Innovative biopharmaceutical drug for the treatment of non-Hodgkin lymphoma

Plant Biotechnology Journal, a top ranked journal in the field of Biotechnology, published in its latest issue a study by ENEA presenting an innovative procedure to produce an antitumor antibody in plants for the treatment of non-Hodgkin lymphoma.

A research team at ENEA, composed of the biotechnologists Marcello Donini, Carla Marusic, Eugenio Benvenuto and the immunologists Claudio Poli and Flavia Novelli, of the Radiation Biology and Human Health Unit at the ENEA Casaccia Research Center, succeeded in producing antibodies in plants with a  genetically engineered version of the monoclonal antibody Rituximab, one of the first biopharmaceutical drugs to be approved for therapeutic use and successfully employed in the treatment of  non-Hodgkin lymphoma.

This procedure, developed at the ENEA Biotechnology Laboratory,  allows fast and high – yield greenhouse production of antibodies (a 15 - day  production cycle) with production cost lower than that of traditional procedures.

The novelty of this study, developed  with the contribution of  Andrea Scaloni and Anna Maria Salzano, experts of mass spectrometry at the CNR-ISPAAM of Naples, lies in the creation  of a new complex molecule called “Immunocytokine”, obtained by fusing two genes, one encoding  the antitumor antibody, the other a human cytokine called Interleukin-2 (L-2).

Besides having the capacity to recognize tumor cells and mediate their elimination via a portion of the antibody, Immunocytokine presents the advantage of carrying  the L-2 to the site of disease, boosting the immune system’s responsiveness.

These plants, acting as “biofactories” allow to produce high-yield biopharmaceutical drugs at a lower cost than the traditional procedures.

In fact today, pharmaceutical companies utilize mammalian cells cultures for monoclonal antibody production for clinical use, but the growing demand and the high production cost require  the development of alternative systems of production.

The full data can be accessed at:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25879373

For more information please contact:

Marcello Donini, ENEA Casaccia Research Center marcello.donini@enea.it