The use of rice seeds to produce human pharmaceuticals for oral therapy

Rice (Oryza sativa L.) is the major staple food consumed by half of the world's population. Rice seeds have gained recent attention as bioreactors for the production of human pharmaceuticals such as therapeutic proteins or peptides. Rice seed production platforms have many advantages over animal cell or microbe systems in terms of cost‐effectiveness, scalability, safety, product stability and productivity. Rice seed‐based human pharmaceuticals are expected to become innovative therapies as edible drugs. Therapeutic proteins can be sequestered within natural cellular compartments in rice seeds and protected from harsh gastrointestinal environments. This review presents the state‐of‐the‐art on the construction of gene cassettes for accumulation of pharmaceutical proteins or peptides in rice seeds, the generation of transgenic rice plants, and challenges involved in the use of rice seeds to produce human pharmaceuticals. Transgenic rice seeds that contain pharmaceuticals have the potential to promote health outcomes and to treat diseases, leading to an increase in the quality of life by exploiting a delivery system that is as simple as the daily diet. This review presents current findings on the techniques and challenges involved in the use of rice seeds to produce pharmaceuticals.