The lethality of infectious diseases has decreased due to the implementation of crucial sanitary procedures such as vaccination. However, the resurgence of pathogenic diseases in different parts of the world has revealed the importance of identifying novel, rapid, and concrete solutions for control and prevention. Edible vaccines pose an interesting alternative that could overcome some of the c...

Hepatitis B is one of the alarming diseases globally. There are about 350 million chronic carriers in the world and it is estimated that 75-100 million of them will die of liver cirrhosis and/or hepatocellular carcinoma. Treatment is expensive and cure rates are not impressive. The advent of recombinant DNA technology resulted in the development of rDNA vaccine using yeast as an expression syst...

Human papillomavirus-like particles (HPV VLPs) have shown considerable promise as a parenteral vaccine for the prevention of cervical cancer and its precursor lesions. Parenteral vaccines are expensive to produce and deliver, however, and therefore are not optimal for use in resource-poor settings, where most cervical HPV disease occurs. Transgenic plants expressing recombinant vaccine immunoge...

Pandemics in poultry caused by the highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) A virus occur too frequently globally, and there is growing concern about the HPAI A virus due to the possibility of a pandemic among humans. Thus, it is important to develop a vaccine against HPAI suitable for both humans and animals. Various approaches are underway to develop such vaccines. In particular, an edible va...

Plants have been studied for the production of pharmaceutical compounds for more than two decades now. Ever since the plant-made poultry vaccine against Newcastle disease virus made a breakthrough and went all the way to obtain regulatory approval, research to use plants for expression and delivery of vaccine proteins for animals was intensified. Indeed, in view of the high production costs of ...

Heat-stable plant-made (edible) vaccines are inexpensive to produce, can be administered orally, and could be utilized to enhance vaccine coverage in children, particularly in developing countries. Plant-made vaccines can deliver undegraded antigens to the enteric mucosal immune system. A number of clinical trials have produced encouraging results. This review summarizes plant-derived vaccines,...

Two lines of transgenic carrot plants producing Mycobacterium tuberculosis proteins (ESAT6 and CFP10) have been constructed. The target proteins are present in carrot storage roots at a level not less than 0.056% of the total storage protein (TSP) for ESAT6 and 0.002% of TSP for CFP10. As has been shown, oral immunization of mice induces both the cell-mediated and humoral immunities. These data...

The infectious hepatitis B virus represents 42 nm spherical double-shelled particles. However, analysis of blood from hepatitis B virus carriers revealed the presence of smaller 22 nm particles consisting of a viral envelope surface protein. These particles are highly immunogenic and have been used in the design of hepatitis B virus vaccine produced in yeast. Upon expression in yeast, these pro...

The microRNA (miRNA) gene is small RNA molecule, approximate 20 nucleotides (nts) in length, and also the miRNA is information in a cell as well as the mobile genetic information; therefore, when only one kind of tumor suppressor RNA information gene (Rig) was intravenously administrated, tumorigenic cells can be retuned to the normal cells in vivo. Although the processes of oncogenic have mult...