Transgenic plants as medicine production systems

Abstract

Transgenic plants are emerging as an important system for the expression of many recombinant proteins, especially those intended for therapeutic purpose. The production of foreign proteins in plants has several advantages. In terms of required equipment and cost, mass production in plants is far easier to achieve than techniques involving animal cells. Successful production of several proteins in plants, including human serum albumin, haemoglobin, monoclonal antibodies, viral antigens (vaccines), enkephalin, and trichosanthin, has been reported. Particularly, the demonstration that vaccine antigens can be produced in plants in their native, immunogenic forms opens exciting possibilities for the 'bio-farming' of vaccines. If the antigens are orally active, food-based 'edible vaccines' could allow economical production. In this review, I will discuss the progress that has been made by several groups in what is now an expanding area of medicine research that utilizes transgenic plants.