Abstract
Plant-based vaccine technologies involve the integration of the desired genes encoding the antigen protein for specific disease into the genome of plant tissues by various methods. Agrobacterium-mediated gene transfer and transformation via genetically modified plant virus are the common methods that have been used to produce effective vaccines. Nevertheless, with the advancement of science and technology, new approaches have been developed to increase the efficiency of former methods such as biolistic, electroporation, agroinfiltration, sonication, and polyethylene glycol treatment. Even though plant-based vaccines provide many benefits to the vaccine industry, there are still challenges that limit the rate of successful production of these third-generation vaccines. Even with all the limitations, continuous efforts are still ongoing in order to produce efficient vaccine for many human and animals related diseases owing to its great potentials. This paper reviews the existing conventional methods as well as the development efforts by researchers in order to improve the production of plant-based vaccines. Several challenges encountered during and after the production process were also discussed.
Highlights
Vaccines help in stimulating the antibodies production in human and animals and provide immune protection against several diseases [1]
The most common example of egg-based vaccine is the influenza vaccine produced in 9-to-12-day-old embryonated eggs [2, 3]. This conventional method has been applied for over 60 years and it involves the injection of virus particles into the eggs and further incubation for several days to allow the replication of virus particles
The selection of most appropriate influenza virus strains to be replicated for vaccine production remains to be the main limitation in this method as not all strains of influenza virus are able to replicate in embryonated eggs, affecting the amount of vaccine produced in the eggs [2]
Summary
Vaccines help in stimulating the antibodies production in human and animals and provide immune protection against several diseases [1]. With various limitations in the former two conventional methods, in relation to time, the expensive manufacturing process due to the need of cold storage for the temperature-sensitive vaccines [5], and the risk of unwanted immune response and developing the disease, investigational-manufacturing systems, which utilize the biological systems such as plant, insect cells, or bacteria. This is due to the fact that plantbased vaccines are classified under the genetically modified crop category [13] In view of this exciting yet challenging research, the first part of this paper focuses on the conventional and refined expression technologies for improved plant-based vaccines production, while the latter part discusses challenges encountered during and after the production process
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