Transgenic Plants for Pharmaceuticals: Growing Medicine in Crops

Over the last twenty years, the world of pharmaceuticals has been subjected to many changes. Probably the most important breakthrough in this respect is the invention of transgenic plants for pharmaceutical production, or, in other words, the use of genetically modified crops for the manufacturing of medicines. This may well revolutionise drug manufacturing since drugs will be easier to procure, cheaper, and far more effective. The paper explains the method that pharmaceuticals would use through the employment of transgenic plants, the benefits accrued from such a plant, and what changes in technology can come to demonstrate that brilliant era in pharmaceuticals.

What are transgenic plants?

Let me explain what a transgenic plant is before giving details on how those are used for pharmaceutical purposes. Traditionally, a transgenic plant has been regarded as being genetically modified by the insertion of foreign DNA into its genome. This action consequently enables the plant to express new properties/traits—for example, the production of a particular protein or any compound that would naturally not come into existence in that particular plant species.

Some of the genetic engineering techniques so far employed in creation include the following: Agrobacterium-mediated gene transfer and biolistics, or gene gun. Genetic engineering enables genes of interest to encode certain proteins, which can be employed in pharmaceutical production. These range from therapeutic enzymes and antibodies to vaccines that are usually produced through other methods, which are more expensive and complicated, for example in bioreactors.

How does the pharmaceutical industry utilise transgenic plants?

Transgenic plants are now a new route of production for drugs and other pharmaceuticals. This route of production, fairly inexpensive and ecologically friendly, is hence increasingly attractive to traditional modes of production. Some ways in which genetically modified crops find their application in medicine include:

1. Production of Vaccines

The production of vaccines in the course of producing pharmaceuticals is perhaps one of the most novel applications of transgenic plants. Conventionally, vaccines have been prepared through animal cells or viral culture systems, requiring very high investments and taking cumbersome periods of time. Scientists introduce genes encoding for the viral proteins into plants such as tobacco, tomatoes, or potatoes. In turn, such plants express in huge quantities.

Such a study was conducted with tobacco plants, wherein the plants were genetically transformed to express a protein from the hepatitis B virus. These are useful in developing a plant-based vaccine, thereby reducing the cost of production of vaccines mainly in developing nations.

2. Production of Antibodies

Such famous monoclonal antibodies for treating a variety of illnesses ranging from cancers, autoimmune diseases, and infections are usually produced in one very long and complicated process in mammalian cell cultures, which is highly costly. Recently, plants have been introduced as one promising system for the production of such antibodies.

Such genes encoding the particular antibodies are introduced in the plant genome, which enables the particular plant to produce considerable amounts of these particular antibodies in transgenic plants. This technology is presently under well application in the production of such kinds of antibodies meant for various forms of treatments such as cancer therapy and Ebola-like treatment disease viruses.

3. Therapeutic Proteins

The other major role of transgenic plants as it relates to the pharmaceutical field is in the line of producing therapeutic proteins. The majority of the proteins produced by the transgenic plants are applied in the treatment of ailments that include but are not limited to diabetes, clotting disorders, and digestion problems. The protein in most use by patients suffering from diabetes is generally produced in bulk through bacterial or yeast fermentation. Transgenic plants producing insulin and other therapeutic proteins are in production and, in a few years, will yield a much less expensive and probably safer product.

In 2016, it was reported that genetically modified rice plants can produce human insulin, a great breakthrough in the arena of plant-based production of pharmaceuticals. This will surely, in time, produce cheaper means of securing insulin for diabetic patients around the world.

4. Biopharming for Pharmaceuticals

The general understanding could be that biopharming is a mode of production of only a few pharmaceuticals in which transgenic plants may play a role. These facilitate the scaling up of some very difficult or uneconomic viability for their production of bioactive molecules. The various pharmaceutical target bioactive molecules as candidates from vaccine, antibody, and enzymatic productions could be comfortably and considerably produced in the transgenic plants.

For example, the treatment of digestion disorders by enzymes has been made effective by their genetic expression in corn and soybeans instead of the usual animal source, reducing dependence on those sources for producing such enzymes.

Benefits of Transgenic Plants in Pharmaceutical Application

Some key benefits derived from the use of transgenic plants for pharmaceutical applications include:

1. Cost-effective:

Most of the conventional methodologies for the manufacturing of pharmaceutical products require very highly priced equipment, large facilities, and cumbersome procedures. On the other hand, cultivation of transgenic plants either in open fields or in greenhouses is comparatively much cheaper and requires minimal infrastructure. This may reduce the cost of production of medicines and hence their prices to patients, especially in developing countries.

2. Scalability

While production in plants can be easily scaled up, being different from the traditional modes of production that use bioreactors or cell culture systems and hence are limited in size, as long as the plants are healthy, they produce continuously in large amounts the compound that is desired. This would make the transgenic plants under cultivation an ideal solution to answer the global demand for vaccines and other antibodies and therapeutic products.

3. Environmental Sustainability

Production of the pharmaceutical products by transgenic plants is way more eco-friendly than other methods. Plants require less input in order to grow, unlike bioreactors and animal cell cultures. More so, transgenic plants can be cultivated in open fields where they absorb carbon dioxide, hence reducing the level of greenhouse gases.

4. Safety

Plants are inherently resistant to many types of pathogens, and the pharmaceuticals produced by plants may reduce the risk of contamination by harmful bacteria or viruses. The use of mammalian cell culture and bioreactors is often subject to more problems with contamination that create reduced production levels and thus result in a high cost of production.

Challenges and Future of Transgenic Plants in Pharmaceuticals

Running alongside these promising benefits are a variety of challenges facing the use of transgenic plants within the pharmaceutical industries. Most procedures for regulatory approval of GMOs are normally long and highly invested; thus, this limits the speed with which plant-based pharmaceutical products can reach the market commercially. The second major constraint to wide acceptance is due to the public concern about the safety and environmental impact of GMOs.

However, with an increasing number of research studies being carried out and the after-shifting attitudes among the general public about GMOs, applications of transgenic plants in pharmaceuticals would definitely increase. Further research into genetic engineering and doing biotechnology on crops will probably surmount some of these existing challenges and make pharmaceutical plants a viable solution for future outcomes.

In conclusion, most of the pharmaceutical-producing transgenic plants must have been among the most exciting recent advances in biotechnology that promise a revolution in methods of drug production. Genetic engineering probably will place plants at any given time at inexpensive production, scalability, and as environmentally benign options to the classic means of production that range from vaccines through the monoclonal antibodies to the therapeutic proteins. Although much has to be overcome, the future indeed is very bright for the transgenic plants in the pharmaceutical industry, thus allowing the medications to reach people all over the world.