Development of edible vaccines against Tick-Borne encephalitis (TBE)

Infections by the tick-borne encephalitis virus (TBEV) are increasing in the Öresund-Kattegatt-Skagerak (ÖKS) region. There is no specific antiviral treatment available making vaccination the current successful strategy to control TBE disease. Plant production of viral antigens has recently been highlighted as an alternative platform for vaccine development. Such vaccines has advantages as they offer big scale production, are easy to distribute and can be administrated as an edible vaccine to humans and animals.

Within ScandTick Innovation we are developing an oral plant produced TBE vaccine by expressing candidates in both tobacco plants (Nicotiana benthamiana) and New Zeeland spinach (Tetragonia tetragonoides). Our goal is to develop and edible vaccine for future control of TBE in the ÖKS region.

This project is a part of ScandTick Innovation