Plant-made vaccines against parasites: bioinspired perspectives to fight against Chagas disease

ABSTRACT

Introduction: Three decades of evidence have demonstrated that plants are an affordable platform for biopharmaceutical production and delivery. For instance, several plant-made recombinant proteins have been approved for commercialization under good manufacturing practice (GMP). Thus far, plant-based vaccine prototypes have been evaluated at pre- and clinical levels. Particularly, plant-made vaccines against parasitic diseases, such as malaria, cysticercosis, and toxoplasmosis have been successfully produced and orally delivered with promising outcomes in terms of immunogenicity and protection. The experience on several approaches and technical strategies over 30 years accounts for their potential low-cost, high scalability, and easy administration.

Areas covered: This platform is an open technology to fight against Chagas disease, one of the most important neglected tropical diseases worldwide.

Expert opinion: This review provides a perspective for the potential use of plants as a production platform and delivery system of Trypanosoma cruzi recombinant antigens, analyzing the advantages and limitations with respect to plant-made vaccines produced for other parasitic diseases. Plant-made vaccines are envisioned to fight against Chagas disease and other neglected tropical diseases in those countries suffering endemic prevalence.

KEYWORDS:

• Trypanosoma cruzi
• innovative vaccines
• molecular farming
• parasitic diseases

Article highlights

• Chagas is a neglected tropical disease causing 10 000 deaths each year.

• The most recent promising antigens to fight against Chagas disease were identified.

• Plant-made vaccine platform and prototypes against parasitic diseases were reviewed.

• Vaccine challenges and opportunities against parasitic diseases were discussed.

• Perspectives on plants as affordable platform for vaccine against Chagas disease.

Acknowledgments

Authors thank Diana Fisher for English editorial services.

Author contributions

CA and EM-E conceived the idea, design and wrote parts of the Ms. AR-V wrote most of the Ms. ED and BB-H revised and corrected the Ms. All authors approved the final version of the Ms.

Declaration of interest

The authors have no 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. This includes employment, consultancies, honoraria, stock ownership or options, expert testimony, grants or patents received or pending, or royalties.

Reviewer disclosures

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

Additional information

Funding

CONACYT/Mexico grants supported this publication (grant INFR-2014-01/225924 and PDCPN2014-01/248033 to CA and CB-A1-S-17585 to EM-E).