Green Therapy: The Offer of Plant-Derived Recombinant Biopharmaceuticals

Dear Colleagues,

Due to outstanding advances made in the field of plant biotechnology, the way we look at plants and plant sciences today has changed significantly. The advent of modern tools of plant molecular biology and genetic engineering has allowed the production of complex biological molecules of therapeutic value. Although it is undoubtedly a challenging task to obtain an active protein in an economically feasible way, biopharmaceuticals are the largest group of drugs developed in the pharmaceutical industry. Apart from mammal cell cultures, yeast or bacterial production systems, plants have become one of the most promising alternatives for the synthesis of recombinant protein biopharmaceuticals, illustrating the multidisciplinary effort taking place. Plant factories possess numerous advantages widely discussed in the literature. At present, three main strategies are employed to produce recombinant proteins: cell cultures, plant-tissue-based systems, and the construction of transgenic plants. Hence, whole plants, leaves, tubers or seeds have become live bioreactors showing many advantages over classic high-tech bioreactors, yielding, e.g., the influenza and lymphoma vaccines, anti-West Nile virus mAb or plant-derived human growth hormone. Despite all its advantages and technical background, this promising system also faces some significant challenges. The commercialization of plant-based biopharmaceuticals depends on reasonable yields and product quality. Therefore, strategies to maximize protein yields during upstream synthesis and to optimize protein recovery in downstream processing steps are still being optimized.

The objective of this Special Issue is to present current knowledge on different aspects of the production of recombinant protein biopharmaceuticals and achievements in disease therapies (expression strategies: expression regulatory cis-sequences; constitutive, time- or organ-specific biosynthesis; subcellular targeting; strategies of protein purification; regulatory issues). Research on the establishment of an effective system of synthesis of new valuable recombinant proteins to treat human diseases is especially—but not exclusively—welcome.

Dr. Katarzyna Hnatuszko-Konka
Dr. Aneta Gerszberg
Dr. Andreas Schiermeyer
Prof. Dr. Igor Maksimov
Guest Editors

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• Therapeutic recombinant proteins
• Expression cassettes
• Localized biosynthesis
• Protein purification
• Molecular pharming
• Public concerns and regulatory aspects