The potential of plant-made vaccines to fight picornavirus

ABSTRACT

Introduction

Several Picornaviruses are pathogens that generate serious problems for human and animal health worldwide. Vaccination is an attractive approach to fight against picornaviruses. In this regard, the development of low-cost vaccines is a priority to ensure coverage; especially in developing and low-income countries. In this context, plant-made vaccines are a convenient technology since plant cells are low-cost bioreactors capable of producing complex antigens that preserve their antigenic determinants; moreover, they can serve as biocapsules to achieve oral delivery.

Areas covered

In the present review the advances in the development of plant-made vaccines against picornaviruses are summarized and placed in perspective. The main diseases that have been targeted using this approach include Poliovirus, Food and mouth disease virus, Hepatitis A virus, and Enterovirus 71.

Expert opinion

Several vaccine candidates against picornavirus have been characterized at the preclinical level; with many of them capable of inducing humoral and cellular responses that led to neutralization of pathogens when evaluated in vitro and test animal challenge assays. Plant-made vaccines are a promise to fight picornaviruses; especially in the developing world where limited resources hamper vaccination coverage. A critical analysis of the road ahead for this technology is provided.

KEYWORDS:

• Enterovirus
• hepatitis A virus
• poliovirus
• bioencapsulation
• molecular farming
• oral vaccine
• recombinant antigen

Article Highlights

• Picornaviruses are pathogens that affect humans and animals

• Plant-made vaccines (PMV) are attractive tools to fight infections by Picornaviruses

• Several immunoprotective PMV against Picornaviruses have been generated

• The most explored targets comprise Poliovirus and Food and mouth disease virus

• PMV against Poliovirus are promising oral boosting agents

Declaration of interest

S Rosales-Mendoza was supported by Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y tecnología, México (grant CB-256063). 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.

Reviewer disclosures

Peer reviewers on this manuscript have no relevant financial or other relationships to disclose.

Acknowledgments

Current investigations from the group are supported by CONACYT/México (grant CB-256063 to SRM).

Author contribution statement

S Rosales-Mendoza generated the outline and supervised information compilation and analysis. O C Bolaños-Martínez conducted the main literature search, writing, and generated the figures and tables.

Additional information

Funding

This manuscript was funded by Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y tecnología, México (grant CB-256063 to S Rosales-Mendoza).