Poster: Protein Targeting & Vesicular Trafficking

Abs # 1196: Development of vaccine for Cervical cancer in transgenic plants: A comparative study on gene expression level by various approaches

Presenter:	Azhakanandam, Kasi , kazhaka@unity.ncsu.edu
Authors	Azhakanandam, Kasi  (A)   Allina, Sandra  (A)   Liu, Yan  (A)   Francis, Kirk  (A)   Boston, Rebecca  (A)   Long, Ray  (A)   Qu, Rongda  (A)   Weissinger, Arthur  (A)
Affiliations:	(A): North Carolina State University

Cervical cancer, which is caused by specific types of human papillomaviruses (HPVs), ranks second as a cause of cancer-related deaths in women worldwide. Cervical cancer is diagnosed in approximately 500,000 women each year worldwide, and the disease causes nearly 250,000 deaths each year (Crum, 2002). HPV-16, one of the types responsible for cervical cancer has infected nearly 20% of adults. Our long-term objective is to develop an economical method for producing prophylactic vaccines against HPV using transgenic plants approach. Currently, we are developing a model system using tobacco, Arabidopsis, and cool-season vegetable crops to express "L1", the primary capsid protein of canine oral papillomavirus (COPV). Agrobacterium-mediated transformation has been employed to transfer VCP 5, a modified gene encoding L1, gene into various plant species. We have made several gene constructs designed to cause the L1 protein to be accumulated in either chloroplasts or the endoplasmic reticulum in order to increase accumulation of the expressed protein. We are also testing the use of the ‘Amplicon plus’ technology to measure its effect on L1 accumulation in tobacco. Putative transgenic plants have been obtained by some of these approaches. Molecular and protein analyses of the transformed plants will be reported.