title: Advances and challenges in the development and production of effective plant-based influenza vaccines.
abstract: Influenza infections continue to present a major threat to public health. Traditional modes of influenza vaccine manufacturing are failing to satisfy the global demand because of limited scalability and long production timelines. In contrast, subunit vaccines (SUVs) can be produced in heterologous expression systems in shorter times and at higher quantities. Plants are emerging as a promising platform for SUV production due to time efficiency, scalability, lack of harbored mammalian pathogens and possession of the machinery for eukaryotic post-translational protein modifications. So far, several organizations have utilized plant-based transient expression systems to produce SUVs against influenza, including vaccines based on virus-like particles. Plant-produced influenza SUV candidates have been extensively evaluated in animal models and some have shown safety and immunogenicity in clinical trials. Here, the authors review ongoing efforts and challenges to producing influenza SUV candidates in plants and discuss the likelihood of bringing these products to the market.
authors.affiliation: Fraunhofer USA Center for Molecular Biotechnology, 9 Innovation Way, Suite 200, Newark, DE 19711, USA.
authors.forename: Vidadi
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Yusibov
authors.forename: Natasha
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Kushnir
authors.forename: Stephen J
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Streatfield
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002986:Clinical Trials as Topic; D055808:Drug Discovery / Q000379:methods* / Q000639:trends; D004353:Drug Evaluation, Preclinical; D006801:Humans; D007252:Influenza Vaccines / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology* / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D030821:Plants, Genetically Modified / Q000235:genetics*; D022223:Vaccines, Subunit / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology / Q000302:isolation & purification; D058425:Vaccines, Virus-Like Particle / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology / Q000302:isolation & purification
chemical_list: D007252:Influenza Vaccines; D022223:Vaccines, Subunit; D058425:Vaccines, Virus-Like Particle
keywords: clinical development; influenza; plant expression system; subunit vaccine; transient expression; virus-like particle