Expert invents vaccine delivered through beer – but others issue warning
One man has created a new way to administer a vaccine – and it’s through beer. Virologist Dr Chris Buck works for the National Cancer Institute (NCI) in Maryland, where he’s discovered four of the 13 polyomaviruses we know to affect humans. But he also runs Gusteau Research Corporation, a one-man shell company he established so he can create an ingestible polyomavirus vaccine. (Picture: Getty)
Dr Buck engineered a special strain of yeast infused with polyomavirus-like particles. A 2023 research study showed that similar particles, that were delivered via purified insect chitin, successfully increased antibody levels in rhesus monkeys tested in India. However, Dr Buck’s engineered yeast doesn’t contain live viruses. Researchers say that they aren’t viable for building ingestible vaccines as they would simply disintegrate when they make contact with stomach acids. (stock image) (Picture: Getty)
So when Dr Buck and his team attached virus-like particles to live yeast, they discovered the organisms could carry the inoculation load well beyond the stomach of live mice. That had huge implications for inoculation against polyomaviruses, which are mostly found in the urinary track. He said: ‘We repeated this experiment [on mice] a couple of times. I was reluctant to believe it. It felt like an earthquake when I first saw the results emerging.’ (stock image) (Picture: Getty)
He brewed the first batch last summer using a yeast modified to contain a vaccine protein. It was a Lithuanian-style farmhouse ale that was ‘drinkable’, and also appeared to immunise him against a virus linked to certain cancers. He told The Times: ‘It was one of the best homebrews I ever made,’ he said. He drank about two pints a day for the next four days and then conducted regular blood tests in the months that followed. These tests suggested he had developed antibodies against two types of BK polyomavirus thought to cause certain types of bladder cancer, he said. (stock image) (Picture: Getty)
However, although researchers approached by Science News said that Dr Buck’s method is much needed, they worry that his attitude might backfire, as certain anti-vaxxers may become more paranoid than they already were that vaccines could be dumped into cans of beer without their knowledge. (Picture: Getty)
Speaking to Science News, Arthur Caplan, former head of medical ethics at the NYU Grossman School of Medicine, said that ‘coming up with new modes of administration of vaccines is way overdue’ but that the virologist’s homebrew could ‘take a good idea he has and ruin it’, adding ‘vaccine doubts and fears and anti-vaccine attitudes could easily undercut what could be something useful.’ (stock image) (Picture: Getty)
Writing in a non-peer reviewed essay posted on his personal blog, Dr Buck said: ‘The basic problem for vaccine scientists has been our collective failure to understand the anti-vaxxer viewpoint. Our response for the past half century has been to imagine that we can rebuild public trust in vaccines with displays of increasingly stringent FDA approval standards. This approach backfired. Imagine if I set out to do safety testing on a banana, and I dressed up in a hazmat suit and handled the banana with tongs. You wouldn’t think, “Wow, Chris sure is thorough with this banana safety testing” — you’d think “Wow, it looks like bananas might be about as safe as nuclear waste.” All the elaborate security theater we’ve been doing ended up putting anti-vaxxers in charge of the FDA.’ (Picture: Getty) Add Metro as a Preferred Source on Google Add as preferred source
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