Molecular Farming for Immunization: Current Advances and Future Prospects in Plant-Produced Vaccines
Using plants as bioreactors, molecular farming has emerged as a versatile and sustainable platform for producing recombinant vaccines, therapeutic proteins, industrial enzymes, and nutraceuticals. This innovative approach leverages the unique advantages of plants, including scalability, cost-effecti...
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MDPI AG
2025-02-01
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| Series: | Vaccines |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2076-393X/13/2/191 |
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| author | Dang-Khoa Vo Kieu The Loan Trinh |
| author_facet | Dang-Khoa Vo Kieu The Loan Trinh |
| author_sort | Dang-Khoa Vo |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Using plants as bioreactors, molecular farming has emerged as a versatile and sustainable platform for producing recombinant vaccines, therapeutic proteins, industrial enzymes, and nutraceuticals. This innovative approach leverages the unique advantages of plants, including scalability, cost-effectiveness, and reduced risk of contamination with human pathogens. Recent advancements in gene editing, transient expression systems, and nanoparticle-based delivery technologies have significantly enhanced the efficiency and versatility of plant-based systems. Particularly in vaccine development, molecular farming has demonstrated its potential with notable successes such as Medicago’s Covifenz for COVID-19, illustrating the capacity of plant-based platforms to address global health emergencies rapidly. Furthermore, edible vaccines have opened new avenues in the delivery of vaccines, mainly in settings with low resources where the cold chain used for conventional logistics is a challenge. However, optimization of protein yield and stability, the complexity of purification processes, and regulatory hurdles are some of the challenges that still remain. This review discusses the current status of vaccine development using plant-based expression systems, operational mechanisms for plant expression platforms, major applications in the prevention of infectious diseases, and new developments, such as nanoparticle-mediated delivery and cancer vaccines. The discussion will also touch on ethical considerations, the regulatory framework, and future trends with respect to the transformative capacity of plant-derived vaccines in ensuring greater global accessibility and cost-effectiveness of the vaccination. This field holds great promise for the infectious disease area and, indeed, for applications in personalized medicine and biopharmaceuticals in the near future. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-cc5b84ec329a4d78bbb91547e5e4ff18 |
| institution | DOAJ |
| issn | 2076-393X |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-02-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
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| series | Vaccines |
| spelling | doaj-art-cc5b84ec329a4d78bbb91547e5e4ff182025-08-20T03:12:12ZengMDPI AGVaccines2076-393X2025-02-0113219110.3390/vaccines13020191Molecular Farming for Immunization: Current Advances and Future Prospects in Plant-Produced VaccinesDang-Khoa Vo0Kieu The Loan Trinh1College of Pharmacy, Gachon University, 191 Hambakmoe-ro, Yeonsu-gu, Incheon 21936, Republic of KoreaBionano Applications Research Center, Gachon University, 1342 Seongnam-daero, Sujeong-gu, Seongnam-si 13120, Gyeonggi-do, Republic of KoreaUsing plants as bioreactors, molecular farming has emerged as a versatile and sustainable platform for producing recombinant vaccines, therapeutic proteins, industrial enzymes, and nutraceuticals. This innovative approach leverages the unique advantages of plants, including scalability, cost-effectiveness, and reduced risk of contamination with human pathogens. Recent advancements in gene editing, transient expression systems, and nanoparticle-based delivery technologies have significantly enhanced the efficiency and versatility of plant-based systems. Particularly in vaccine development, molecular farming has demonstrated its potential with notable successes such as Medicago’s Covifenz for COVID-19, illustrating the capacity of plant-based platforms to address global health emergencies rapidly. Furthermore, edible vaccines have opened new avenues in the delivery of vaccines, mainly in settings with low resources where the cold chain used for conventional logistics is a challenge. However, optimization of protein yield and stability, the complexity of purification processes, and regulatory hurdles are some of the challenges that still remain. This review discusses the current status of vaccine development using plant-based expression systems, operational mechanisms for plant expression platforms, major applications in the prevention of infectious diseases, and new developments, such as nanoparticle-mediated delivery and cancer vaccines. The discussion will also touch on ethical considerations, the regulatory framework, and future trends with respect to the transformative capacity of plant-derived vaccines in ensuring greater global accessibility and cost-effectiveness of the vaccination. This field holds great promise for the infectious disease area and, indeed, for applications in personalized medicine and biopharmaceuticals in the near future.https://www.mdpi.com/2076-393X/13/2/191plant-based vaccinesimmunizationmolecular farmingpersonalized medicineinfectious diseasescancer vaccines |
| spellingShingle | Dang-Khoa Vo Kieu The Loan Trinh Molecular Farming for Immunization: Current Advances and Future Prospects in Plant-Produced Vaccines Vaccines plant-based vaccines immunization molecular farming personalized medicine infectious diseases cancer vaccines |
| title | Molecular Farming for Immunization: Current Advances and Future Prospects in Plant-Produced Vaccines |
| title_full | Molecular Farming for Immunization: Current Advances and Future Prospects in Plant-Produced Vaccines |
| title_fullStr | Molecular Farming for Immunization: Current Advances and Future Prospects in Plant-Produced Vaccines |
| title_full_unstemmed | Molecular Farming for Immunization: Current Advances and Future Prospects in Plant-Produced Vaccines |
| title_short | Molecular Farming for Immunization: Current Advances and Future Prospects in Plant-Produced Vaccines |
| title_sort | molecular farming for immunization current advances and future prospects in plant produced vaccines |
| topic | plant-based vaccines immunization molecular farming personalized medicine infectious diseases cancer vaccines |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2076-393X/13/2/191 |
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