Survey results on plant-made vaccines discussed

Plants are already well on their way to becoming the drugstores of the future. They have shown promise as vehicles for the production and oral delivery of vaccines, as they 1) carry no risk of the finished product being contaminated with animal pathogens, 2) provide a heat-stable environment for keeping the vaccine fresh, and 3) eliminate the risk of injection-related hazards. This so-called “pharming” technology presents “an interesting intersection between medical treatments and the use of genetically modified (GM) food crops,” as Dwayne D. Kirk and Kim McIntosh of Arizona State University write. Their article, “Social Acceptance of Plant-Made Vaccines: Indications from a Public Survey,” appears in the latest issue of AgBioForum. The researchers surveyed 706 respondents from Phoenix, Arizona, USA regarding their opinion on the use of transgenic plants as vaccines. Their results show that there is strong potential support for a plant-made vaccine (PMV). In particular, 59.8% of the respondents expressed some preference for an oral vaccine, and 68% expressed some level of acceptance for use of a PMV. However, about 40.9% of the respondents believed that most vaccines are already genetically modified, when in fact only 6% of all vaccines licensed for distribution and use are produced by genetically engineered subunit technologies. "Source":[ http://www.checkbiotech.org/root/index.cfm?fuseaction=news&doc_id=12177&start=1&control=220&page_start=1&page_nr=101&pg=1]

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