Transgenic carrots can be made to express edible antiviral vaccine.(for measles prevention)

2003 APR 16 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Researchers in Luxembourg have demonstrated that transgenic carrots can be made to express edible measles vaccine.

These would be eaten raw to preserve full immunogenicity.

"Although edible vaccines seem to be feasible, antigens of human pathogens have mostly been expressed in plants that are not attractive for human consumption (such as potatoes) unless they are cooked. Boiling may reduce the immunogenicity of many antigens. More recently, the technology to transform fruit and vegetable plants have become perfected," said E. Marquet-Blouin and colleagues.

They used Agrobacterium tumefaciens bacteria to transform carrot plants that were transgenic for an immunodominant antigen of the measles virus.

"The hemagglutinin (H) glycoprotein is the principle target of neutralizing and protective antibodies against measles," the researchers said. "Copy numbers of the H transgene were verified by Southern blot and specific transcription was confirmed by RT PCR [reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction].

"The H protein was detected by Western blot in the membrane fraction of transformed carrot plants. The recombinant protein seemed to have a 8% lower molecular weight than the viral protein," Marquet-Blouin and colleagues reported.

While "[suggested] a different glycosylation pattern," they said, "proper folding of the transgenic protein was confirmed by conformational-dependent monoclonal antibodies."