Tomato Based Vaccines

[Guest guest]

The unsuspecting public may already be munching on this crap!

Ingrid

GE Pharmageddon--How About an AIDS Drug in Your Corn Flakes?

"Pharmageddon"

Dr. Mae-Wan Ho and Prof. Joe Cummins, 2nd December 2002

Our fields are being turned into pharmaceutical and industrial factories that poison our food supply and entire life support system. Our governments havebeen warned and should be held liable for all damages along with thecompanies involved. Dr. Mae-Wan Ho reports.

The complete document with references, is available in the ISIS memberssite.. Full details here http://www.i-sis.org/

We have repeatedly warned against using food crops to produce gene drugs andindustrial chemicals since 1998 [1-3]. The inevitable contamination of ourfood supply has now come to light. But the more insidious pollution of our soil,water and air has yet to be assessed [3]. Poisons can seep through the plantroots and dissolve in ground water. Pollen carrying the offending drugs andchemicals could be inhaled. Wild and domestic animals of all kinds arelikely to feed on the crops.

On November 11, the US government ordered the biotech company, ProdiGene, todestroy 500,000 bushels of soybeans contaminated with GM maize, engineeredto produce a drug not approved for human consumption [4]. The US Department ofAgriculture (USDA) refused to give details on the protein involved becauseit is deemed "confidentual business information".

It could be one of the following [5]: the HIV glycoprotein gp120, a blood-clotting agent (aprotinin), a digestive enzyme (trypsin), an industrialadhesive (a fungal enzyme, laccase), vaccines for hepatitis B, vaccine for apig disease, transmissible gastroenteritis.

USDA records show that ProdiGene has received 85 test permits for experimental open-air trials of pharm crops and chemical crops in at least 96 locations.

The Oedible'AIDS vaccine with the HIV glycoprotein gp120 gene [6] has beencondemned as dangerous by a number of AIDS virologists [7-9] because thegp120 gene and gene product can undermine our immune system and generate newviruses and bacteria that cause diseases.

A day later, the US government disclosed that ProdiGene did the same thingin Iowa back in September. The USDA ordered 155 acres of nearby corn to beincinerated for fear of contamination [10,11].

This is just the tip of the iceberg. The true extent of the contaminationremains unknown owing to the secrecy surrounding more than 300 field trialsof such crops across the country since 1991. Still others sites are in Canada[3]. The chemicals these plants produce include vaccines, growth hormones,clotting agents, industrial enzymes, human antibodies, contraceptives, immunesuppressive cytokines and abortion-inducing drugs.

The majority of engineered biopharmaceuticals are being incorporated intomaize. ProdiGene, the company at the centre of the current scandal has thegreatest number of pharm crops and projects that 10 percent of the US maizewill be devoted to biopharm products by 2010.

Far from supporting even weak containment strategies such as buffer zones,ProdiGene has told its shareholders it is hoping to "gain regulatoryapproval to lessen or abandon these requirements altogether".

Trials in other countries have also come to light. According to a recentreport by Genetically Engineered Food Alert, a US-based coalition of environmentaland consumer advocacy groups, Puerto Rico is one of four main centres in the USfor these tests. The other three are the states of Nebraska, Wisconsin andHawaii.

Another report by the same group reveals that these plants are by no meansthe only experimental GM crops grown in Puerto Rico. This Caribbean island hasbeen host to 2,296 USDA-approved GM open-air field tests as of January 2001,making Puerto Rico host to more GM food experiments per square mile than any USstate, except Hawaii.

Puerto Rico is not a state. Its residents are US citizens but have no voiceor vote in the US Congress or in the UN.

Puerto Rico Farmers Association president Ramon revealed that heplants GM crops in his farm in the town of Salinas. He said that geneticallymodified crops in Puerto Rico are commercial and include a herbicide-resistantsoya made by Monsanto (Roundup-ready) and a variety of corn that producesits own bio-pesticide, or Bt corn.

According to , the harvested GM crops planted there are sold as seedto be planted elsewhere. "Puerto Rico is the preferred place to make seedbecause our weather permits us to have up to four harvests a year."

Local regulatory agencies seem to be unaware of the issue. A spokeswoman forthe Puerto Rico Environmental Quality Board said that as Puerto Rico has nolaws or regulations for GM crops, it has no mandate to intervene orinvestigate.

USDA spokesman Jim is reported to have said, "Nobody¹s going to knowall the possible risks", and "We mitigate these risks to what we feel is appropriate" [12].

On the contrary, we do know enough of the risks for such crops to be bannedimmediately. The USDA and other government regulators have been warned, andthey should be held liable for all damages along with the companies involved..

