Pharmaceutical Foodstuffs: Oral Immunization with Transgenic Plants

Abstract

Vaccination is one of the most cost-effective medical interventions available. The public health triumphs of this century, such as the eradication of smallpox and the near eradication of polio, can be attributed in part to the success of the traditional or “Jennerian” vaccine technology. These effective vaccines consist of either killed or, more often, attenuated strains of the pathogen which are delivered by injection (the Sabine oral polio vaccine being an exception). Unfortunately, however, this approach cannot be extended to many pathogens which are expensive or impossible to culture.