A big step toward the realization of MucoRice, a drinkable vaccine made from rice

A research group including Professor Seiya Imoto and Professor Satoshi Uematsu at Human Genome Center has conducted a physician-led Phase I study in adults of MucoRice, a rice-type oral vaccine that uses cholera toxin subunits as antigens, and confirmed its efficacy (immunogenicity), safety and tolerability.

Diarrheal diseases caused by Vibrio cholerae infection are still a major problem in the world, with about 1.3 to 4 million infections and 20,000 to 140,000 deaths resulting from them annually. The efficacy of MucoRice-CTB, a vaccine expressing rice that incorporates a vaccine antigen gene (CTB) into rice using recombinant technology, has been confirmed in experimental animals, and now the efficacy of MucoRice-CTB in humans has been newly confirmed. In addition, we found that the immune response to the vaccine was closely related to the intestinal microflora of the participants. The MucoRice oral vaccine may be effective not only against diarrhea caused by cholera toxin but also against diarrhea caused by toxigenic E. coli febrile toxin, which is one of the causes of traveler's diarrhea.

Published in: The Lancet Microbe (ONLINE) Oral MucoRice-CTB vaccine for the safety and microbiota-dependent immunogenicity in humans: A Phase 1 Randomized Trial.