Principles of plant-based vaccines

Abstract

Vaccinology is a growing field in which plant-based vaccines constitute an attractive development trend. This approach consists of the use of plant cells as biofactories of immunoprotective antigens, which can be administered to the matrix of plant biomass by the oral route or parenterally after purification. Rationale of a plant-based oral vaccine relies on the ability of inducing immune response by the gut-associated lymphoid tissues (GALT). Preclinical development stages of this kind of platform comprise the following steps: (1) immunogen design and gene synthesis; (2) expression of the immunogen of interest by means of plant genetic engineering approaches, such as stable or transient transformation by Agrobacterium tumefaciens, biolistics, or using viral-based vectors or chimeric viruses that serve as expression vectors or carriers; and (3) evaluation of the antigenic, immunogenic, and immunoprotective properties. This chapter describes the basic concepts behind this biotechnology approach, which is considered to have the potential to introduce products into the market in the near future.