Rurik Salyaev and colleagues at the Institute for Victory and Biochemistry of Siberian Plants in Siberia, Russia, used the soil bacterium Agrobacterium tumefaciens to transport a synthetic DNA fragment of HIV and HBV into tomato plants. This DNA composition contains different HIV protein genes and a HBV protein (HBV surface antigen) gene fragment. Then, this tomato plant can make these proteins. Similar to oral polio vaccines, these proteins stimulate the body's production of antibodies to these viruses when the tomato is eaten. Animal experiments showed that when mice were fed a solution containing the powdered tomato formulation, high levels of antibodies to both viruses were formed in their blood. Researchers have also found antibodies on the mucosal surface of the body that are normally exposed to sexual contact with the virus—parts that researchers hope the vaccine can protect. The results of this study were announced at a meeting of the International Society of Infectious Diseases, and the success of the study will be published in the July 1 issue of The New Scientist Magazine. If this kind of tomato vaccine can work in humans, they will be taken in the form of tablets, because it is very difficult for people to directly eat this kind of tomato to control the quality of the protein that people absorb. This vaccine does not need to be refrigerated and does not need to be injected with a needle. Sweet Potato Leaf Juice Vermicelli Bag Sweet Potato Leaf Juice Vermicelli Bag Ningxia ZhaiXianSong Commercial and Trading Co.,Ltd. , http://www.nxupin.com
Tomatoes resistant to hepatitis B and AIDS
So far, none of the 90 candidate HIV vaccines (AIDS-inducing viruses) have proven successful. Moreover, although there is already a HBV (hepatitis B) vaccine, it is too expensive for poorer countries.