The first ever edible vaccine was developed at the University of Illinois, and it took place in the form of a cherry tomatoe. The tomatoes were unique in the fact that they carried within them a major protein on the outside envelope of the respiratory syncytial (RSV) virus under control of a fruit specific promoter.
This vaccine was deveploped in the first place because for some reason injectable vaccines that had been attempted did not work well on humans. In fact some of the early attempts even seemed to worsen the infection.
Edible vaccines were also thought up in order to medicinally build up protection in the mucosal system, for example, the immune cells along the nose throat and mouth which is where the RSV virus first enters the body. |
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So-Called Health Risks Of Genetically Engineered Foods According to a lot of anti-genetically engineered food groups, there are a lot of things at risk if we sell GM foods. On the top of the list seems to be new allergies and toxins introduced into food. Although this does seem like a logical concern, when something is created, be it a drug or a new food, there is testing down, enough testing that if a toxin was present it would be noticed almost right away.
Another concern seems to be, although this baffles me, that there will be increased use of chemicals on crops and this would result in the increased contamination of our water supply and food. This doesn't make sense to me because, crops are being developd with ingrown insect repellants and such things, so why would we use more chemicals? Wouldn't we be using less? |
