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Genetically modified tomatoes to fight HIV, hepatitis B virus

hiv hepatitis b virus

The world’s most lethal viruses, HIV and the hepatitis B virus can be killed by tomatoes. These two diseases can be challenged by creating vaccines out of genetically modified tomatoes.

There is only one vaccine available for hepatitis B virus, and hence it is too expensive to be used by poorer countries. So, to create affordable vaccines for the two deadly diseases, which dominate more in poorer countries, Rurik Salyaev at the Siberian Institute of Plant Physiology and Biochemistry in Irkutsk, Russia, and his colleagues have extracted the vaccine ingredients from tomato plants.

They have used a soil bacterium (Agrobacterium tumefacien) for shuttling a synthetic combination of HIV and HBV DNA fragments into tomato plants. The tomato plants in turn manufacture the proteins. And when the tomatoes are eaten, the proteins help the body create antibodies that fight against the viruses.

Via: New Scientist

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