Claims
- 1. A plant, or portion thereof, comprising one or more nucleotide sequences conferring the ability of said plant, or portion thereof, to express a cytokine.
- 2 The plant, or portion thereof, as described in claim 1, wherein said cytokine is selected from the group consisting of IL-1, IL-2, IL-3, IL-4, IL-5, IL-6, IL-7, IL-8, IL-9, IL-10, IL-11, IL-12, IL-13, I-14, IL-15, IL-16, IL-17, IL-18, IL-19, IL-20, IL-21, IL-22, IL-23 IL-24, IL-26, IL-27, EPO, CSF, G-CSF, GM-CSF, hPG-CSF, M-CSF, Factor VIII, Factor IX, tPA, hGH, growth factor, epidermal growth factor, keratinocyte growth factor, and transformation growth factor.
- 3. The plant, or portion thereof, as described in claim 1, wherein said cytokine is a member of the IL-10 family.
- 4. The plant, or portion thereof, as described in claim 1, wherein said cytokine is a contra inflammatory cytokine.
- 5. The plant, or portion thereof, as described in claim 1, further comprising a nucleotide sequence conferring the ability of said plant, or portion thereof to express glutamic acid decarboxylase (GAD), or a fragment of GAD.
- 6. The plant, or portion thereof, as described in claim 1, wherein said plant is a tobacco plant.
- 7. The plant, or portion thereof, as described in claim 1, wherein said plant is a low-nicotine, low-alkaloid tobacco plant.
- 8. The plant, or portion thereof, as described in claim 1, wherein said cytokine is IL-4.
- 9. The plant or portion thereof, as described in claim 1, wherein said cytokine is IL-10.
- 10. The plant, or portion thereof, as described in claim 5, wherein said cytokine is IL-4.
- 11. A composition comprising a plant-expressed cytokine, and an autoantigen.
- 12. The composition of claim 11, wherein said plant-expressed cytokine is a contra-inflammatory cytokine.
- 13. The composition of claim 12, wherein said contra-inflammatory cytokine, is IL-4.
- 14. The composition of claim 13, wherein said autoantigen, is GAD, or a fragment thereof.
- 15. The composition of claim 11, wherein said plant-expressed cytokine and autoantigen are produced in the same plant.
- 16. The composition of claim 11, wherein said plant-expressed cytokine is produced in a first plant, and said autoantigen is produced in a second plane.
- 17. A method of treating an auto-immune disease in a subject comprising, orally administering to said subject a composition comprising a plant-expressed contra-inflammatory cytokine, and an autoantigen.
- 18. A method of treating an auto-immune disease in a subject comprising, orally administering to said subject a composition comprising a contra-inflammatory cytokine, and a plant-expressed autoantigen.
- 19. A method of treating an auto-immune disease in a subject comprising, orally administering to said subject a composition comprising a plant-expressed contra-inflammatory cytokine, and a plant-expressed autoantigen.
- 20. A method of producing a cytokine for oral administration comprising, transforming a plant, or portion thereof with a nucleotide sequence encoding said cytokine, growing said plant, and expressing said cytokine said plant, or a portion thereof.
- 21. The method of claim 20, wherein said cytokine is selected from the group consisting of a contra inflammatory cytokine, a member of the IL-10 family, IL-1, IL-2, IL-3, IL-4, IL-5, IL-6, IL-7, IL-8, IL-9, IL-10, IL-11, IL-12, IL-13, IL-14, IL-15, IL-16, IL-17, IL-18, IL-19, IL-20, IL-21, IL-22, IL—23, IL-24, IL-26, IL-27, EPO, CSF, G-CSF, GM-CSF, hPG-CSF, M-CSF, Factor VIII, Factor IX, tPA, hGH, growth factor, epidermal growth factor, keratinocyte growth factor, and transformation growth factor.
- 22. The method of claim 20, wherein said cytokine is IL-4, or IL-10.
- 23. The method of claim 20, wherein said plant is selected from the group consisting of potato, tomato, alfalfa, corn and tobacco.
- 24. The method of claim 20, wherein said plant is a tobacco plant.
- 25. The method of claim 20, wherein said plant is a low-nicotine, low alkaloid tobacco plant.
- 26. A method of eliciting an immune response against an antigen in a subject, said method comprising orally administering a plant, or portion of a plant, comprising an antigen and an interleukin or portion thereof comprising an antigen and an interleukin to said subject.
- 27. The method of claim 26, wherein said antigen is glutamic acid decarboxylase (GAD).
- 28. The method of claim 27 wherein said interleukin is IL-4.
- 29. The method of claim 26, wherein said immune response comprises activating Th2 cells.
- 30. The method of claim 26, wherein said immune response comprises toleration to said antigen.
- 31. A method of reducing an inflammatory response in a mammal said method comprising orally administering to said mammal a plant or a plant extract comprising an effective dose of a plant-derived mammalian contra-inflammatory cytokine.
- 32. The method of claim 31, wherein the inflammatory response is inflammatory bowel disease, and said contra-inflammatory cytokine is plant expressed IL-10.
- 33. The method of claim 32, wherein said inflammatory bowel disease comprises ulcerative colitis or Crohn's disease.
- 34. The method of claim 31, wherein in said method, said plant is a tobacco plant.
