Plant Molecular Farming for Human Therapeutics: Recent Advances and Future Prospects

Plant molecular farming (PMF) aims to develop plants that express and accumulate proteins of our interest in considerable quantities. Transgenic plants produce edible vaccines, antibodies, therapeutic proteins for human and animal health, and other recombinant proteins required for industrial purposes. Plant systems (PS) to produce pharmaceutical products are preferred over microbial and mammalian systems as they require less input to grow and produce higher biomass. Hence, a variety of proteins are synthesized by plants that are completely free from human pathogens and mammalian toxins. Additionally, they have immunity against infectious and other lifethreatening diseases such as cancer. In this review, plant-inferred therapeutic and nontherapeutic protein items that are in the position of clinical progression or commercialization are summarized. Available plant production platforms are also compared along with associated biosafety and regulatory issues. Further, plant transformation techniques are also analyzed for the development of genetically modified organisms in vaccine production. The use of PMF on a commercial scale is still a long way to go before it is achievable. New methods and techniques are needed to be developed to solve the problems of low yield, scalability, stability, and efficacy of the recombinant proteins, as well as biosafety and regulatory issues. Hence, this strategy will be the ultimate proposed solution to protect humans and animals from health threats in the future.

Keywords: Genetic transformation, Plant molecular farming, Pharmaceutical products, Plant systems, Recombinant Proteins, Transient Expression.