Abstract

Vaccine is a substance that stimulates the production of specific antibody for protection against a specific disease. They would be more widely used especially in case of developing countries if their cost of production could be reduced and if they could be distributed without refrigeration. Edible vaccines hold great promise as a cost-effective, easy-to-administer, easy-to-store, fail-safe and socioculturally readily acceptable vaccine delivery system, especially for the poor developing birth control, cancer therapy, etc. Edible vaccines are currently being developed for a number of human and animal diseases. It involves introduction of selected desired genes into plants and then inducing these altered plants to manufacture the encoded proteins. Introduced as a concept about a decade ago, it has become a reality today. A variety of delivery systems have been developed. Initially thought to be useful only for preventing infectious diseases, it has also found application in prevention of autoimmune diseases.

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