Risks of Edible Transgenic VaccinesProf. Joe Cummins reviews recent developments in plant edible vaccines andpoints out some additional risks that have not been considered.

The complete document with references, is available in the ISIS members

Using transgenic plants to produce vaccine cheaply has been the main area ofmolecular farming. A large number of transgenic plant vaccines are beingdeveloped and field tested [1,2].

Early tests of a hepatitis B vaccine in potato were hampered by the lowlevels of antigen produced in the plant, and by the safety requirement that onlyindividuals previously immunized with injected vaccine should be exposed tothe plant vaccine [3]. The main safety concern is that the oral vaccinepreparations will induce "immune tolerance", thereby making the individualsusceptible to the hepatitis B virus.

Oral tolerance is a fundamental biological response to ingested antigens, sothat it is possible to eat proteins that would produce an immune response ifinjected. These difficulties appear to have cooled the fervour of clinicalinvestigators and pharmaceutical companies. Though earlier, a vaccine forpig gastroenteritis produced in transgenic corn was claimed to be effective andready for commercial release by 2003 [4].

Most transgenic plants have been produced using fertile plants, with cropisolation to limit pollen escape. Researchers have employed chloroplasttransgene insertions to boost production levels and to limit the escape ofmodified genes in pollen. But chloroplast transgene containment is known notto be completely effective [5,6].

The two main concerns over transgenic vaccines are the contamination of foodcrops through cross pollination and of the vaccine itself in plant debrisspreading as dust and as pollutants in surface and groundwater. The vaccineantigen may affect browsing animals and humans living in the area drinkingvaccine-polluted water or breathing vaccine-polluted dust. The problem ofinducing oral tolerance has already been pointed out above.

There is another kind of immune tolerance that could be acquired duringembryogenesis. Burnet and Medawar found that the immune system establishedthe difference between "self" and "non-self" molecules in the developing embryo(reviewed in reference [7]). Exposing the embryo to vaccine will cause thenewborn to be tolerant to the vaccine and thus to regard both the vaccineand the infecting pathogen as "self". Individuals born in the vaccine-pollutedarea may well not be able to produce antibodies to the vaccine antigen, and thusto lack protection against infection by the pathogen.

A number of transgenic plant vaccines currently being developed will bediscussed. Cholera toxin gene was introduced into the chloroplast genome ofthe tobacco, the construction was geared towards high levels of vaccine-antigenproduction The chloroplast construction allowed 410 times higher antigenproduction than nuclear gene inserts [8].

Edible cholera B vaccines were produced in transgenic tomato [9,10]. And anantigen gene from the malaria parasite in transgenic tobacco has beenproposed as a malaria vaccine [11].

Mice fed transgenic alfalfa with a gene for an antigen to foot and mousevirus were found to produce antibodies against the foot and mouth virus [12]. Thatstudy bears careful scrutiny because alfalfa pollen is known to spread toadjacent crops, and pregnant cows and sheep fed on the vaccine crop may givebirth to offspring tolerant to the virus.

Transgenic tobacco was modified to produce vaccines against hepatitis Bvirus and cytomegalovirus. Virus-like particles were produced and concentrated inthe tobacco seeds. However, the modified seeds did not provoke an immuneresponse to hepatitis B and cytomegalovirus in mouse. Instead, a strong response totobacco seed proteins was observed [13]. This unexpected result ought toserve as warning of the unpredictable risks inherent to the transgenic process.

A transgenic potato was loaded with genes for cholera, E.coli antigens androtavirus enterotoxin, and adult mice were found to produce antibodies tothe toxins after feeding on the transgenic potatoes. Neonate mice passivelyimmunized by suckling from mice fed transgenic potatoes had less diarrheathan neonates unexposed to the vaccine [14].

The alfalfa mosaic virus was used to produce rabies vaccine in spinach andtobacco [15]. The experiments progressed to having people eat spinach leaves(salad) containing the vaccine. Such vaccines with recombinant viral vectorsshould have been handled with very great care to prevent the viral vectorfrom recombining and spreading to infect crops in the field. The rabiesvaccination may be important for wild animals and humans, but problems associated with oral tolerance or exposure of children in the womb should be addressed before these vaccines are released to the environment, as the release could actually increase the spread of rabies.

Transgenic crop vaccines may be useful, but the risks to human health andthe environment are real.

It is imperative that the cultivation and production of pharm crops shouldbe limited to controlled production facilities such as greenhouses, or betteryet, in plant tissue culture, that prevent environmental release of thebiopharmaceuticals.

