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This could prove a
major health-care boost for poor countries, where lack of reliable
refrigeration and difficult logistics complicate delivery of traditional
injectable vaccines, researchers say. What's more, the edible-vaccine
research highlights some of the potentially positive elements of so-called
"Frankenfoods."
"There are a lot
of people worried about genetically modified foods, but I think this helps
to highlight some of the potential benefits," says Dr. Steven
Wesselingh, head of Alfred Hospital's infectious diseases unit, which is
conducting the measles research.
In tests conducted of
greenhouse-grown, vaccine-laden tobacco and lettuce, mice eating the stuff
began producing desired measles antibodies, Wesselingh said. Also, he
added, the tobacco and lettuce plants produced the measles virus gene for
the H-protein in just the right fashion. That surprised researchers who had
expected more trouble in getting the process just right.
Much additional work
needs to be done, including moving trials up the animal chain to monkeys
and, eventually, humans. But the Alfred Hospital researchers are so
encouraged they're starting early work on how vaccines for viruses such as
HIV might be delivered via food, he said.
Elsewhere, most
notably at the Boyce Thompson Institute
for Plant Research at Cornell University, promising research has also
been conducted into food-delivered oral vaccines against hepatitis B, e.
coli, and diarrheal illnesses, primarily through a genetically engineered
potato.
Institute spokesman
Dwayne Kirk said that, over time, bananas, tomatoes, or a host of other
foods might be used to deliver vaccines. Various powders might also be
developed one day so vaccines could be mixed with liquids and swallowed, he
said.
The vaccines wouldn't
enter the general food supply, Kirk stressed.
"As far as
environmental pollution or people worrying about consuming foods when they
don't know what's in them, that just wouldn't apply," Kirk said.
"These vaccine-carrying plants would be grown and dispensed under
controlled conditions."
John Fleming,
director of the Southern Cross Bioethics Center in Adelaide, South
Australia, said the research looked promising, but many questions remain.
"For instance,
we can't actually feed much of the Third World at present, and so why are
we thinking of now immunizing them with food?" he said.
But he acknowledged
the vaccine-food idea may have potential long-term merit, if dosages can be
strictly controlled, plants are kept under tight quarantine, and adequate
health and safety oversight is maintained.
Robert Phelps,
director of the Australian Gene
Ethics Network, was also cautiously optimistic. "Research in this
area clearly has far to go, and it should be kept in that
perspective," Phelps said. "There needs to be open, transparent,
and thorough public review of its safety, efficacy, social, and ethical
aspects."
"For example, if
the product is patented, it may be quite beyond the reach of the people in
need," he said.
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