Use of Plant Viruses for Production of Plant-Derived Vaccines

Plants as bioreactors for the production of vaccine antigens

“…The TMV coat protein gene was among the first plant virus proteins to be used as a carrier molecule for antigenic epitopes (Hamamoto et al, 1993). There are several reviews on the TMV, cowpea mosaic virus (CPMV) and alfalafa mosaic virus (AIMV) where, plant virus-based transient expression vectors have been discussed to produce recombinant antigens in plants (Pogue et al, 2002;Lacomme et al, 2001;Arntzen, 2005;Liu et al, 2005;Grill et al, 2005). The major limitation of the use of TMV coat protein is that not more than 25 amino acid long peptide can be used in fusion with the TMV coat protein.…”

In vitro propagation of plant virus using different forms of plant tissue culture and modes of culture operation

“…Methods for transient expression of foreign proteins in plants using infection with plantvirus-based vectors have attracted considerable attention (Turpen, 1999;Cañizares et al, 2005;Grill et al, 2005;Lico et al, 2008). Viral infections are initiated by inoculating plants with assembled virus or infectious RNA transcripts containing foreign genes so that foreign proteins are produced as viral replication occurs in the plant tissue.…”

“…The relationship between virus replication, nutrient availability and growth of the host plant cells was also investigated using different modes of culture operation including batch and two types of semicontinuous, draw-and-fill culture systems. Tobacco mosaic virus (TMV) was chosen for this work because it is well characterised, has a wide host range, does not require specific insect, nematode or microbial vectors for infection of plant cells, and has been genetically modified for transient expression of several foreign proteins in plants (Shaw, 1999;van den Heuvel et al, 1999;Grill et al, 2005). A transgenic TMV-based vector was used to demonstrate in vitro transient expression of a reporter gene, green fluorescent protein (GFP), in hairy root cultures.…”

High expression of foreign proteins from a biosafe viral vector derived from Turnip mosaic virus

“…For about 20 years (French et al, 1986), different research groups have developed a range of virus-derived vectors which have been used to express a variety of gene products (Pogue et al, 2002;Grill et al, 2005). Main advantages of using viruses as vectors for heterologous gene expression include speed, low cost, no plant transgenic technology, and very high levels of heterologous protein production, among others.…”

“…In addition to heterologous gene expression, viral vectors are now an indispensable tool for many studies involving plant virus replication, accumulation and movement, mostly by means of the expression of reporter genes, or pieces of them. Within plant viruses, vectors derived from tobacco viruses are mostly used for commercial purposes (Grill et al, 2005).…”