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Molecular farming of human cytokines and blood products from plants: Challenges in biosynthesis and detection of plant‐produced recombinant proteins
Author(s) -
da Cunha Nicolau B.,
Vianna Giovanni R.,
da Almeida Lima Thaina,
Rech Elíbio
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
biotechnology journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.144
H-Index - 84
eISSN - 1860-7314
pISSN - 1860-6768
DOI - 10.1002/biot.201300062
Subject(s) - recombinant dna , microbiology and biotechnology , biology , genetically modified crops , computational biology , transgene , biochemistry , gene
Plants have emerged as an attractive alternative to the traditional mammalian cell cultures or microbial cell‐based systems system for the production of valuable recombinant proteins. Through recombinant DNA technology, plants can be engineered to produce large quantities of pharmaceuticals and industrial proteins of high quality at low costs. The recombinant production, by transgenic plants, of therapeutic proteins normally present in human plasma, such as cytokines, coagulation factors, anticoagulants, and immunoglobulins, represents a response to the ongoing challenges in meeting the demand for therapeutic proteins to treat serious inherited or acquired bleeding and immunological diseases. As the clinical utilization of fractionated plasma molecules is limited by high production costs, using recombinant biopharmaceuticals derived from plants represents a feasible alternative to provide efficient treatment. Plant‐derived pharmaceuticals also reduce the potential risks to patients of infection with pathogens or unwanted immune responses due to immunogenic antigens. In this review, we summarize the recent advances in molecular farming of cytokines. We also examine the technological basis, upcoming challenges, and perspectives for the biosynthesis and detection of these molecules in different plant production platforms.