title: Plant-based solutions for veterinary immunotherapeutics and prophylactics.
abstract: An alarming increase in emergence of antibiotic resistance among pathogens worldwide has become a serious threat to our ability to treat infectious diseases according to the World Health Organization. Extensive use of antibiotics by livestock producers promotes the spread of new resistant strains, some of zoonotic concern, which increases food-borne illness in humans and causes significant economic burden on healthcare systems. Furthermore, consumer preferences for meat/poultry/fish produced without the use of antibiotics shape today's market demand. So, it is viewed as inevitable by the One Health Initiative that humans need to reduce the use of antibiotics and turn to alternative, improved means to control disease: vaccination and prophylactics. Besides the intense research focused on novel therapeutic molecules, both these strategies rely heavily on the availability of cost-effective, efficient and scalable production platforms which will allow large-volume manufacturing for vaccines, antibodies and other biopharmaceuticals. Within this context, plant-based platforms for production of recombinant therapeutic proteins offer significant advantages over conventional expression systems, including lack of animal pathogens, low production costs, fast turnaround and response times and rapid, nearly-unlimited scalability. Also, because dried leaves and seeds can be stored at room temperature for lengthy periods without loss of recombinant proteins, plant expression systems have the potential to offer lucrative benefits from the development of edible vaccines and prophylactics, as these would not require "cold chain" storage and transportation, and could be administered in mass volumes with minimal processing. Several biotechnology companies currently have developed and adopted plant-based platforms for commercial production of recombinant protein therapeutics. In this manuscript, we outline the challenges in the process of livestock immunization as well as the current plant biotechnology developments aimed to address these challenges.
authors.forename: Igor
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Kolotilin
authors.forename: Ed
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Topp
authors.forename: Eric
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Cox
authors.forename: Bert
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Devriendt
authors.forename: Udo
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Conrad
authors.forename: Jussi
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Joensuu
authors.forename: Eva
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Stöger
authors.forename: Heribert
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Warzecha
authors.forename: Tim
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: McAllister
authors.forename: Andrew
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Potter
authors.forename: Michael D
authors.initials: MD
authors.lastname: McLean
authors.forename: J Christopher
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Hall
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, University of Western Ontario, 1151 Richmond St, London, ON, Canada. rima.menassa@agr.gc.ca.
authors.forename: Rima
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Menassa
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000890:Anti-Infective Agents / Q000378:metabolism; D001709:Biotechnology / Q000191:economics; D016503:Drug Delivery Systems / Q000662:veterinary; D006801:Humans; D007114:Immunization / Q000191:economics / Q000662:veterinary; D007167:Immunotherapy / Q000191:economics / Q000662:veterinary*; D058751:Livestock; D030821:Plants, Genetically Modified / Q000378:metabolism; D011994:Recombinant Proteins / Q000096:biosynthesis / Q000191:economics / Q000627:therapeutic use; D014612:Vaccines / Q000096:biosynthesis / Q000627:therapeutic use
chemical_list: D000890:Anti-Infective Agents; D011994:Recombinant Proteins; D014612:Vaccines