Expression of Human Interferon α 2b Gene in Ginseng Cells

The human interferon α 2b(hIFN-α2b) gene was cloned into binary vector pBI121 to obtain plant expres- sion vector pBIFN. The recombinant plasmid pBIFN was transferred into Agrobacterium tumefaciens strain LBA4404. Then the hIFN-α2b gene was introduced into ginseng callus cells via Agrobacterium-mediated transfor- mation and the ginseng cell line carrying hIFN-α2b gene was selected on G418-containing medium. The presence of target gene in transformed cells was confirmed by PCR and RT-PCR. The results indicate that hIFN-α2b gene has been integrated into the ginseng cells' genome, with transcription products. hIFN-α2b expressed by the transgenic ginseng cells was detected by Western blot. It was shown that a specific protein band at 19000 could be observed. Cytopathic effect(CPE) inhibition assay using the WISH-VSV system shows that the mean antiviral activity of ex- pressed hIFN-α2b was 6.0×10 4 IU/mL.