Transgenic plants for the production of immunogenic proteins

The vaccines are very effective vehicles for the prevention of various diseases. The cost of production and the need of cold-chain limit the vaccination programs especially in low-income countries. Hence, the plants offer a suitable platform to produce the immunogenic proteins with reduced cost without a requirement for cold-chain. The transgenic plants expressing antigens might be either used for the purification of the recombinant proteins or consumed as a food for the oral administration of the plant-based vaccine. A variety of plants have been used as the expression system, such as tobacco, rice, maize, carrot, soybean, potato and barley, each plant possessing pros and cons. Agrobacterium-mediated transformation, biolistics or electroporation techniques are used for the transformation of the plants, and the transgenic plants can be utilized for the development of vaccines against bacterial pathogens such as Mycobacterium tuberculosis, Bacillus anthracis, and viral diseases like Human Papillomavirus, Human Immunodeficiency Virus, as well as the diseases like cancer, synucleopathies or atherosclerosis.