[Guest guest]

The unsuspecting public may already be munching on this crap!

Ingrid

GE Pharmageddon--How About an AIDS Drug in Your Corn Flakes?

"Pharmageddon"

Dr. Mae-Wan Ho and Prof. Joe Cummins, 2nd December 2002

Our fields are being turned into pharmaceutical and industrial factories that poison our food supply and entire life support system. Our governments havebeen warned and should be held liable for all damages along with thecompanies involved. Dr. Mae-Wan Ho reports.

The complete document with references, is available in the ISIS memberssite.. Full details here http://www.i-sis.org/

We have repeatedly warned against using food crops to produce gene drugs andindustrial chemicals since 1998 [1-3]. The inevitable contamination of ourfood supply has now come to light. But the more insidious pollution of our soil,water and air has yet to be assessed [3]. Poisons can seep through the plantroots and dissolve in ground water. Pollen carrying the offending drugs andchemicals could be inhaled. Wild and domestic animals of all kinds arelikely to feed on the crops.

On November 11, the US government ordered the biotech company, ProdiGene, todestroy 500,000 bushels of soybeans contaminated with GM maize, engineeredto produce a drug not approved for human consumption [4]. The US Department ofAgriculture (USDA) refused to give details on the protein involved becauseit is deemed "confidentual business information".

It could be one of the following [5]: the HIV glycoprotein gp120, a blood-clotting agent (aprotinin), a digestive enzyme (trypsin), an industrialadhesive (a fungal enzyme, laccase), vaccines for hepatitis B, vaccine for apig disease, transmissible gastroenteritis.

USDA records show that ProdiGene has received 85 test permits for experimental open-air trials of pharm crops and chemical crops in at least 96 locations.

The Oedible'AIDS vaccine with the HIV glycoprotein gp120 gene [6] has beencondemned as dangerous by a number of AIDS virologists [7-9] because thegp120 gene and gene product can undermine our immune system and generate newviruses and bacteria that cause diseases.

A day later, the US government disclosed that ProdiGene did the same thingin Iowa back in September. The USDA ordered 155 acres of nearby corn to beincinerated for fear of contamination [10,11].

This is just the tip of the iceberg. The true extent of the contaminationremains unknown owing to the secrecy surrounding more than 300 field trialsof such crops across the country since 1991. Still others sites are in Canada[3]. The chemicals these plants produce include vaccines, growth hormones,clotting agents, industrial enzymes, human antibodies, contraceptives, immunesuppressive cytokines and abortion-inducing drugs.

The majority of engineered biopharmaceuticals are being incorporated intomaize. ProdiGene, the company at the centre of the current scandal has thegreatest number of pharm crops and projects that 10 percent of the US maizewill be devoted to biopharm products by 2010.

Far from supporting even weak containment strategies such as buffer zones,ProdiGene has told its shareholders it is hoping to "gain regulatoryapproval to lessen or abandon these requirements altogether".

Trials in other countries have also come to light. According to a recentreport by Genetically Engineered Food Alert, a US-based coalition of environmentaland consumer advocacy groups, Puerto Rico is one of four main centres in the USfor these tests. The other three are the states of Nebraska, Wisconsin andHawaii.

Another report by the same group reveals that these plants are by no meansthe only experimental GM crops grown in Puerto Rico. This Caribbean island hasbeen host to 2,296 USDA-approved GM open-air field tests as of January 2001,making Puerto Rico host to more GM food experiments per square mile than any USstate, except Hawaii.

Puerto Rico is not a state. Its residents are US citizens but have no voiceor vote in the US Congress or in the UN.

Puerto Rico Farmers Association president Ramon revealed that heplants GM crops in his farm in the town of Salinas. He said that geneticallymodified crops in Puerto Rico are commercial and include a herbicide-resistantsoya made by Monsanto (Roundup-ready) and a variety of corn that producesits own bio-pesticide, or Bt corn.

According to , the harvested GM crops planted there are sold as seedto be planted elsewhere. "Puerto Rico is the preferred place to make seedbecause our weather permits us to have up to four harvests a year."

Local regulatory agencies seem to be unaware of the issue. A spokeswoman forthe Puerto Rico Environmental Quality Board said that as Puerto Rico has nolaws or regulations for GM crops, it has no mandate to intervene orinvestigate.

USDA spokesman Jim is reported to have said, "Nobody¹s going to knowall the possible risks", and "We mitigate these risks to what we feel is appropriate" [12].

On the contrary, we do know enough of the risks for such crops to be bannedimmediately. The USDA and other government regulators have been warned, andthey should be held liable for all damages along with the companies involved..

