Vaccine and antibody production in plants: developments and computational tools

Abstract

Plants as bioreactors have been widely used to express efficient vaccine antigens against viral, bacterial and protozoan infections. To date, many different plant-based expression systems have been analyzed, with a growing preference for transient expression systems. Antibody expression in diverse plant species for therapeutic applications is well known, and this review provides an overview of various aspects of plant-based biopharmaceutical production. Here, we highlight conventional and gene expression technologies in plants along with some illustrative examples. In addition, the portfolio of products that are being produced and how they relate to the success of this field are discussed. Stable and transient gene expression in plants, agrofiltration and virus infection vectors are also reviewed. Further, the present report draws attention to antibody epitope prediction using computational tools, one of the crucial steps of vaccine design. Finally, regulatory issues, biosafety and public perception of this technology are also discussed.

Designing of a next generation multiepitope based vaccine (MEV) against SARS-COV-2: Immunoinformatics andin silicoapproaches

“…Vaccines are basically consisting of different immunogenic ingredients of disease (pathogens), comparatively the whole pathogenic agent 52 . Epitope prediction for antibodies becomes more significant with the advancement of the computational tools for designing a vaccine 53 . In the field of bioinformatics Immuno-informatics is a sub-branch that includes a lot of tools & databases.…”

A Broad and Potent H1-Specific Human Monoclonal Antibody Produced in Plants Prevents Influenza Virus Infection and Transmission in Guinea Pigs

“…Previous studies have described tobacco-derived plantibodies that showed potent therapeutic activity against multiple viruses such as EBOV, HBV, HIV, PEDV, RABV, WNV, and others in small animal models of infection, e.g., mice [39,[42][43][44][45][46]. However, to our knowledge, this is the first study demonstrating the ability of plantibodies to protect against influenza viral infections.…”

“…Moreover, plantibodies overcome some of the concerns associated with animal-derived therapeutic MAbs obtained from serum or plasma, including intermediate reactions, pyrogenicity, potential contamination with other zoonotic pathogens and/or toxins, and serum sickness [32,[34][35][36][37]. For these reasons, plantibodies have been proposed for the treatment of several bacterial (e.g., Salmonella, Streptococcus, Porphyromonas) and viral (e.g., Ebola virus, EBOV; Hepatitis B virus, HBV; Human immunodeficiency virus, HIV; Porcine epidemic diarrhea virus, PEDV; Rabies virus, RABV; West Nile virus, WNV) infections or toxins (e.g., ricin and shiga toxin) [35,[38][39][40][41][42][43][44][45][46]. However, to date, plantibodies have not been used for the treatment of influenza viral infections.…”

Recent Developments in Bioprocessing of Recombinant Proteins: Expression Hosts and Process Development

“…It also looked at current strategies of glycoengineering of plant expression systems to obtain fully humanized proteins for pharmaceutical application. Developments and computational tools for vaccine and antibody production in plants were also discussed recently (Dubey et al, 2018). Critical analysis of the commercial potential of plants for the production of recombinant proteins was also reported in a recent study.…”