Use of viral vectors for vaccine production in plants

Abstract

SummaryThe small size of plant viral genomes, the ease with which they can be manipulated, and the simplicity of the infection process is making the viral vectors an attractive alternative to the transgenic systems for the expression of foreign proteins in plants. One use of these virus expression systems is for vaccine production. There are two basic types of viral system that have been developed for the production of immunogenic peptides and proteins in plants: epitope presentation and polypeptide expression systems. In this review, we discuss advances made in this field.

Amplicon-plus targeting technology (APTT) for rapid production of a highly unstable vaccine protein in tobacco plants

“…N. benthamiana, which has often been used as a host for plant virus studies because of their susceptibility to infection by RNA viruses, is an interesting candidate. Many recombinant proteins have been expressed in this species in recent years (Canizares et al, 2005). Importantly, in our experiments systemic infection of N. benthamiana with a replicating amplicon could be achieved without the inclusion of an exogenous suppressor of PTGS.…”

“…Viral-based transient gene expression of recombinant proteins has several advantages over stable transformation, most notably, the ability to produce proteins without time-consuming transformation and regeneration of plants. In some cases, useful amounts of recombinant proteins can be recovered from treated tissue in as little as 1-2 weeks (Canizares et al, 2005;Gleba et al, 2005;Pogue et al, 2002). Several proteins destined to be used as vaccines have been successfully expressed using viral vectors such as those based on tobacco mosaic virus (TMV) and potato virus X (PVX) (Canizares et al, 2005).…”

“…In some cases, useful amounts of recombinant proteins can be recovered from treated tissue in as little as 1-2 weeks (Canizares et al, 2005;Gleba et al, 2005;Pogue et al, 2002). Several proteins destined to be used as vaccines have been successfully expressed using viral vectors such as those based on tobacco mosaic virus (TMV) and potato virus X (PVX) (Canizares et al, 2005). However, productivity in viral vector expression systems can be greatly reduced by post transcriptional gene silencing (PTGS) (Angell and Baulcombe, 1997), by what is thought to be a plant defensive response against virus infection (Lindbo et al, 2001;Marathe et al, 2000a).…”

“…Remarkable progress has been made in recent years toward understanding and improving viral vectors used to express recombinant proteins in plants (Canizares et al, 2005;Marillonnet et al, 2005;Pogue et al, 2002). Viral-based transient gene expression of recombinant proteins has several advantages over stable transformation, most notably, the ability to produce proteins without time-consuming transformation and regeneration of plants.…”

“…Since the first expression in transgenic plants of pharmaceutically relevant proteins, a human growth hormone (Barta et al, 1986), and an antibody (Hiatt et al, 1989), many different pharmaceutical proteins have been expressed successfully in plants (Canizares et al, 2005;Grevich and Daniell, 2005;Ma et al, 2003).…”