www.czu.cz ; www.raupp.info

Scientists from Siberian research institutes have created AIDS and hepatitis
B vaccines using tomatoes. The edible vaccines have already been tested on
animals and have given positive results, the Russian Information Agency
Novosti reported October 2004.

Researchers from the Irkutsk Plant Biochemistry Institute, the Novosibirsk
Chemical Biology Institute, and the Novosibirsk Virology and Biotechnology
Center Vector worked for two days in a joint project to create the vaccines.

The immune system of mice who ate transgenic tomatoes became stronger, an
official from the Vector center was quoted by the agency as saying.
?Although the entire world has been working on the creation of such an
edible vaccine for more than ten years, no one has yet achieved such
results,? Sergei Shchelkunov, the head of genome molecular biology
department, said.

Shchelkunov added that the scientists plan to develop hepatitis A and
tick-borne encephalitis vaccines using carrots and lettuce.

The researchers will need several years of clinical trials and several
hundred thousand dollars to continue their work and develop the vaccines?
application into the production stage.

[www.mosnews.com]

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