Current advances in the algae-made biopharmaceuticals field

ABSTRACT

Introduction

The biopharmaceuticals industry demands new production platforms to address several challenges; such as cost reduction to make biologics accessible in low-income countries, safety enhancement of the product, development of products administered by noninvasive routes, and expansion of potential biosimilars and biobetters. Microalgae are emerging hosts for biopharmaceuticals production with the potential to meet such requirements.

Areas covered

Nowadays successful cases on the production of vaccines, antibodies, antimicrobial peptides, growth factors/cytokines, and hormones in algae have been reported. This review comprises an updated outlook covering protein expression strategies, a compilation of functional biopharmaceuticals produced in algae, and companies investing in this technology.

Expert opinion

Key perspectives for the field include optimizing yields, scaling up production and completing preclinical trials. The experience from the field of plant-made biopharmaceuticals is commented as a key reference that will aid in the development of the algae-made biopharmaceuticals field.

KEYWORDS:

• Antibodies
• Chlamydomonas reinhardtii
• chloroplast transformation
• genetic engineering
• oral delivery
• Schizochytrium sp.
• viral vector

Article Highlights

• Algae are attractive hosts for producing biopharmaceuticals due to their singular advantages that include low production cost, lack of toxic compounds in many species, high biosynthetic capacity, and their potential use as oral delivery vehicles.

• Functional vaccines, antibodies, antimicrobial peptides, growth factors/cytokines, and hormones have been produced in algae species thus far.

• Initial studies on scale-up and downstream processing for algae-made biopharmaceuticals have been initiated.

• The current expression technologies allow producing biopharmaceuticals at yields up to 3.28 mg∙L⁻¹ of culture medium using chloroplast-based expression.

• The use of viral vectors is a promise strategy to increase protein yields using microalgae-based platforms.

This box summarizes key points contained in the article.

Declaration of Interest

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 relationships or otherwise to disclose.

Additional information

Funding

This paper is funded by a grant to S Rosales Mendoza: Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología [CB-256063].