Transgenic plant surmounts the short comes of conventional ways of recombinant proteins production.

The newly developed method of IFN- 2b production uses duckweed cell (Lemna minor) as a host, in which the product is named Locteron, a controlled-release product treating hepatitis C produced by Biolex Therapeutics. Lemna is suitable for recombinant protein expression because of its clonal properties. The powerful cell doubles its biomass in 36 hours, ironically grows easily in disposable plastic bags in medium consisting water and inorganic salts only. The original transformant can be converted to a stable production line in six months time. Clonal reproduction simplifies line management, propagation and the feed stream. The method to produce recombinant IFN- 2b (BLX-883) in duckweed plant is initiated by culturing the fronds cultures (derived from Lemna minor strain 8627) that is stably transformed using expression vector pBMSP-1 from Agrobacterium tumefaciens strain C58Z707. Following co-cultivation, the fronds were transferred for recovery to medium added with kanamycin sulfate. For selection, the nodule tissue was transferred to fresh culture medium. Selection is complete when the nodule tissue shows dynamic growth on the selection agent. Biologically-active interferon is detected using a solid phase sandwich immunoassay and a cytopathic effect inhibition assay. Secreted interferon is collected from the duckweed culture medium, while non-secreted interferon was collected from ground-up or lysed nodule tissue. Lemna can secretes BLX-883 into the plantculture medium, plus it can correctly produce proteins requiring folding or other complex processing, thus greatly facilitating its purification. The harvested protein is lastly incorporated into PolyActive to produce a controlled-release formulation. http://www.google.com/patents/US20060195946 http://www.biolex.com/lexsystemstrengths.htm http://www.genengnews.com/analysis-and-insight/refocusing-on-therapeutic-protein-productionin-plants/68943994/ http://www.freepatentsonline.com/y2007/0128162.html http://www.mobot.org/jwcross/duckweed/duckweed-genes.htm