Caenorhabditis elegans glycome as a roadmap for glyco-engineering helminth N-glycans in plants

Summary

Parasitic worm (helminth) infections still have a major impact on health of humans and animals. Mass drug administration are used to treat helminth infections, however, these are not always effective and cases of drug resistance are reported. Therefore, we investigated the production of recombinant helminth vaccines that carry specific sugar structures (glycans) to ensure strong immunological responses. In this study Nicotiana benthamiana plants were used as production platform. By adapting the post-translational machinery of the plant, specific sugar motifs can be introduced or deleted to obtain the correct glycan composition. Here, specific glycan enzymes were used from the glycosylation machinery of model nematode Caenorhabditis elegans as many enzymes are shared between parasitic nematodes and C. elegans. The implementation of C. elegans glycosylation machinery into the glycosylation machinery of N. benthamiana allowed us to explore the potential of producing future recombinant helminth vaccines.