The Review Committee on Genetic Manipulation (RCGM) is expected to shortly give its consent for trials on the edible plant vaccine for rabies, which is being researched by two medico-scientists from the National Institute of Mental Health & Neuro Sciences (NIMHANS) and University of Agricultural Sciences (UAS).

The trials on the effectiveness of the vaccine had already been conducted on mice and were found to be highly immunogenic, said Dr. P H Ramanjini Gowda, associate professor, department of biochemistry, University of Agricultural Sciences (UAS) who carried out the research along with Dr. SN Madhusudana, associate professor, department of neuro virology, NIMHANS.

Already a biotechnology company based in Tamil Nadu has approached us and we are in talks with leading companies from Hyderabad and Ahmedabad for research collaboration and commercial production, said Dr. Ramanjini Gowda. Some pharmaceutical companies in the US have also evinced keen interest in the edible plant vaccines, he added.

Rabies is a major problem in the developing countries and cannot be controlled by conventional immunisation methods among wild and domestic dogs. “At present we require five doses of rabies vaccine, which is priced at Rs. 300 for a single dose. This can be brought down to Rs.5 per single dose,” he said.

By producing these vaccines in large quantities, using musk melon which can be made into dog biscuits that can be administered at home itself, this problem can be eradicated at a low cost, he said.

This method will not only be cost-effective but will not be contaminated by the other viruses and can be stored in room temperature, said Dr. Ramanjini Gowda.

About four acres of genetically modified musk melon would be sufficient to produce vaccines to combat rabies in Karnataka, while 40 acres would be adequate for the whole country, he asserted.

A chance meeting with Dr. Charles Arizona, working in Arizona State Biomedical Centre on transferring the Hepatitis-B vaccine gene into banana to control the disease in humans led to the idea of transferring rabies gene into muskmelon. The project commenced in India in 1996, he said.

Initially tobacco was used as a model crop to see whether rabies vaccine gene could produce rabies glycoprotein in plants or not.

“The integration and expression of the gene in tobacco was good. We extracted glycoprotein from the leaf of the tobacco and conducted the trials on mice to see the immunogenicity, he said. It was found that glycoprotein was not only immunogenic but provided protection against the rabies vaccine. The gene was then transferred into muskmelon and groundnut. “We then extracted the proteins from fruits, purified it and injected it not mice and found good immunogenicity,” said Dr. Ramanjini Gowda. “The standardisation of the oral root of the fruit samples was now underway,” he added.