Plant?￠????made vaccines for humans and animals

摘要

The concept of using plants to produce high?￠????value pharmaceuticals such as vaccines is 20?￠????years old this year and is only now on the brink of realisation as an established technology. The original reliance on transgenic plants has largely given way to transient expression; proofs of concept for human and animal vaccines and of efficacy for animal vaccines have been established; several plant?￠????produced vaccines have been through Phase I clinical trials in humans and more are scheduled; regulatory requirements are more clear than ever, and more facilities exist for manufacture of clinic?￠????grade materials. The original concept of cheap edible vaccines has given way to a realisation that formulated products are required, which may well be injectable. The technology has proven its worth as a means of cheap, easily scalable production of materials: it now needs to find its niche in competition with established technologies. The realised achievements in the field as well as promising new developments will be reviewed, such as rapid?￠????response vaccines for emerging viruses with pandemic potential and bioterror agents.