Can a plant-based vaccine treat hypertension?

Vaccines against hypertension constitute a viable approach to decrease blood pressure. In particular, two vaccines against hypertension (HP) targeting angiotensin II (AgII) have showed promising results and these are currently on evaluation in clinical trials. In parallel, plant-based vaccines have become a biotechnological application that has been assessed in clinical trials for some cases. This report proposes a hypothesis that involves developing a plant-based vaccine against HP. It is hypothesized that a plant-based vaccine having AgII or its AT1 receptor (ATR1) as targets, constitutes a safe, suitable and efficient therapeutic approach for HP. It is known that a number of carrier proteins can be produced in plants retaining its adjuvanticity. Therefore the production in plants of chimeric proteins where either AgII or ATR1 domains are fused to these carriers would be a promising approach to be investigated. Mucosal immunization using plant-derived AgII/ATR1 chimeric proteins would imply several advantages such as low cost and friendly delivery. However due to the lack of a detailed knowledge on the physiological role of AgII at the gastrointestinal tract, the effects of partially blocking the AgII action must be extensively evaluated. An alternative related to this aspect would be the use of transient expression systems where productivity is sufficiently high to allow the purification of the antigen of interest at convenient yields, so that it can constitute a parenteral vaccine. Proving the concept for a plant-based vaccine against HP may have profound implications on the development of a new HP therapy which offers convenient features such as low cost and easier compliance in comparison to pharmacological treatment.