A gmo rice strain has been produced for the purposes of 'edible vaccination' that expresses the Alzheimer's disease associated amyloidβ-peptide. - GreenMedInfo Summary
Transgenic rice expressing amyloidβ-peptide for oral immunization.
Int J Biol Sci. 2011;7(3):301-7. Epub 2011 Mar 25. PMID: 21448341
National Agricultural Research Center for Tohoku Region, National Agriculture and Food Research Organization, 4 Akahira, Shimo-kuriyagawa, Morioka, Iwate 020-0198, Japan. [email protected]
Various vaccine therapies for Alzheimer's disease (AD) have been investigated. Here we report transgenic rice expressing amyloidβ-peptide (Aβ). The Aβ42 gene fused with a green fluorescent protein gene was introduced into rice using the Agrobacterium method. When transgenic brown rice expressing Aβ was orally administered to mice, serum anti-Aβ antibody titers were elevated. The same results were observed when mice werefed boiled, transgenic brown rice. The results indicate that an edible vaccine against AD using rice may be feasible. A vaccine derived from rice would be far cheaper than existing medical vaccines.