Using plants to make vaccines is highly efficient, but plant-specific sugars (N-glycans) on the proteins can sometimes trigger allergic reactions. How these sugars impact a vaccine’s effectiveness was previously unknown.

To investigate, we produced a COVID-19 vaccine subunit in both regular tobacco plants and genetically modified (glycoengineered) plants. The modified plants created a “humanized” version of the vaccine that lacked the potentially problematic plant sugars. This resulted in three vaccine variants with different sugar structures.

When tested in mice, all three variants performed equally well. They triggered the same level of protective antibodies and neutralized the virus with identical effectiveness.

The study concludes that these plant sugar variations do not impact the vaccine’s ability to stimulate a strong, successful immune response.

Read more: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12849096/

First Author: Theerakarn Srisangsung

Co-author: Arunee Thitithanyanont

Corresponding Author: Waranyoo Phoolcharoen