바이오스펙테이터

by Jongwon Jang

Entering animal experiments, G+Flas confirmed expression of COVID-19 recombinant vaccine candidate on plant-based platform

G+Flas Life Sciences announced on the 5th that they have begun developing a vaccine for the Novel CoronaVirus infection (COVID-19).

Through their own plant-based platform, G+Flas Life Sciences has confirmed a recombinant vaccine candidate for the COVID-19 (SARS-CoV-2) virus is expressed in plants, and now they will begin a full-scale animal experiments.

They selected a promising spike protein section as a candidate for the vaccine shortly after the genetic information of the coronavirus was released in January, and artificially synthesized the gene by optimizing for the expression of plant cells. After that, they announced that a recombinant DNA for inserting the synthesized gene into a plant expression vector was produced, transferred to a plant body, and the protein synthesis was successful.

Proteins that have been confirmed to be active are currently undergoing a medium-sized separation process and will start developing vaccines as early as next week, starting with animal experiments. Once animal experiments have yielded successful results, the company plans to mass produce vaccine candidates via their Osong Botanical Hotel system. This system is expected to be able to produce about 20,000 doses of protein per production.

The plant-based platform of G+Flas Life Sciences has the advantage of being able to generate vaccine candidates faster than the fertilized egg and animal cell culture technologies used to develop existing vaccines. It is an important technique to first improve the plant with the gene scissor technique, especially in order to eliminate toxicity that can occur when the protein produced in the plant is administered to the human body.

The explanation is that the production of vaccine candidate substances using plants that have been subjected to protein glycosylation pattern has advanced technology in G+Flas Life Sciences.

The G+Flas Life Sciences official said that “Currently, with the rapidly increasing number of COVID-19-infected patients, not only in Asia, but worldwide, we hope we get successful recombinant vaccine candidates in clinical trials and that it will be supplied to people in need as soon as possible. And as a leading company to save lives, G+Flas will make every effort to ensure that the technology to produce plant-based vaccine candidates can be used as a national core technology.”