Objective: To use a transient expression system to express a truncated human tissue plasminogen activator (K2S) gene in cucurbit plants.
Results: The recombinant tissue plasminogen activator protein (K2S form) was expressed in active form in cucurbit plants. Its molecular weight was 43 kDa. The plant-derived rt-PA was determined using goat anti-rabbit antibody by western blotting. Among the infected lines, the highest expression of rt-PA was 62 ng/100 mg per leaf tissue as measured by ELISA. The enzymatic activity of the plant-derived rt-PA was 0.8 IU/ml.
Conclusions: The K25 form of rt-PA was expressed for the first time using the viral expression system. Plant-derived rt-PA showed similar potency to commercially-available PA.
Keywords: Cucurbit plant; Human tissue plasminogen activator (K2S); Molecular pharming; Transient gene expression.