Plant-grown oral vaccine for plague developed
July 31, 2008 | Source: KurzweilAI
University of Central Florida researchers have developed an oral vaccine for the plague (caused by the Yersinia pestis bacteria) that can be grown in genetically engineered chloroplasts (the photosynthesis organelle) of plants such as tobacco or lettuce.
They added the gene for the F1-V fusion antigen protein, found on the outside of the plague bacteria, to plants and fed freeze-dried plant cells to rats. The protein stimulated the immune system into making plague antibodies. Most orally vaccinated rats survived exposure to the bacteria (all control animals died within three days).
A plant-based oral vaccine would be faster to distribute and administer than injected vaccines.
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