such as cell proliferation, activation, differentiation, and migration. It has been reported that cytokines are specifically produced by cells of the immune system, which are essential for initiating inflammation and the innate immune response following infection or injury. Growth factors are produced by a large number of different cell types, which regulate numerous biological processes during development such as cell proliferation, differentiation, tissue organization, morphogenesis, and angiogenesis. Additionally, constitutive activation of growth factor signaling is associated with cellular transformation and tumorigenesis.

Figure 1. General process of purifying recombinant proteins from plants.

Creative Biostructure has extensive expertise in producing high quality animal-free recombinant proteins including cytokines and growth factors using plant expression systems such as barley grain or tobacco plants. These recombinant cytokines and growth factors produced by Mempro™ animal-free expression system are free of animal components, serum, endotoxins and antibiotics as well as human or animal infectious agents or other endogenous mammalian contamination, eliminating experimental variations brought about by these factors. Most notably, post-translational modification such as glycosylation and disulfide bonds can be introduced in plant system. Further advantages of plant systems include low endotoxin, low protease activity, secondary metabolite content and simple protein content.

Other significant advantages of animal-free recombinant proteins production are listed below:

• Cost-effective
• Easy storage and distribution (barley grains containing desired recombinant proteins can be stored for many years)
• Environmentally friendly (plants are cultivated in greenhouses)
• Free of infectious or toxic contaminants
• High yield
• High scale-up capability

Besides recombinant cytokines and growth factors, Creative Biostructure also offer Mempro™ plant-based protein production services for a comprehensive list of other membrane proteins.

Please feel free to contact us for a detailed quote!

Ordering Process

References

1. Marsian J and Lomonossoff GP. (2016) “Molecular pharming - VLPs made in plants”. Curr Opion Biotech 37:201-206.
2. Wiktorek-Smagur A, et al. (2012). “Green way of biomedicine – how to force plants to produce new important proteins”. Transgenic Plants-Advances and Limitations, Chapter 3. Doi: 10.5772/1409.
3. Mason HS and Herbst-Kralovetz MM. (2012). “Plant-derived antigens as mucosal vaccines”. Curr Top Microbiol Immunol 354:101-120.
4. D'Aoust MA, et al. (2010) “The production of hemagglutinin-based virus-like particles in plants: a rapid, efficient and safe response to pandemic influenza”. Plant Biotechnol J 8(5):607-619.