Role of Transgenic Plants in Production of Vaccine Antigens

At present، vaccines against certain diseases available in the market are very costly. Alternatively، efforts are being made to produce edible vaccines which are cheap and have many advantages over the commercialized vaccines. Transgenic plants generated for this purpose are capable of expressing recombinant proteins including viral and bacterial antigens and antibodies. Recently، plants with high food value have been chosen as expression systems. Many of them can be eaten raw، eliminating the need for processing and purification. Common food plants like banana، tomato، rice، carrot، etc. have been used to produce vaccines against certain diseases like hepatitis B، cholera، HIV، etc. This article reviews the current status of developments in the area of use of plants for the development of vaccine antigens.