Plant Molecular Farming: An Emerging Opportunity For Biopharmaceuticals

Abstract

Conventional drug production methods are costly. Now, it has been proved that plants are potentially a new source of pharmaceutical proteins, including vaccines, antibodies, blood substitutes, and other therapeutic entities. Unlike mammalian-derived rDNA drugs, plant-derived antibodies, vaccines, and other proteins are particularly advantageous since they are free of mammalian viral vectors and human pathogens. Plants made therapeutics are cheaper, safer, and can be abundantly produced and easily stored. Recombinant proteins and other metabolites are produced in transgenic plants for industrial or pharmaceutical purposes, which are known as molecular farming. Transgenic plants carry one or more foreign genes transferred through the techniques of transformation. Although initially these were produced only in a limited number of plant species (e.g., tobacco, petunia, tomato, etc.), later these could be produced in any plant species, including both dicots and monocots. Transgenic plants resistant to herbicides, insects, viruses, and a host of abiotic stresses have already been produced. These plants have also been produced for improved nutritional quality and are suitable for food processing. The aim of this review paper is to understand plant molecular farming, the advantages and limitations of the process, and biosafety concerns.