Microalgae as a Bioreactor for Molecular Farming for the Production of Oral Edible Vaccines Against Infectious Diseases of Humans and Animals

Molecular farming has gained paramount importance for recombinant protein production in pharmaceutical industries throughout the world. Various bioreactor systems have been in use for decades for drug development but are associated with some limitations including their high cost and labor-intensive management. Green microalgae have proven to be extremely useful protein production platforms for a variety of commercial and treatment applications, especially for complicated or strongly disulfide-reinforced proteins. A high accumulation of transgene products has been observed in the algal chloroplast, which provides it with unique properties. As microalgae have become a valuable bioreactor for protein production for use in diagnostic and therapeutic industries, algae-based vaccines have been produced and found to be very effective against many infectious diseases such as classical swine fever syndrome, foot and mouth disease virus, hepatitis B virus, and white spot syndrome virus.