Journal
TRANSGENIC RESEARCH
Volume 17, Issue 6, Pages 1117-1129Publisher
SPRINGER
DOI: 10.1007/s11248-008-9187-2
Keywords
Glutelin peptide-concatemer fusion protein; Collagen-induced rheumatoid arthritis; Immunodominant tolerogenic peptide; Marker-free transgenic rice; Joint cartilage type II-collagen
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Funding
- Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries of Japan [IP-2002]
- Ministry of Education, Science, Sports and Culture of Japan [14COEA12]
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Type II collagen (CII) in joint cartilage is known to be a major auto-antigen in human rheumatoid arthritis. Several animal model- and clinical-studies on tolerance-based immunotherapy for the arthritis have been conducted by administrating synthetic immunodominant peptides through an oral route. In the present study, to produce a tolerogenic peptide with therapeutic potential in transgenic rice plants, a gene construct producing glutelin fusion protein with tandem four repeats of a CII250-270 peptide (residues 250-270) (GluA-4XCII(250-270)) containing a human T-cell epitope was introduced with a selection marker, hygromycin phosphotransferase gene (hygromycin-resistance gene) (hph), by co-transformation. Several transgenic plants with high and stable expression of gluA-4XCII (250-270) , but no hph, were selected based on both DNA and protein analyses. The GluA-4XCII(250-270) fusion proteins were detected as both precursor and processed forms mainly in a glutelin fraction of rice endosperm protein extracts and in protein-body rich fractions prepared by density gradient ultracentrifugation. The amount of accumulated CII250-270 peptide was immunochemically estimated to be about 1 mu g per seed. Feeding DBA/1 mice the transgenic rice seeds (25 mu g of the peptide per mouse a day) for 2 weeks showed tendencies lowering and delaying serum specific-IgG2a response against subsequent and repeated intraperitoneal-injection of type II collagen. Taken these together, the CII-immunodominant peptide could effectively be produced and accumulated as a glutelin-fusion protein in the transgenic rice seeds, which might be useful as pharmaceutical materials and functional food for prevention and therapy for anti-CII autoimmune diseases like human rheumatoid arthritis.
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