Implications of plant glycans in the development of innovative vaccines

ABSTRACT

Plant glycans play a central role in vaccinology: they can serve as adjuvants and/or delivery vehicles or backbones for the synthesis of conjugated vaccines. In addition, genetic engineering is leading to the development of platforms for the production of novel polysaccharides in plant cells, an approach with relevant implications for the design of new types of vaccines. This review contains an updated outlook on this topic and provides key perspectives including a discussion on how the molecular pharming field can be linked to the production of innovative glycan-based and conjugate vaccines.

KEYWORDS:

• Molecular pharming
• bacterial polysaccharides
• conjugate vaccines
• adjuvant
• immunogenicity
• glyco-engineering
• starch
• pectin
• delta inulin
• amylosomes

Acknowledgements

Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD) provided a fellowship to S Rosales-Mendoza for performing research stays at R. Reski’s laboratory, which aided in the generation of this review.

Financial & competing interests disclosure

Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD) provided a fellowship to S Rosales-Mendoza for performing research stays at R Reski’s laboratory, which aided in the generation of this review. R Reski is an inventor of the moss bioreactor and a founder of Greenovation Biotech, a company devoted to the production of biopharmaceuticals in moss bioreactors. He currently serves as a member of the advisory board of this company. The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.