Leishmania tarentolae: an alternative approach to the production of monoclonal antibodies to treat emerging viral infections

Background: Monoclonal antibody therapy has an important role to play as a post-exposure prophylactic and therapeutic for the treatment of viral infections, including emerging infections. For example, several patients of the present Ebola virus outbreak in West Africa were treated with ZMapp, a cocktail of three monoclonal antibodies which are expressed in Nicotiana benthamiana. Discussion: The majority of monoclonal antibodies in clinical use are expressed in mammalian cell lines which offer native folding and glycosylation of the expressed antibody. Monoclonal antibody expression in vegetal systems offers advantages over expression in mammalian cell lines, including improved potential for scale up and reduced costs. In this paper, I highlight the advantages of an upcoming protozoal system for the expression of recombinant antibody formats. Leishmania tarentolae offers a robust, economical expression of proteins with mammalian glycosylation patterns expressed in stable cell lines and grown in suspension culture. Several advantages of this system make it particularly suited for use in developing contexts. Summary: Given the potential importance of monoclonal antibody therapy in the containment of emerging viral infections, novel and alternative strategies to improve production must be explored.