Plant-made pharmaceuticals for the prevention and treatment of autoimmune diseases: where are we?

Abstract

Molecular farming in plants or plant cell cultures represents a viable alternative technology that holds great promise for the low-cost and large-scale production of recombinant proteins. The particular case of plant-based vaccines for the prevention of autoimmune diseases is addressed here, presenting a comprehensive overview of the different molecules and expression technologies that have been investigated so far in both academia and industry. The potential of plants not only as bioreactors but also as delivery systems for pharmaceuticals is discussed, and the advantages of oral delivery of autoantigens for the induction of immune tolerance are highlighted.

Keywords::

• autoantigen
• autoimmune disease
• oral tolerance
• plant-made pharmaceutical
• recombinant protein
• transgenic plant

Financial & competing interests disclosure

Mario Pezzotti, Alberto Falorni and Linda Avesani are inventors and owners of a patent, deposited in Italy on 25 July 2008 (No. RM2008A000403), with the title ‘Methods of expression in planta of GAD65 and corresponding expression vectors’. The same authors are shareholders of Officina Biotecnologica Ltd, a company whose main objective is the purification of human GAD65 from transgenic plants. 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.

No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.