TY - JOUR AU - Bortesi, Luisa AU - Rossato, Marzia AU - Schuster, Flora AU - Raven, Nicole AU - Stadlmann, Johannes AU - Avesani, Linda AU - Falorni, Alberto AU - Bazzoni, Flavia AU - Bock, Ralph AU - Schillberg, Stefan AU - Pezzotti, Mario PY - 2009 DA - 2009/03/19 TI - Viral and murine interleukin-10 are correctly processed and retain their biological activity when produced in tobacco JO - BMC Biotechnology SP - 22 VL - 9 IS - 1 AB - Interleukin-10 (IL-10) is a potent anti-inflammatory cytokine, with therapeutic applications in several autoimmune and inflammatory diseases. Oral administration of this cytokine alone, or in combination with disease-associated autoantigens could confer protection form the onset of a specific autoimmune disease through the induction of oral tolerance. Transgenic plants are attractive systems for production of therapeutic proteins because of the ability to do large scale-up at low cost, and the low maintenance requirements. They are highly amenable to oral administration and could become effective delivery systems without extensive protein purification. We investigated the ability of tobacco plants to produce high levels of biologically-active viral and murine IL-10. SN - 1472-6750 UR - https://doi.org/10.1186/1472-6750-9-22 DO - 10.1186/1472-6750-9-22 ID - Bortesi2009 ER -