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Friday, 8th September, 2000Vaccine In GM Fruit Could Wipe Out Hepatitis B
According to the Guardian, tomatoes and bananas genetically modified to contain hepatitis B vaccine could rid the world of the virus, a leading American scientist said in London yesterday. The virus, which causes high fever and attacks the liver, is a precursor of liver cancer, the biggest single cause of cancer deaths. This new development will save hundreds of thousands of lives a year, said Charles Arntzen, the scientist who developed the technology.
Successful experiments show that the vaccine worked, he added, and will cost less than one penny a dose to make. A single gene transferred into a tomato or banana plant is reproduced as a protein thousands of times inside the fruit. When eaten it passes into the intestine and then into the blood stream producing antibodies against hepatitis B - working the same way as a traditionally injected but much more expensive vaccine. "We have rid the world of smallpox through vaccination, we are close with polio. Now I believe we can do it with hepatitis B too," Prof Arntzen said.
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