Introducing
Your new presentation assistant.
Refine, enhance, and tailor your content, source relevant images, and edit visuals quicker than ever before.
Trending searches
An oral replacement for traditional injections
How is the Banana Vaccine crated?
1- Reverse Transcription PCR (RT-PCR) is used to amplify Hepatitis B antigens (HBsAg).
2- Restriction Enzymes cut the Ti Plasmid, found in a soil bacterium, at the Left and Right borders and the virulence region.
3- HBsAg DNA code is inserted into the virulence region. Kanamycin Resistance and GUS reporter gene are inserted into the left and right borders.
Kanamycin Resistance enables the Ti plasmid to survive in an environment with Kanamycin. It is a negative control.
GUS reporter gene is easily identified in the mature bananas, and indicates the banana is carrying the proper genes to produce the vaccine.
The HBsAg gene inserted in this region allows the Ti Plasmid to produce the proteins necessary to create the antigens for vaccination.
4- The Ti Plasmid is inserted in the DNA of banana tissue either through infection by the bacteria or particle bombardment. The tissue sample is then grown to maturity.
The mature banana plants are scanned for GUS reporter gene to make sure the Ti Plasmid was properly incorporated
How does the Banana Vaccine Work?
When the modified banana is eaten, the HBsAg is introduced to the body. When the banana cells break down in the intestines and the antigen proteins are released, M cells in the gut recognize the unfamiliar protein. The HBsAg code is then transmitted through the immune system by macrophages and T Cells until B Cells begin producing antibodies. The immune system stores the protein code for Hepatitis B virus, and the person is effectively vaccinated.
Benefits of the Banana Vaccine
Banana plants are native to many high-risk areas of the world, quick to grow, and require no preparation before eating. In the future when plantations are set up, this would make the vaccines more available to people living in remote areas and more cost effective for companies to transport and administer.
The HBsAg protein produced in bananas does not need to be artificially induced to fold into the proper protein structure in a lab, significantly reducing the steps required to produce the antigen. Less steps immediately makes the production of banana vaccines more cost effective for the drug companies.
Oral vaccines are theorized to be more effective than injected vaccines, as they stimulate both mucosal and systematic immune responses. This creates both short and long term benefits for those immunized by the banana vaccine as they would have faster and more effective reactions to Hepatitis B.
Most of the viruses that affect plants do not affect humans, so there is less risk of a consumer receiving a tainted vaccine. This is a short and long term benefit for all stakeholders in the banana vaccine, as producers will have less tainted, therefore unsellable, batches and recipients will have less risk of getting sick from the vaccine.
Drawbacks of Banana Vaccines
Growing the bananas requires a lot of land and care. Currently, developers are unsure who would be willing to grow bananas that cannot be sold on the consumer market. This creates a short-term issue regarding the land and farmers necessary to produce the vaccine for the drug companies.
The vaccinated bananas require intensive quality control and regulations. There is a lot of short term controversy over which governments, and institutions within those governments, would have the difficult and expensive responsibility of overseeing the banana's growth and distribution. This problem could also turn into a long term issue regarding money to pay for the expensive regulations for whichever government ends up with the responsibility.
There are also concerns surrounding the dosage safety and administration. An oral vaccine's dosage is determined by weight, age, and ripeness, so no two bananas have the same dosage. The inconsistency in dosage could create short and long term problems for the administrators of the vaccines, which could result in over or under dosed patients.
Furthermore, there are serious concerns surrounding the long-term security of the bananas, which could be either stolen or mixed up with regular bananas. Any sort of innocent or malicious breach in security could result in over consumption of the HBsAG containing bananas, creating a tolerance to the antigen and loss of immune reaction to the real disease.
Stakeholders
Farmers are needed to grow the modified bananas in large quantities at secure facilities, which could result in positive monetary profits. However, farmers growing the vaccinated bananas would also have to submit to many potentially inconvenient security measures.
Law and Regulatory bodies are needed to monitor the production, quality, and distribution of oral vaccines. This would be very time consuming and expensive work for a department to handle, however, it would give them power and influence in the medical world.
The use of oral vaccines gives those at risk for developing Hepatitis B in remote areas easier access to the vaccine. The vaccination of these people would help create a healthier and safer global community.
Health practitioners would need to receive training on the dosage safety, storage and administration of oral vaccines. This would be an encumbrance to the general medical field, as many practitioners would have to relearn everything they knew about vaccinations. The training would also be expensive for the health institutions practitioners work at.
Researchers with high-tech labs, equipment, and funding are needed to continue developing the vaccines. It may be difficult for them to receive adequate funding. However, if a researcher does manage to work out the kinks in the process, he could earn a lot of money, influence, and fame.
Sources
http://www.roswellpark.edu/yasmin-thanavala/lab
ftp://greengene.uml.edu/STMCB/Oct30-GenEng/edible%20vaccines.pdf
http://cosmos.ucdavis.edu/archives/2011/cluster1/HUANG_ROYA.pdf
Mackenzie Strafford
Process described above illustrated using HIV antigens instead of Hepatitis B antigens
Hepatitis B is a currently incurable disease caused by the HBV virus, which is commonly spread through contact with body fluids. Currently, 350 million people around the world are infected. A million of those infected die every year. The current preventative vaccines are expensive and need to be refrigerated, which means they are unavailable to at-risk people living in remote areas like Africa. The banana vaccine would be a cheaper and easier medium to transmit the antigens necessary for vaccination to at risk people around the world.