Major news has been reported from the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences. The research project team for the national "863" program in the biological field, "Production of Hepatitis B Oral Vaccine Using Transgenic Plants," following the successful development of a transgenic plant—Hepatitis B-resistant potato, has recently successfully cultivated a Hepatitis B-resistant tomato (tomato) that can be used for drug production.
According to Liu Dehu, a researcher at the Biotechnology Research Center of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences and the leader of this research project, Hepatitis B is a persistent human ailment with wide transmission and high infectivity. According to a 1996 World Health Organization report, approximately 1.1 million people worldwide died from Hepatitis B in 1995, and there has been a gradual increasing trend in recent years. Although China has begun large-scale vaccination of infants and children with recombinant yeast-derived Hepatitis B vaccine, this gene-recombinant polypeptide vaccine is relatively expensive, and vaccination must be administered in a hospital. It is currently very difficult to make it accessible to everyone.
The advent of transgenic Hepatitis B-resistant tomatoes gives us more options. No need to go to the hospital or get an injection. Just by eating a few tomatoes at home or taking a few drug capsules made from this tomato, one can produce antibodies against the Hepatitis B virus in the body. Researcher Liu Dehu said that this transgenic tomato has no significant difference in appearance, taste, yield, nutritional content, and cultivation techniques compared to ordinary tomatoes. The only difference is the introduction of the transgenic vaccine. When people eat it, they can produce antibodies against the Hepatitis B virus, providing excellent preventive effects.