Producing Vaccines against Enveloped Viruses in Plants: Making the Impossible, Difficult

Area of Science:

• Biotechnology
• Molecular Biology
• Vaccinology

Background:

• Plant molecular farming has emerged as a significant platform for producing recombinant proteins over the past 30 years.
• Production of vaccine candidates, especially against enveloped viruses, presents challenges due to difficulties in expressing and purifying membrane proteins.

Purpose of the Study:

• To review the historical development and current status of plant-produced vaccine candidates targeting enveloped viruses.
• To emphasize the role of virus-like particles (VLPs) in this field.

Main Methods:

• Review of scientific literature on plant molecular farming for vaccine production.
• Focus on studies involving enveloped viruses and virus-like particles (VLPs).

Main Results:

• Significant progress has been made in plant-based production of vaccine candidates against enveloped viruses.
• Several plant-produced VLPs have shown promising results in biochemical and clinical trials.

Conclusions:

• Plant molecular farming is a viable and promising approach for developing vaccines against challenging viral targets.
• Virus-like particles (VLPs) are a key technology enabling successful plant-based vaccine development.