Transgenic plants for the production of edible vaccines and antibodies forimmunotherapy

Vaccines and antibodies play a key role in healthcare. However, the cost of production and maintaining a chain for vaccine distribution has so far ham pered realizing their full potential. Expression of antigens as vaccines, a nd of antibodies against antigens of pathogens in transgenic plants is a co nvenient and inexpensive source for these immunotherapeutic molecules. Vari ous antigens and antibodies have already been expressed successfully in pla nts and have been shown to retain their native functional forms. Edible pla nt vaccine against diarrhoea, expressed in potato, and antibody against den tal caries, expressed in tobacco, is already in preclinical human trials. A ttempts are being made to express many proteins of immunotherapeutic use at high levels in plants and to use them as bio-reactors of the modern era.