- 35. The method of claim 31, wherein in said method, said plant is a low-nicotine, low-alkaloid tobacco plant.
- 36. A method for the production of a protein of interests said method comprising, providing a low nicotine, low alkaloid tobacco plant containing a gene encoding said protein of interest and operatively linked with 5′ and 3′ regulatory regions, growing and allowing expression of said protein of interest.
- 37. The method of claim 36, wherein portions of said plant are harvested.
- 38. The method of claim 36, wherein said protein of interest is an interleukin.
- 39. The method of claim 37, wherein said interleukin is IL-1, IL-2, IL-3, IL-4, IL-5, IL-6, IL-7, IL-8, IL-9, IL-10, IL-11, IL-12, IL-13, IL-14, IL-15, IL-16, IL-17, IL-18, IL-19, IL-20, IL-21, IL-22, IL-23, IL-24, IL-26, IL-27 and a combination thereof.
- 40. The method of claim 37, wherein said interleukin is IL-4.
- 41. The method of claim 37, wherein said interleukin is IL-10.
- 42. The method of claim 36, wherein leaves of said low nicotine, low alkaloid tobacco plant comprise,
a) a nicotine concentration (wt/wt) which is less than about 5% the nicotine concentration (wt/wt) of Delgold tobacco plants grown under the same conditions, and; b) an alkaloid concentration (wt/wt) which is less than about 5% the alkaloid concentration (wt/wt) of Del gold tobacco plants grown under the same conditions.
- 43. The method of claim 36, wherein leaves of said low nicotine, low alkaloid tobacco plant comprise,
a) a nicotine concentration (wt/wt) which is less than about 2.6%, the nicotine concentration (wt/wt) of Delgold tobacco plants grown under the same conditions, and; b) an alkaloid concentration (wt/wt) which is less than about 0.28%, the alkaloid concentration (wt/wt) of Delgold tobacco plants grown under the same conditions.
- 44. The method of claim 36, wherein, said protein of interest further comprises one, or more than one of:
a) a thrombin cleavage sequence; b) an endoplasmic reticulum retention signal sequence, and; c) an affinity tag sequence to aid in purification of said protein of interest.
- 45. The method of claim 44, wherein after said step of obtaining (step iii), said protein of interest is purified from said plant tissues.
- 46. The method of claim 36, wherein after said step of growing, said protein of interest is purified from a plant tissue.
- 47. An extract containing the protein of interest prepared according to the method of claim 36.
- 48. A method of administering a protein of interest to an animal, said method comprising feeding said animal a plant tissue comprising the protein of interest produced according to the method of claim 36.
- 49. A vector comprising a nucleotide sequence encoding an cytokine, operatively linked to at least one regulatory region active in a plant.
- 50. The vector of claim 49, wherein a second nucleotide sequence is fused to said nucleotide sequence, said second nucleotide sequence encoding,
i) an enzyme cleavage site, ii) an endoplasmic reticulum retention signal, iii) an affinity tag to aid purification of said cytokine, or a combination thereof.
- 51. The vector of claim 49, wherein said interleukin is IL-4 or IL10.
- 52. The vector of claim 50, wherein said endoplasmic reticulum retention signal comprises the amino acid sequence KDEL.
- 53. A plant cell comprising the vector according to claim 49.
- 54. A seed comprising the vector according to claim 49.
- 55. A plant, or progeny thereof, comprising the vector according to claim 49.
- 56. The plant according to claim 55, wherein said plant is a low-alkaloid, low-nicotine plant.
- 57. A low-nicotine, low-alkaloid tobacco plant comprising a nucleotide sequence capable of producing one or more transgenic proteins of interest in said plant.
- 58. The plant of claim 57, wherein said nucleotide sequence comprises a sequence encoding an interleukin, an autoantigen, or both.
- 59. The plant of claim 58, wherein said interleukin is selected from the group consisting of IL-4 and IL-b 10.
- 60. The plant of claim 58, wherein said autoantigen is GAD.
- 61. The plant of claim 57 which is 81V9.
- 62. A method of delivering an interleukin, an autoantigen, or both an interleukin and an autoantigen to a subject in need thereof comprising, orally administering said plant according to claim 58, or portion thereof, to said subject
- 63. The method according to claim 62, wherein said interleukin is IL-10.
- 64. The method according to claim 62, wherein said interleukin is IL-4.
- 65. The method according to claim 62, wherein said autoantigen is GAD.
- 66. A method of enhancing the effect of an immune response against an antigen in a subject, said method comprising administering a plant-expressed interleukin and said antigen to said subject.
Parent Case Info
[0001] This application is a Continuation-In-Part of Ser. No. 09/773,385, filed Feb. 1, 2001, which is a Continuation application of Ser. No. 09/102,050, filed Jun. 22, 1998, which is a Continuation-In-Part application of Ser. No. 08/733,791, filed Oct. 18, 1996.
Continuations (1)
|
Number |
Date |
Country |
Parent |
09102050 |
Jun 1998 |
US |
Child |
09773385 |
Feb 2001 |
US |
Continuation in Parts (2)
|
Number |
Date |
Country |
Parent |
09773385 |
Feb 2001 |
US |
Child |
10137647 |
May 2002 |
US |
Parent |
08733791 |
Oct 1996 |
US |
Child |
09102050 |
Jun 1998 |
US |