New vaccine sneaks into body, then self-destructs

...hope they don't put it in the water supply...

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http://www.reuters.com/ar...

New vaccine sneaks into body, then self-destructs
Tue Jul 8, 2008 10:14am EDT

By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Editor

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A new type of vaccine that sneaks into the body
and then self-destructs -- all without needles -- may offer a new way
to protect against a range of diseases, U.S. researchers reported on
Monday.

The researchers genetically engineered a type of Salmonella bacteria
to carry a little piece of Streptococcus and dripped it into the
mouths of mice.

Reporting in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, they
said the vaccine protected the mice, and the Salmonella carrier blew
itself up.

"We have developed a technique of biological containment where the
microorganism self-destructs," Roy Curtiss of the Biodesign Institute
at Arizona State University, who led the study, said in a telephone
interview.
...."You deliver these vaccines orally," Curtiss said. "Some will be
excreted, but they will not survive."

He hopes to start human tests within a year.

"Last, this system could be modified to provide effective biological
containment for genetically engineered bacteria used for a diversity
of purposes in addition to vaccines," Curtiss and colleagues wrote.