Plant Viral Vectors: Important Tools for Biologics Production

Plants have enormous potential for producing a wide range of biologics and therapeutics. Compared to bacterial and mammalian systems, production in plants is faster, inexpensive, and free from animal pathogens or toxins. Plant-infecting viruses can be engineered to express gene(s) for many monoclonal antibodies, vaccines, and other therapeutic proteins inside plant tissues. Their utility does not necessitate steady transgenic expression, allowing therapeutic proteins to be produced in large amounts in a short period. Plant virus-based vaccines can also stimulate immunogenic responses against human pathogens. This chapter describes plant virus-based expression systems and their utility in the production of various biologics and biopharmaceutical products. It also highlights the current progress and limitations of the virus-expression platforms.