Role of oral vaccines as an edible tool to prevent infectious diseases

Plants have been as medicinal mediators for centuries. Recent trends in agro-biotechnology however, improved the therapeutic roles of plants to a significant level and introduced plant-based oral vaccine which can arouse an immune response in consumer. Although conventional vaccines against infectious diseases have been administrated for years the discovery of plant-based oral vaccines can potentially replace them completely in the future. The probable limitations in conventional vaccines are found to be overcome by plant-based oral vaccines. Humans and animals will no longer be dependent upon local or systemic administration of vaccines but they will just receive the vaccines as a routine food. For the purpose, gene of interest is introduced into plant through transformation, and expression of specific antigen is obtained in plant products which are then consumed by humans or animals. Therefore, plants can serve as bioreactors or bio-factories for production of edible vaccines. A detailed overview about edible vaccines, methods for edible vaccine production, candidate bioreactors and future perspectives of edible vaccines has been summarized in current article. The future of vaccination seems to be present within plant-based vaccination system. Keywords: vaccine; edible vaccine; infectious diseases; antigen; edible crops; oral immunization.