Production of immunogenic Ebola GP protein in maize

 描述（由申请人提供）：引起出血热的埃博拉病毒是对公共卫生的主要威胁，也是潜在的生物恐怖主义制剂。迫切需要在近期和长期采取新的办法来预防和治疗这一疾病。目前还没有获得许可的疫苗或治疗这些病毒感染的治疗方法。然而，大量的工作已经产生了一些有希望的候选疫苗。这些候选药物目前正在进入人体试验，并可能在不久的将来被批准广泛使用。然而，这些候选人预计需要冷链和受过训练的医务人员进行管理。这在偏远的欠发达地区可能是一个重大挑战。如果能够研制出安全的耐热口服疫苗，消除由受过训练的医务人员接种的相关费用，并允许在高危人群中迅速传播，那么接种疫苗的大多数问题就可以大大减少。有可能实现这些目标的一种方法是低成本的植物生产的口服疫苗。特别是，已经出现了一种使用转基因玉米的系统，该系统显示出克服先前限制所需的特性。该系统已用于其他候选疫苗，本文所述的工作旨在开发用于埃博拉疫苗的系统。第一阶段的完成应该提供概念验证，即在玉米中表达免疫原性埃博拉蛋白可以在小鼠中引发免疫应答。这项工作的成功完成将最终导致生产不需要冷链的低成本口服埃博拉疫苗。

 DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The Ebola virus that causes hemorrhagic fever is a major threat to public health and a potential bioterrorism agent. There is an urgent need for new approaches to prevention and treatment of this disease both in the near and long term. Currently there are no licensed vaccines or therapeutic treatments for infection with these viruses. However, a large body of work has resulted in a number of promising candidate vaccines. These candidates are currently moving into human trials and are likely to be approved for widespread use in the near future. However, these candidates are expected to require a cold chain and trained medical personnel for administration. This can be a significant challenge in remote underdeveloped areas. Most of the problems in administering vaccines could be greatly reduced if a safe thermostable oral vaccine could be developed that eliminated the costs associated with administration by trained medical personnel and allowed for rapid dissemination among at-risk populations. One approach that has the potential to meet these objectives is a low-cost, plant-produced oral vaccine. In particular, a system using transgenic maize has emerged that has shown the characteristics needed to overcome previous limitations. This system has been used on other vaccine candidates and the work described here is aimed at developing it for use with an Ebola vaccine. The completion of Phase I should provide proof-of-concept that expression of immunogenic Ebola proteins in maize can elicit an immune response in mice. Successful completion of this work will eventually lead to the production of low cost orally delivered Ebola vaccines that do not require a cold chain.