Risks of Edible Transgenic VaccinesProf. Joe Cummins reviews recent developments in plant edible vaccines andpoints out some additional risks that have not been considered.

The complete document with references, is available in the ISIS members

Using transgenic plants to produce vaccine cheaply has been the main area ofmolecular farming. A large number of transgenic plant vaccines are beingdeveloped and field tested [1,2].

Early tests of a hepatitis B vaccine in potato were hampered by the lowlevels of antigen produced in the plant, and by the safety requirement that onlyindividuals previously immunized with injected vaccine should be exposed tothe plant vaccine [3]. The main safety concern is that the oral vaccinepreparations will induce "immune tolerance", thereby making the individualsusceptible to the hepatitis B virus.

Oral tolerance is a fundamental biological response to ingested antigens, sothat it is possible to eat proteins that would produce an immune response ifinjected. These difficulties appear to have cooled the fervour of clinicalinvestigators and pharmaceutical companies. Though earlier, a vaccine forpig gastroenteritis produced in transgenic corn was claimed to be effective andready for commercial release by 2003 [4].

Most transgenic plants have been produced using fertile plants, with cropisolation to limit pollen escape. Researchers have employed chloroplasttransgene insertions to boost production levels and to limit the escape ofmodified genes in pollen. But chloroplast transgene containment is known notto be completely effective [5,6].

The two main concerns over transgenic vaccines are the contamination of foodcrops through cross pollination and of the vaccine itself in plant debrisspreading as dust and as pollutants in surface and groundwater. The vaccineantigen may affect browsing animals and humans living in the area drinkingvaccine-polluted water or breathing vaccine-polluted dust. The problem ofinducing oral tolerance has already been pointed out above.

There is another kind of immune tolerance that could be acquired duringembryogenesis. Burnet and Medawar found that the immune system establishedthe difference between "self" and "non-self" molecules in the developing embryo(reviewed in reference [7]). Exposing the embryo to vaccine will cause thenewborn to be tolerant to the vaccine and thus to regard both the vaccineand the infecting pathogen as "self". Individuals born in the vaccine-pollutedarea may well not be able to produce antibodies to the vaccine antigen, and thusto lack protection against infection by the pathogen.

A number of transgenic plant vaccines currently being developed will bediscussed. Cholera toxin gene was introduced into the chloroplast genome ofthe tobacco, the construction was geared towards high levels of vaccine-antigenproduction The chloroplast construction allowed 410 times higher antigenproduction than nuclear gene inserts [8].

Edible cholera B vaccines were produced in transgenic tomato [9,10]. And anantigen gene from the malaria parasite in transgenic tobacco has beenproposed as a malaria vaccine [11].

Mice fed transgenic alfalfa with a gene for an antigen to foot and mousevirus were found to produce antibodies against the foot and mouth virus [12]. Thatstudy bears careful scrutiny because alfalfa pollen is known to spread toadjacent crops, and pregnant cows and sheep fed on the vaccine crop may givebirth to offspring tolerant to the virus.

Transgenic tobacco was modified to produce vaccines against hepatitis Bvirus and cytomegalovirus. Virus-like particles were produced and concentrated inthe tobacco seeds. However, the modified seeds did not provoke an immuneresponse to hepatitis B and cytomegalovirus in mouse. Instead, a strong response totobacco seed proteins was observed [13]. This unexpected result ought toserve as warning of the unpredictable risks inherent to the transgenic process.

A transgenic potato was loaded with genes for cholera, E.coli antigens androtavirus enterotoxin, and adult mice were found to produce antibodies tothe toxins after feeding on the transgenic potatoes. Neonate mice passivelyimmunized by suckling from mice fed transgenic potatoes had less diarrheathan neonates unexposed to the vaccine [14].

The alfalfa mosaic virus was used to produce rabies vaccine in spinach andtobacco [15]. The experiments progressed to having people eat spinach leaves(salad) containing the vaccine. Such vaccines with recombinant viral vectorsshould have been handled with very great care to prevent the viral vectorfrom recombining and spreading to infect crops in the field. The rabiesvaccination may be important for wild animals and humans, but problems associated with oral tolerance or exposure of children in the womb should be addressed before these vaccines are released to the environment, as the release could actually increase the spread of rabies.

Transgenic crop vaccines may be useful, but the risks to human health andthe environment are real.

It is imperative that the cultivation and production of pharm crops shouldbe limited to controlled production facilities such as greenhouses, or betteryet, in plant tissue culture, that prevent environmental release of thebiopharmaceuticals.