Plant-based vaccines against diarrheal diseases.
Every year 1.6 million deaths occur due to diarrhea related to unsafe water and inadequate sanitation-the vast majority in children under 5 years old. Safe and effective vaccines against enteric infections could contribute to control of these diseases. However, purification of protective antigens for inclusion in vaccines using traditional expression systems is expensive and unattractive to vaccine manufacturers who see the vaccine market as economically uninviting. Cost is one of the persistent barriers to deployment of new vaccines to populations that need them most urgently. Transgenic plant-derived vaccines offer a new strategy for development of safe, inexpensive vaccines against diarrheal diseases. In phase 1 clinical studies, these vaccines have been safe and immunogenic without the need for a buffer or vehicle other than the plant cell. This paper describes early clinical studies evaluating oral transgenic plant vaccines against enteric infections such as enterotoxigenic E. coli infection and norovirus.
University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD 21201, USA. ctacket@medicine.umaryland.edu
Carol O
CO
Tacket
D001427:Bacterial Toxins / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology; D017250:Caliciviridae Infections / Q000276:immunology / Q000517:prevention & control; D036022:Capsid Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology; D017321:Clinical Trials, Phase I as Topic; D003967:Diarrhea / Q000276:immunology / Q000517:prevention & control*; D054307:Enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology; D004768:Enterotoxins / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology; D004927:Escherichia coli Infections / Q000276:immunology / Q000517:prevention & control; D029968:Escherichia coli Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology; D005767:Gastrointestinal Diseases / Q000276:immunology / Q000517:prevention & control; D006801:Humans; D018928:Immunity, Mucosal; D029322:Norovirus / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology; D030821:Plants, Genetically Modified; D012449:Safety; D011198:Solanum tuberosum / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology; D022462:Vaccines, Edible / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology / Q000494:pharmacology*; D003313:Zea mays / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology
D001427:Bacterial Toxins; D036022:Capsid Proteins; D004768:Enterotoxins; D029968:Escherichia coli Proteins; D022462:Vaccines, Edible; C027538:heat-labile enterotoxin, E coli