Scientists embed a vaccine in a genetically-modified food

Japanese researchers say they have used a staple of their nation's diet--rice--to develop what could become an effective, safe, and inexpensive vaccine against cholera. The new vaccine, which would be taken as a pill and does not require refrigeration, could pave the way for similar vaccines for diseases that also affect the body's mucous tissues, such as influenza, botulism, and even anthrax. Cholera, a disease of the intestinal lining, continues to ravage populations in the developing world--even though it is easily treated with fluids and antibiotics. Caused by consuming water or food contaminated with Vibrio cholerae bacteria, the disease unleashes severe diarrhea and accompanying dehydration. Researchers at the University of Tokyo engineered two strains of domestic rice to carry the gene for CTB, one of the primary cholera proteins, to help the body develop immunity to infection. Tests with laboratory mice fed varying doses of the genetically-altered rice showed that the new vaccine, called MucoRice, immediately protected them from cholera, whereas the control group became infected, the team reports online this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. "ScienceNOW Daily news":[ http://sciencenow.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/2007/612/2]

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