Immunogenicity Evaluation of Recombinant Edible Vaccine Candidate Containing HER2-MUC1 against Breast Cancer

Abstract

Human epithelial growth factor receptor2 (Her2) and polymorphic epithelial mucin (MUC1) are tumor-associated antigens that have been extensively investigated in adenocarcinomas. Generally, each of these molecules was used separately for diagnosis of adenocarcinomas and as an injective vaccines in cancer therapy researches, but not in the chimeric form as an edible immunogen.

In this study, Her2, MUC1, and a novel fusion structure were expressed in the seeds and hairy roots of transgenic plants appropriately. The mice groups were immunized either by feeding of transgenic seeds or hairy roots.

All immunized groups showed a considerable rise in anti-glycoprotein serum IgG and IgA, and IFNɣ cytokine. However, the animals received chimeric protein showed significant higher immune responses in comparison to ones received one of these immunogen.

The results indicated that the oral immunization of an animal model with transgenic plants could effectively elicit immune responses against two major tumor-associated antigens.