Frontiers in Molecular Pharming: Volume 2

Muhammad Sarwar Khan

• Publisher: Bentham Science Publishers
• Year: 2006
• Print ISBN: 9789815036688
• eBook ISBN: 9789815036664
• Topic: Biological Sciences
• Subtopic: Biotechnology
• Index: Biological Sciences

The advent of large-scale production and clinical trials of drugs developed through diverse production routes - involving viruses, microbes, plants, and animals - has increased the demand for an expanded capacity for pharmaceutical manufacturing. The production and purification of expressed proteins accounts for the bulk of the manufacturing costs for new therapeutics. Several pharmaceutical proteins have been synthesized by exploiting plant genetics allowing producers to override conventional approaches used to manufacture pharmaceuticals. The process of inserting a gene into a host organism for the purpose of harvesting a bioactive molecule for therapeutic use is known as molecular pharming. Frontiers in Molecular Pharming covers an array of topics relevant to understanding the structure, function, regulation, and mechanisms of action, biochemical significance, and usage of proteins and peptides as biomarkers, therapeutics, and vaccines for animals and humans. The contributions aim to highlight current progress in three areas, including system biology (in vivo characterization of proteins and peptides), molecular pharming for animals and molecular pharming for humans. The book gives special attention to computational biology tools, production platforms and fields (such as immunoinformatics) and applications of molecular pharming (such as veterinary therapeutics). A balance of theoretical concepts and practical applications is provided through 13 chapters. Frontiers in Molecular Pharming is an invaluable resource for students and researchers of biochemistry, molecular biology, and biotechnology. The book also serves as a springboard for understanding the process of how discoveries in protein and peptide research and its applications are coming to fruition.

Plant Molecular Pharming For Human Diseases

Kiran Saba¹, Muhammad Suleman Malik¹, Sara Latif¹, Fatima Ijaz¹, Muhammad Sameeullah², Mohammad Tahir Waheed^{1, *}

¹ Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Biological Sciences, Quaid-i-Azam University, 45320, Islamabad, Pakistan

² Innovative Food Technologies Development Application and Research Center, Faculty of Engineering, Bolu Abant Izzet Baysal University, 14030, Bolu, Turkey

Abstract

Infectious diseases pose an increasing threat to global health. The world has experienced many outbreaks due to Emerging Infectious Diseases (EIDs) in the 21^st century. Vaccination proves to be the most successful public health intervention to counter such outbreaks. Vaccines against many diseases are available. Most of these vaccines either consist of live or attenuated strains, thus posing health risks. There is a need for new and safe vaccines to prevent and mitigate the impact of outbreaks due to emerging and endemic infectious diseases. The requisition of plant-based medicine is increasing day by day because of their non-toxic nature with no to very few side effects and readily available at a reasonable cost. In the present chapter, we will discuss the importance of plant molecular pharming (PMP) with its perspective on human diseases. Several advantages of PMP in relation to the United Nations’ sustainable development goals (SDGs) will also be deliberated.

Keywords: COVID-19, Human diseases, Plant molecular pharming, Sustainable development goals, World health organization.

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^* Correspondence author Mohammad Tahir Waheed: Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Biological Sciences, Quaid-i-Azam University, 45320, Islamabad, Pakistan; E-mail: [email protected]

1. INTRODUCTION

Kingdom Plantae is a huge source of biologically active molecules and compounds and it is the biggest known source of medicines since pre-historic times. According to the oldest available record (5000-3000 BCE by Sumerians on clay tablets), humans understood diseases and the use of medicines to cure their ailments [1]. Independent of each other, all big ancient civilizations such as China, Greece, and the Arab developed their medical systems, but all of them

primarily depended on plants and plant-derived components [2]. To fight against natural selection pressure, human beings always turned to the plants, either to make them a source of food or to fight against pandemics. Along with the bigger civilizations, the smaller communities in Asia, Africa, and Latin America have a known history of reliance on traditional medicaments that are largely based on plants for prompt access to a rather safe, cost-effective, competent, and culturally acceptable solution to the primary health care [3].

Since ancient times, people around the world have relied primarily on plants to fulfill all their medicinal needs, for alleviating ailments, and discovering a cure to relieve pain and discomfort. The early man was encouraged to explore his immediate natural environment and try many plant and animal products, minerals, and a range of therapeutic agents [4]. Plants play an appealing role in the modulation of human and non-human diseases [5]. More than 75% of the medicines to control infectious diseases are of plant origin, whereas about 61% of the drugs approved by the FDA are either isolated completely from plants or are the derivative of plant-based active compounds. Not only in primitive times, but plants are also still the best source of food and medicine [6]. According to the World Health organization (WHO), about 80% of the population of the developed and developing countries believes in traditional medicines or plant-derived drugs for their primary health needs [7]. The era of pharmaceutical sciences and industries is well developed now and growing rapidly, and the market is being introduced to a variety of synthetic drugs. The modern pharmacopeia contains at least 25% of drugs that are plant derivatives or semi-synthetic, made up of prototype compounds derived from plants [8]. The requisition of plant-based medicine is increasing day by day because of the flourishing cognizance of natural products, being nontoxic, with few side effects. These are readily available at a reasonable cost and sometimes the only available source of health care available to the poor or low-income communities. Hence, plant-based medical practices hold an imperative spot in the socio-cultural and economic values of both developing and developed countries traditionally [9]. There is an undisputed belief that ‘green medicine’ is better than synthetic drugs. Since the last decade, an upsurge in the utilization of herbal medicines has been seen even in industrialized countries [10]. It is reported that over 90% of medicinal plants utilized by the pharmaceutical industries are collected in t...

Table of contents

• Welcome
• Table of Content
• Title
• BENTHAM SCIENCE PUBLISHERS LTD.
• PREFACE
• List of Contributors
• SECTION I: System Biology – In silico Characterization of Proteins and Peptides
• Tools for Prediction and Validation of Epitopic Regions on Protein Targets for Vaccine Development and Diagnostics
• Immunoinformatics and its Role in Vaccine Development
• Computational Toolbox for Analysis of Protein Thermostability
• Pan-Proteomics to Analyze the Functional Complexity of Organisms
• Functional Characterization of Proteins and Peptides Using Computational Approaches
• SECTION II: Molecular Pharming for Human Beings
• Molecular Pharming: Research, Developments and Future Perspective
• Green Factories: Plants As A Platform For Cost-effective Production of High-value Targets
• Analysis of Cross-Reactivity, Specificity and the Use of Optimised ELISA for Rapid Detection of Fusarium Spp.
• Plant Molecular Pharming For Human Diseases
• Plant Molecular Farming for Human Therapeutics: Recent Advances and Future Prospects
• Proteins and Peptides as Biomarkers for Diagnosis of Cardiovascular Diseases
• SECTION III: Molecular Pharming for Animals
• Veterinary Nutraceutics, Pharmaceutics and Vaccine
• Plant Molecular Pharming For Livestock And Poultry