title: Fighting cancer with plant-expressed pharmaceuticals.
abstract: Cancer is one of the most prevalent diseases worldwide, which explains why biological therapies for cancer are forecast to make up 35% of total recombinant pharmaceuticals by 2010. Because of the high demand for cancer drugs, the need to lower production costs and the constraints of present production technologies for recombinant pharmaceuticals (such as the difficulties involved in culturing bacteria, yeast and mammalian cells), attention has recently been focused on recombinant expression of pharmaceutical anti-cancer proteins in plants. This review aims to provide an update on the most recent publications about anti-cancer recombinant pharmaceuticals expressed in plants, as well as on the relevant technical issues, potential and prospects of this emerging production system.
authors.affiliation: Plant Division, Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, P.O. Box 6162, C.P. 10600, Havana, Cuba. merardo.pujol@cigb.edu.cu
authors.forename: Merardo
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Pujol
authors.forename: Jorge
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Gavilondo
authors.forename: Marta
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ayala
authors.forename: Meilyn
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Rodríguez
authors.forename: Ernesto M
authors.initials: EM
authors.lastname: González
authors.forename: Lincidio
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Pérez
mesh_terms: D000970:Antineoplastic Agents / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D001688:Biological Products / Q000378:metabolism / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D006801:Humans; D010936:Plant Extracts / Q000378:metabolism / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D030821:Plants, Genetically Modified / Q000378:metabolism*; D011994:Recombinant Proteins / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000627:therapeutic use*
chemical_list: D000970:Antineoplastic Agents; D001688:Biological Products; D010936:Plant Extracts; D011994:Recombinant Proteins