Cholera Vaccine Engineered in Rice

Pascual, who was not part of the research team, noted that several other plants have been developed to carry vaccines.

Potatoes and tomatoes have been tested for vaccine against Norwalk virus, he said, potatoes, corn and soybeans against enterotoxin, potatoes for cholera vaccine, and soybeans for E. coli.

One reason for the slow progress in the field has been lack of interest and funding from major pharmaceutical companies, Mason said.

The only plant-based vaccine in use counters Newcastle disease in chickens, and that reached development only after Dow Agroscience became interested, he said.

The Japanese research was funded by several agencies of the Japanese government.

The use of rice engineered to produce a vaccine reaction doesn't mean it's an edible vaccine, Kiyono stressed.

"We do not wish to create the condition that public is thinking of eating steamed rice for vaccination," he said via E-mail.

Instead, the vaccine is delivered in a capsule or pill containing rice powder and should be treated as a drug, not food, he said.

With the first work done in mice, Kiyono said more basic studies are needed and he hopes to test the vaccine in a primate "in the near future."