Siberian scientists have come up with a sensation. They have cultivated special tomatoes that can save people from terrible diseases. The first tests have yielded convincing results. At the same time, specialists at the "Timiryazev" Academy in the capital say it is difficult at the moment to say how many such tomatoes one should eat.

White mice are pretty much the main protagonists in the experiment. They were fed on special transgenic tomatoes stuffed with vaccine. The result of the two-year research has surpassed scientists'' expectations.
[Sergey Shchelkunov, chief of the molecular biology department of the Vektor State Scientific Centre of Virusology and Biology, Novosibirsk - captioned] After the mice are fed three times with transgenic tomatoes, there is an observable effective immune response against the Hepatitis-B virus and a little less effective, but still reliable, immune response against the HIV virus. 
Scientists from three Russian scientific-research institutes worked on the edible vaccines simultaneously. At first, a special gene was obtained in Novosibirsk and this was the basis of the future vaccine. The material was sent in test tubes to Irkutsk, where it was put into the tomatoes.
Strange to say, the most difficult thing was to grow the tomatoes. For three months one of the originators of the idea, Ryurik Salyayev, virtually did not leave the greenhouses, making sure that the air temperature did not dip below plus 25 degrees [Celsius].
[Ryurik Salyayev, chief associate of the Irkutsk Institute of Biochemistry - captioned] We reckoned that the vaccine should be the fruit of the tomato in various forms - fresh in salads, and possibly in the form of other dishes that people find tasty. But our tomatoes just refused to accept this gene.
Edible vaccines have several advantages. Firstly, they are economical to produce. Secondly, it is a harmless and safe product, say the Siberian scientists. And thirdly, they replace painful injections.
But there are also drawbacks, as explained by Moscow experts.
[Sergey Dolgov, head of the transgenic plants laboratory of the Moscow "K.A. Timiryazev" Agricultural Academy - captioned] It's impossible to get the doses right: it's an unknown quantity. First, there are variations in content depending on climatic parameters. If the weather is good, there is a certain protein content and a corresponding vaccine content. For every batch of fruit you would have to provide a kind of certification.
At any rate, there can be no question of this kind of mass vaccination yet. Long clinical trials are still needed. But the scientists are undaunted by the difficulties, and they are already planning new experiments: vaccines against Hepatitis-A and tick-borne encephalitis are being put into salad-quality carrots.

Source: RTR Russia TV, Moscow
BBC Mon