title: Edible plants for oral delivery of biopharmaceuticals.
abstract: Molecular farming is the use of plants for the production of high value recombinant proteins. Over the last 25 years, molecular farming has achieved the inexpensive, scalable and safe production of pharmaceutical proteins using a range of strategies. One of the most promising approaches is the use of edible plant organs expressing biopharmaceuticals for direct oral delivery. This approach has proven to be efficacious in several clinical vaccination and tolerance induction trials as well as multiple preclinical studies for disease prevention. The production of oral biopharmaceuticals in edible plant tissues could revolutionize the pharmaceutical industry by reducing the cost of production systems based on fermentation, and also eliminating expensive downstream purification, cold storage and transportation costs. This review considers the unique features that make plants ideal as platforms for the oral delivery of protein-based therapeutics and describes recent developments in the production of plant derived biopharmaceuticals for oral administration.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biotechnology, University of Verona, Strada Le Grazie, 15, 37 134, Verona, Italy.
authors.forename: Matilde
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Merlin
authors.affiliation: Department of Biotechnology, University of Verona, Strada Le Grazie, 15, 37 134, Verona, Italy.
authors.forename: Mario
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Pezzotti
authors.affiliation: Department of Biotechnology, University of Verona, Strada Le Grazie, 15, 37 134, Verona, Italy.
authors.forename: Linda
authors.identifier: 0000-0003-4007-7013
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Avesani
mesh_terms: D000284:Administration, Oral; D001702:Biopharmaceutics / Q000379:methods*; D016503:Drug Delivery Systems; D006801:Humans; D018928:Immunity, Mucosal / Q000187:drug effects / Q000276:immunology; D010940:Plant Proteins / Q000737:chemistry*; D010945:Plants, Edible / Q000737:chemistry*; D011994:Recombinant Proteins / Q000008:administration & dosage* / Q000235:genetics; D022462:Vaccines, Edible / Q000008:administration & dosage*
chemical_list: D010940:Plant Proteins; D011994:Recombinant Proteins; D022462:Vaccines, Edible
keywords: edible plant; molecular farming; oral delivery; oral tolerance; transgenic plants; vaccine