BACKGROUND: Developing African countries face health problems that they struggle
to solve. The major causes of this situation are high therapeutic and logistical
costs. Plant-made therapeutics are easy to produce due to the lack of the safety
considerations associated with traditional fermenter-based expression platforms,
such as mammalian cells. Plant biosystems are easy to scale up and inexpensive,
and they do not require refrigeration or a sophisticated medical infrastructure.
These advantages provide an opportunity for plant-made pharmaceuticals to
counteract diseases for which medicines were previously inaccessible to people
in countries with few resources.
MAIN BODY: The techniques needed for plant-based therapeutic production are
currently available. Viral expression vectors based on plant viruses have
greatly enhanced plant-made therapeutic production and have been exploited to
produce a variety of proteins of industrial, pharmaceutical and agribusiness
interest. Some neglected tropical diseases occurring exclusively in the
developing world have found solutions through plant bioreactor technology. Plant
viral expression vectors have been reported in the production of therapeutics
against these diseases occurring exclusively in the third world, and some
virus-derived antigens produced in plants exhibit appropriate antigenicity and
immunogenicity. However, all advances in the use of plants as bioreactors have
been made by companies in Europe and America. The developing world is still far
from acquiring this technology, although plant viral expression vectors may
provide crucial help to overcome neglected diseases.
CONCLUSION: Today, interest in these tools is rising, and viral amplicons made
in and for Africa are in progress. This review describes the biotechnological
advances in the field of plant bioreactors, highlights factors restricting
access to this technology by those who need it most and proposes a solution to
overcome these limitations.

Developing African countries; Neglected diseases; Plant viral expression vectors; Plant-made therapeutics; Recombinant proteins.