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

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

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.