Plants as factories for the Production of Pharmaceutical recombinant proteins

Nowadays, transgenic plants are used as an attractive alternative to produce recombinant pharmaceutical proteins. Recombinant proteins such as vaccines and antibodies can be produced in plants via two systemes: stable genetic transformation and transient expression. Stable transformation is included of integrating a gene into the plant nuclear or chloroplast genome. The transient expression can be resulted by using plant viral technology. The use of biopharming technology to produce vaccines in plants overcomes some of the major problems of traditional vaccination. This technology eliminate hazard of contamination with animal pathogens and provide a cheaper and safer alternative method. However, there are some challeneges in biopharming such as purification and glycosylation. In this article, expression systemes of plant vaccines, antibody production in plants and its application, challenges in biopharming and future perspective are discussed.