Posted on 06/30/2006 10:51:11 AM PDT by annie laurie
GENETICALLY modified tomatoes containing edible vaccine are to be used to challenge two of the world's most lethal viruses.
The aim is to create affordable vaccines for HIV and the hepatitis B virus (HBV) that could be easily grown and processed in the countries where they are most needed. So far, none of the 90 or so potential vaccines against HIV have proved successful and, though a vaccine already exists for HBV, it is too expensive to be used by poorer countries.
...
The tomato plants then manufacture the proteins and, like the oral polio vaccine, when the tomatoes are eaten, these proteins prompt the body to create antibodies against the viruses.
Mice fed a solution containing the tomatoes in powdered form developed high levels of antibodies in their blood to both viruses.
(Excerpt) Read more at newscientist.com ...
I figure beets is the only honest vegetable.
They come from dirt.
They taste like dirt.
Nuff said.
;-)
Oh, boy! According to this, I'll finally be able to stomach the taste of tomatoes.
ROTFLMAO
"See - tomatoes are poisonous!"
Actually, that urban legend was started in 1597 by a barber-surgeon named John Gerard. Not true then, not true now.
The question is: Is it a fruit or vegetable? It is commonly accepted by the scientific community to be a fruit. However in 1893 the US Supreme Court declared it to be a vegetable. So who should we believe?
It's the smoke part, and all the other stuff in ciggies that are bad for you. BTW, smoking tobacco grown in soils that contain uranium, which are actually fairly common, can release really bad raioactive stuff into your lungs.
Maybe the tobacco guys should sell it in pill form.
"OK men, ingest'em if you got'em."
There are enourmous benefits to nicotine - so much so, your brain actually manufactures it. Shhhhhh - don't tell the smoke nazis.
But it was believed for many years that tomatos were indeed poisonous.
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