Edible Vaccines: A Patent-Driven Exploration of Immunization Technologies

Vaccines are biological preparations that improve immunity to particular diseases. Particularly for poor developing nations, edible vaccines show significant potential as a financially advantageous, simple to administer, straightforward to store, fail-safe, and socially and culturally acceptable vaccine delivery system. A vaccine incorporates the gene-encoding bacterial or viral disease-causing agent in plants without losing its immunogenic property. Potatoes, tomatoes, rice, soybeans, and bananas are the primary plants for edible vaccines. It activates the systemic and mucosal immunity responses against a foreign disease-causing organism. It offers exciting possibilities to reduce diseases like hepatitis B, rabies, HIV/AIDS (human immunodeficiency virus infection and acquired immune deficiency syndrome), etc. These vaccines provide many benefits, like being convenient to administer, efficiently storing, and readily acceptable drug delivery systems for patients of different age groups. So, an edible vaccine may be the most convenient vaccine to improve immunity. However, there are a lot of technical and regulatory challenges to overcome in the way of edible vaccine technology. Though all seem surmountable, various technical obstacles and regulatory and non-scientific challenges need to be overcome. Moreover, edible vaccine patents represent a cutting-edge area of biotechnology, where the integration of genetic material into edible substances holds great promise for revolutionizing vaccination methods. These patents aim to harness the potential of plants and other edibles to stimulate immune responses, offering a potential alternative to traditional injectable vaccines. This review states the technologies, host plants, current status, recent patents, the future of this new preventive modality, and different regulatory issues concerning edible vaccines.