EDIBLE VACCINES

Pharmacognosy & Phytochemistry- I

Session 2020-21

Submitted by – Mr. Suyash Jain

Department Of Pharmaceutical Sciences

Dr. Harisingh Gour Vishwavidyalaya, Sagar (M.P.)
( A Central University )
•A vaccine is a biological preparation that improves immunity against a particular
or several disease.

•It contains an agent that resembles a disease-causing microorganism and is often

made from weakened or killed forms of the microbe, its toxins or one of its surface
proteins.

•The agent stimulates the body's immune system to recognize the foreign antigen,
destroy it.

•Edward Jenner in 1796 developed the first

smallpox vaccine. He used this vaccine in human beings
resulting in protection of human beings from smallpox.
 Properties of Ideal vaccine

It should not be toxic or pathogenic.

 Low levels of side effect.

 It should not contaminate the environment.

 It should not cause problems in individuals with impaired

immune system

 Technique of vaccination should be simple.

 It should be cheap.
Types of vaccine

 Live attenuated vaccines

 Killed vaccines
 Purified subunit vaccines
 Recombinant subunit vaccines.
 Edible Vaccine
 Traditional Vs Edible Vaccines

 Traditional vaccine: Costly & associated with side

effects, longer time is needed for it to be produced

Vs
 Edible vaccine : cost-effective, easy-to-administer,
easy to-store, fail-safe and socio-culturally readily
acceptable vaccines and their delivery systems.
 Systemic Defence only

Both Systemic and

Mucosal/ first line of defence
• Edible vaccine is the novel approach for oral immunization.

• Edible vaccines are subunit vaccines that introduce/encode selected genes or

antigens of bacterial and viral pathogens into the plants & facilitate the
production of the encoded protein.

• These types of vaccines are prepared by

emerging whole or selected desired genes
into the plants. The process is known as
‘transformation’.

• The plants used for transformation are known

as ‘transgenic plants’.

• These transgenic plants produced

encoded proteins.
•These types of vaccines are generally the type of subunit vaccine since it uses
selected desired gene for production of vaccine.

•Edible vaccines are also knows as plant based vaccine or genetically modified
plant based vaccine.

•Initially it was thought to be useful only for preventing infectious diseases, but
now it has also found application in prevention of autoimmune diseases, birth
control , cancer therapy, etc.

• Edible vaccines are currently being developed for a number of human and
animal diseases.

•As Hippocrates said , Let “thy food be thy medicine”

 Standards for Edible Vaccine
 It should contain appropriate amount of desired
gene.

 It should be stable at room temperature for

long time.

 It should not be degraded in stomach.

The phrase edible vaccines was
first used by Charles Arntzen in
1990 and refers to any foods
Why to Choose Edible Vaccine?
• E. coli infection, ex: cholera, rotavirus, enters the body
through the gastrointestinal tract, a vaccine that is ingested may
actually provide the best protection because it mimics the
natural route of infection
• Needle free: Oral vaccines
• No re-use, misuse
• Lack Of Sterilization.
• Low Risk of infection.
• Trigger the immunity at the mouth
• Safe Storage
• Heat-stable
• Cheap
• Long lasting humoral and cellular immunities
Criterias for Selection of Host Plant
• Well known major crop in
3rd world
• Huge biomass for mass
production
• Not the part of food chain
• Easily transformation
• Stored for long period
without refrigeration
• No Cooking
• 2-3 years to mature & 12
months to bear fruit
• Grow quickly
• High content of vitamin A
may boost immune response
• Heat-stable
• Do not need special facilities
for storage and transportation
• They taste good.
•Spoils rapidly after ripening so
the get degraded easily.
• Contains very little protein
•Two ways ……

• In one case- the entire structural gene is inserted into plant transformation
vector between 5‟and 3‟regulatory element ; this will allow the transcription
and accumulation of encoding sequence in the plant.

• In the second case- epitope within the antigen are identified ,DNA fragment
encoding these can be used to construct gene by fusion with a coat protein
gene from plant virus e.g. Tobacco mosaic virus (TMV) or
Cytomegalovirus(CMV).
Methods of Edible Vaccine Production
Techniques used for Transformation

Direct/Vector (used less)- Gene Gun

Micro projectile bombardment method.
Electroporation method

Indirect/ Vector - A. Tumefaciens Plant viruses

How to make an Edible Vaccine
 How Edible Vaccine Works
(Mechanism of Action)

Responses taken Local IgA response

Antigen in
up by memory and memory cell
transgenic plant
cells start working

Real infectious
Response by IgG,
Ingestion agent nutrilizes by
IgE responses
agent

Delivered by Passed on to
bioencapsulation Macrophages
 Factors Affecting Edible Vaccine

• Antigen selection (Safe, suitable, Stable)

• Efficacy in model systems (small qty)
• Choice of plant species (Suitable, easy grown, storage, cost)
• Delivery and dosing issues
• Safety issues (allergic & toxic potential)
• Public perceptions and attitudes to genetic modification
• Quality control and licensing (consistent)
 PROS
• Use antigenic protein instead of pathogenicgenes.
• These are free from contamination with animal viruses since
they are developed in plants and plant viruses are
ineffective or have negligible effect in human beings.

• Cheap Mass –production

• Can be ingested
• No processing and purification
• Extensive storage
• Trigger the immunity at first line of defense
 CONS

• The difficulty in providing a standard dose since given orally.

• Contaminate the food supply with antigens or weedy relatives

• Ideal plant with expression of stable gene is difficult task

• Difficult to select & identify the plants for stable
antigen production.

• Time consuming process.

1. Tobacco 7. Soybean

2. Potato 8. Alfalfa

3. Banana 9. Muskmelon

4. Tomato 10. Carrot

5. Rice 11. Peanuts

6. Lettuce 12. Wheat

13. Corn
 PRO AND CONS
OF SOME EDIBLE HOST PLANTS
1. Malaria

•Three antigens are currently being investigated for the

development of a plant-based malaria vaccine.

• Wang et al have demonstrated

that oral immunization of mice with
recombinant MSP 4, MSP 4/5 and
MSP1, co administered with CTB as a
mucosal adjuvant, induced antibody
responses effective against blood-stage parasite
2. Measles

o Mice fed with tobacco expressing MV-H (measles virus

haemagglutinin from Edmonston strain) could attain
antibody titers five times the level considered protective for
humans and they also demonstrated secretory IgA in their
faeces.

o Carrot, banana and rice are the potential

candidates
3. Hepatitis B

•Potato-based vaccine against hepatitis B have

reported
The amount of HBsAg needed for one dose
could be achieved in a single potato.

•Levels of specific antibodies significantly

exceeded the protective level of 10 mIU/mL in
humans..
4. Cholera

Plants were transformed with the gene encoding B subunit

of the E. coli heat liable enterotoxin (LT-B). Transgenic
potatoes expressing LT-B were found to induce both serum
and secretory antibodies when fed to mice; these antibodies
were protective in bacterial toxin assay in vitro. This is the
first "proof of concept" for the edible vaccine.
 Future Prospects

Other applications of edible vaccines under research are:-

Against
HIV,
 sexually transmitted diseases,
 Anthrax,
 Bovine Pneumonia,
 Pasteurellosis.
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transgenic plants’,Proct Natl Acad Sci USA, (1992),11745-11749.
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capsid protein in transgenic potato and tomato plants and its oral immunogenicity in
mice, Proct Natl Acad Sci USA,1996,5335-5340.
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