Current Status of Plants as Vaccine Production Platforms

Abstract

Plant-derived biopharmaceuticals offer enormous potential as a cost-effective, rapid and safe means to produce vaccine and therapeutic proteins. Plant-made vaccines can be administered orally to elicit a mucosal immune response, and represent a method by which vaccine coverage can be improved for many who reside in developing countries. Vaccines such as these offer great promise on many levels, from providing relief to those who have little access to modern medicine, to producing large-scale stockpiles of vaccines available to offset global pandemics, and even to playing an active role in the battle against cancer. Plant-derived vaccines can both deliver an antigen to the mucosal immune system in the form of a food product, as well as prevent the antigen from degradation as it passes through the gastrointestinal tract. Both transgenic plants and plant virus expression vectors are routinely used to express biopharmaceutical proteins. The following review details recent advances concerning the production of vaccines against Hepatitis B virus, Human papilloma virus, Influenza virus and Non Hodgkins Lymphoma using plant expression platforms.