ABSTRACT
Objective SD rats were immuned with the transgenic tomatoes which carried fused gene of a region of PAc Strep-tococcus mutants and cholera toxin B subunit.The immunogenicity was tested to explore secure and economic edible vaccines a-gainst dental caries.Methods A total of 18 eighteen-day-old female SD rats were subdivided randomly into three groups:the exper-imental group which were fed with transgenic tomato juice containing chimaera protein PAcP/CTB;the positive control group which were treated with deactivated S.mutans;the negative control group which were not treated with transgenic tomato juice.Rats were immuned once per week for four weeks.Blood and saliva were collected at one day before the first immunity and one week after each immunization.IgG of blood serum and SIgA of saliva were detected using the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (indirect ELISA) testing.On day 70,rats were terminated.The maxillary and mandibular bones were subsequently taken out to count dental caries′scores.Results Post immunization,the experimental group and the positive control group had statistical significant levels of speci-ficity IgG in serum and SIgA in saliva compared to the negative control group (P <0.05).There was a significance difference be-tween the experimental group and the negative control group except in Dx levels of caries loss (P <0.05).Conclusion The targeted protein expressed on the transgenic tomatoes is immunogenic,which can effectively induce mucous membrane immune response and the systematical immunoreaction to suppress the occurrence of the dental caries.