Agrotecnio Center

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https://repositori.udl.cat/handle/10459.1/56965
Agrotecnio aims to become a reference in Europe addressing all the key elements of the food production chain in an integrated way focusing on target crops and animals of commercial importance, rather than model systems. This later aspect sets our centre apart from other centers which focus on fundamental science and/or model plant and animal systems. As a result we should be able to address fundamental and important questions in the crop/animal of interest and results from our research will be directly and immediately applicable to our target organism. [Més informació]

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Browsing Agrotecnio Center by Author "Abranches, Rita"

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    Contributions of the international plant science community to the fight against infectious diseases in humans - part 1: epidemic and pandemic diseases, including HIV/AIDS and coronaviruses
    (Wiley, 2021-04-06) Lobato, Maria; Huang, Xin; Alvarez, Derry; He, Wenshu; Baysal, Can; Zhu, Changfu; Armario-Nájera, Victoria; Blanco Perera, Amaya; Cerda, Pedro; Saba-Mayoral, Andrea; Sobrino-Mengual, Guillermo; Vargheese, Ashwin; Abranches, Rita; Abreu, Isabel Alexandra; Balamurugan, Shanmugaraj; Bock, Ralph; Buyel, Johannes F.; Cunha, Nicolau B. da; Daniell, Henry; Faller, Roland; Folgado, André; Gowtham, Iyappan; Häkkinen, Suvi; Kumar, Shashi; Sathish Kumar, Ramalingam; Lacorte, Cristiano; Lomonossoff, George P.; Luís, Ines M.; Ma, Julian K-C; McDonald, Karen A.; Murad, Andre; Nandi, Somen; O'Keef, Barry; Oksman-Caldentey, Kirsi-Marja; Parthiban, Subramanian; Paul, Mathew J.; Ponndorf, Daniel; Rech, Elibio; Rodrigues, Julio C. M.; Ruf, Stephanie; Schillberg, Stefan; Schwestka, Jennifer; Shah, Priya S.; Singh, Rahul; Stoger, Eva; Twyman, Richard M.; Varghese, Inchakalody P.; Vianna, Giovanni R.; Webster, Gina; Wilbers, Ruud H. P.; Capell Capell, Teresa; Christou, Paul
    Infectious diseases, also known as transmissible or communicable diseases, are caused by pathogens or parasites that spread in communities by direct contact with infected individuals or contaminated materials, through droplets and aerosols, or via vectors such as insects. Such diseases cause 17% of all human deaths and their management and control places an immense burden on healthcare systems worldwide. Traditional approaches for the prevention and control of infectious diseases include vaccination programmes, hygiene measures and drugs that suppress the pathogen, treat the disease symptoms or attenuate aggressive reactions of the host immune system. The provision of vaccines and biologic drugs such as antibodies is hampered by the high cost and limited scalability of traditional manufacturing platforms based on microbial and animal cells, particularly in developing countries where infectious diseases are prevalent and poorly controlled. Molecular farming, which uses plants for protein expression, is a promising strategy to address the drawbacks of current manufacturing platforms. In this review article, we consider the potential of molecular farming to address healthcare demands for the most prevalent and important epidemic and pandemic diseases, focussing on recent outbreaks of high-mortality coronavirus infections and diseases that disproportionately affect the developing world.
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    Open Access
    Contributions of the international plant science community to the fight against infectious diseases in humans - part 2: endemic and re-emerging diseases
    (Wiley, 2021-04-06) He, Wenshu; Baysal, Can; Lobato, Maria; Huang, Xin; Alvarez, Derry; Zhu, Changfu; Armario-Nájera, Victoria; Blanco Perera, Amaya; Cerda, Pedro; Saba-Mayoral, Andrea; Sobrino-Mengual, Guillermo; Vargheese, Ashwin; Abranches, Rita; Abreu, Isabel Alexandra; Balamurugan, Shanmugaraj; Bock, Ralph; Buyel, Johannes F.; Cunha, Nicolau B. da; Daniell, Henry; Faller, Roland; Folgado, André; Gowtham, Iyappan; Häkkinen, Suvi; Kumar, Shashi; Sathish Kumar, Ramalingam; Lacorte, Cristiano; Lomonossoff, George P.; Luís, Ines M.; Ma, Julian K-C; McDonald, Karen A.; Murad, Andre; Nandi, Somen; O'Keef, Barry; Parthiban, Subramanian; Paul, Mathew J.; Ponndorf, Daniel; Rech, Elibio; Rodrigues, Julio C. M.; Ruf, Stephanie; Schillberg, Stefan; Schwestka, Jennifer; Shah, Priya S.; Singh, Rahul; Stoger, Eva; Twyman, Richard M.; Varghese, Inchakalody P.; Vianna, Giovanni R.; Webster, Gina; Wilbers, Ruud H. P.; Christou, Paul; Oksman-Caldentey, Kirsi-Marja; Capell Capell, Teresa
    The fight against infectious diseases often focuses on epidemics and pandemics, which demand urgent resources and command attention from the health authorities and media. However, the vast majority of deaths caused by infectious diseases occur in endemic zones, particularly in developing countries, placing a disproportionate burden on underfunded health systems and often requiring international interventions. The provision of vaccines and other biologics is hampered not only by the high cost and limited scalability of traditional manufacturing platforms based on microbial and animal cells, but also by challenges caused by distribution and storage, particularly in regions without a complete cold chain. In this review article, we consider the potential of molecular farming to address the challenges of endemic and re-emerging diseases, focusing on edible plants for the development of oral drugs. Key recent developments in this field include successful clinical trials based on orally delivered dried leaves of Artemisia annua against malarial parasite strains resistant to artemisinin combination therapy, the ability to produce clinical-grade protein drugs in leaves to treat infectious diseases and the long-term storage of protein drugs in dried leaves at ambient temperatures. Recent FDA approval of the first orally delivered protein drug encapsulated in plant cells to treat peanut allergy has opened the door for the development of affordable oral drugs that can be manufactured and distributed in remote areas without cold storage infrastructure and that eliminate the need for expensive purification steps and sterile delivery by injection.