Plant-made immunogens and effective delivery strategies

Plant systems for the production of recombinant immunogens have the potential to overcome obstacles currently impeding the delivery of vaccines to poorer, more remote populations by localizing production and reducing associated costs. The nature of the future plant-derived vaccine candidates will have an important impact on the extent to which universal access to vaccines can be achieved using these technologies. In this article, we examine approaches taken to design immunogens, expression systems and delivery strategies that are medically feasible and immunologically effective while retaining key benefits of a plant production platform. We identify three 'target areas' in which plant-made immunogens may offer particular advantages over conventional production systems.