利用植物生产药用蛋白的进展、局限及应对策略

以植物作为生物反应器生产药用蛋白具有廉价、安全、易于存储和运输等优点。越来越多的动物实验及临床试验研究结果显示,植物表达的外源药用蛋白,比如抗体、抗原、细胞因子等都能诱导机体产生免疫应答反应,但目前实现商业化的却极少。限制其推广应用的主要原因是外源蛋白在植物中的表达量较低,免疫原性较差。通过表达系统的选择,载体优化,使用免疫佐剂等方法可以突破这些障碍。本研究综述了近年来利用植物表达药用蛋白的进展,讨论了限制其推广应用的因素及解决策略,并对利用植物生物反应器生产药用蛋白的前景进行了展望。

Progress, limitation and strategies in using plants to produce biopharmaceuticals

Molecular farming in plants has a lot of advantages as they are inexpensive, safe and convenient. In clinical trials, several plant-derived pharmaceutical proteins, such as antibodies, vaccine antigens, and cytokines have been found to induce a high immune response. However, only a few small-scale products have so far reached to the market. The problems of low yield and poor immunogenicity are the two major challenges that militate against the full exploitation of plant’s expression system. Strategies have been developed to break through these barriers which focus on the choice of suitable host plant, vector optimization, and the use of mucosal adjuvants. This article reviews the different novel plant-derived pharmaceutical proteins, the limiting issues, and discusses the technologies and strategies to assess the development trends of plant molecular farming.