Edible Vaccines Could Be Wave Of Future

WASHINGTON -- When you think vaccines, you most likely think of needles and syringes. Now a patch and a vegetable could take their places, and researchers say that same technology may also one day protect us against a biological attack.

In the United States, getting a vaccine is fairly routine. Around the world, the story is different.

"There are significant numbers of children, often in particular pockets and rural areas and poor areas in some cities, that haven't been vaccinated," Dr. David Brandling-Bennett said. He is deputy director of the Pan American Health Organization, said.

Yet, the problem is not as remote as it may seem. Consider there are more than 400,000 refugees in the United States and 26.3 million immigrants, many from developing countries.

"We're very closely connected with anywhere else in the world and, therefore, are at risk of diseases that occur elsewhere," Brandling-Bennett said.

This makes the need for routine vaccinations in other countries our concern, officials said. Researcher Henry Daniell, Ph.D., a molecular biologist at the University of Central Florida in Orlando, Fla., hopes edible vaccines will be one answer.

"Anyone can grow these tomatoes," Daniell said. "Anyone can develop this in their region and so, it's an enormous opportunity to save lives."

Daniell said edible vaccines might also help with mass vaccinations against biological agents, such as anthrax.

"It's not possible to vaccinate 25 million people, but you can sell tomatoes to 25 million people very easily," he said.

At his research facility, a tomato plant leaf is bombarded with the gene for the cholera vaccine. Any tomatoes it produces will carry the vaccine to people who eat them.

"I believe that the edible vaccine will be a major blessing for developing countries," Daniell said.

In addition, there are other ways to get vaccines to developing countries, like with a simple patch.

"Simply hydrating the skin, or wetting the skin, allows the skin to open up sufficiently to let the vaccine permeate just to the outermost layer of the skin," said Stan Erck, president and chief executive officer of the Iomai Corp., in Washington, D.C., one of the companies working on a vaccine patch.

Erck said that early results show a surprisingly positive response.

"It's a truly memorable event when you get those kind of experimental results," Erck said.

That's good news for residents of developing countries, and people in the United States as well.

Researchers expect the edible vaccines and the patches to be available within the next five to seven years. Researchers predict delivery methods like the patch will also allow for delivery of more toxic medications without the side effects of intravenous or oral drugs.

If you would like more information, please contact:

Iomai Corp.
20 Firstfield Road.
Suite 250
Gaithersburg, MD 20878

Henry Daniell, Ph.D.
University of Central Florida
Department Molecular Biology & Microbiology
12722 Research Parkway
Orlando FL 32826-3227
(407) 384-2820