N-glycosylation enzymes of Nicotiana benthamiana: Identification and structure/function analysis

植物可以作为生产治疗性蛋白质的有效和成本有效的手段，并且与重组细胞培养方法相比具有一些优势。这些优势包括高产量、低廉的种植成本、监管优势以及用最少的基础设施生产蛋白质的能力。无论使用哪种方法，一个挑战是使产品类似于人类蛋白质，这样它们就不会刺激受体的免疫反应。大多数治疗性蛋白质都被糖分子（多糖或聚糖）的复合物所包裹。为了避免排斥反应，它们必须模仿人类的聚糖结构。这个项目的目标是研究植物在蛋白质上制造聚糖的机制。其中许多已经通过对植物基因组进行测序而被识别出来。然而，它们如何发挥作用的细节，以及它们如何被修饰成类似人类的聚糖，是这项研究的主题。合作公司PlantForm正在开发在植物中制造治疗性蛋白质的技术。该项目的结果将为这些技术的进步提供基础，这些技术有助于将产品掩蔽在类人聚糖壳内，并使其能够耐受给患者。

Plants can be used as an efficient and cost-effective means of producing therapeutic proteins, and have severaladvantages over recombinant cell culture approaches. These include high yields, cheap growing costs,regulatory advantages, and the ability to produce proteins with minimal infrastructure.One challenge, no matter what method is used, is to make the products resemble human proteins, so thatthey do not stimulate an immune response in the recipient. Most therapeutic proteins are coated withcomplexes of sugar molecules (polysaccharides or glycans). In order to avoid rejection, these have to mimichuman glycan structures.The goal of this project is to study the plant mechanisms that make the glycans on proteins. Many of thesehave been identified by sequencing the plant genome. However, the details of how they function, and how theymight be modified to make human-like glycans, are the subject of this study.The partner company, PlantForm, is developing technologies for making therapeutic proteins in plants. Theresults of this project will provide a foundation for advances in these technologies that facilitate the masking ofthe products within a human-like glycan shell, and making them tolerable to administer to patients.