Producing blood proteins from transgenic rice

In a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA, researchers describe rice grains that can produce large amounts of a blood protein called serum albumin, or HSA1.

The world has a great need for HSA for the production of drugs, vaccines and treatment for patients with severe burns, hemorrhagic shock and cirrhosis. The supply of HSA is donated blood. To overcome anemia and blood-borne virus infection, researchers worldwide have produced functional HSA, or synthesized with the help of yeasts and bacteria or in genetically modified organisms. like cows and cigarettes. Crop use for HSA production has been underway for the past two decades, but yields have been too low.

In China, the idea of ​​using rice, a rich crop, to supplement or even replace existing albumin supplies to meet the needs of HSA and reduce the risk of spreading plasma viruses. hidden by Daichang Yang, a biotech biologist at Wuhan University, China and colleagues by inserting HSA coding gene into rice plants. This gene is activated during the process of granulation and the protein produced is stored in rice grains along with other nutrients . The results showed that HSA accounted for more than 10% of the total soluble protein of rice kernels, one of the highest yields of recombinant proteins from crops to date.

The analytical results show that rice-derived proteins have chemical and physical characteristics and functional expression equivalent to plasma proteins of human blood in medical tests and immune responses.

"Recombinant methods provide HSA more abundant and safer than human plasma, and at least it will be cost-effective , " said William Velander, a genetically modified therapist at University of Nebraska-Lincoln. According to Don Brooks, who developed synthetic biocompatible materials at British Columbia University in Vancouver, Canada, who also synthesized HAS proteins: "I believe what they have produced is impressively".

Yang's next goal is to test recombinant rice-based HAS on humans over the next two years.