Edible vaccine

Abstract

The object of the present invention is to provide an edible vaccine which is effective for human papilloma virus (HPV) type 16 and available in large amounts inexpensively. An edible human papilloma virus vaccine obtained by culturing a transformant of an avirulent fission yeast host, wherein the transformant carries a gene encoding an antigenic protein of human papilloma virus introduced therein and accumulates the expressed antigenic protein in it.

1 . An edible human papilloma virus vaccine obtained by culturing a transformant of an avirulent fission yeast host, wherein the transformant carries a gene encoding an antigenic protein of human papilloma virus introduced therein and accumulates the expressed antigenic protein in it.  
   
   
       2 . The vaccine according to  claim 1 , wherein the avirulent fission yeast host is  Schizosaccharomyces pombe.    
   
   
       3 . The vaccine according to  claim 1 , wherein the human papilloma virus is human papilloma virus type 16 (HPV16).  
   
   
       4 . The vaccine according to  claim 1 , wherein the gene encoding an antigenic protein is a gene encoding a capsid protein of the human papilloma virus.  
   
   
       5 . The vaccine according to  claim 4 , wherein the capsid protein of the human papilloma virus is the L1 protein.  
   
   
       6 . The vaccine according to  claim 4 , wherein the capsid protein of the human papilloma virus is the L1 protein of human papilloma protein type 16 (HPV16-L   1   ).  
   
   
       7 . The vaccine according to  claim 4 , wherein the protein accumulated in the transformant is assembled into virus-liked particles.  
   
   
       8 . The vaccine according to  claim 1 , wherein the vaccine is a freeze-dried preparation of the transformant.