Browsing by Author "Onguso,Justus"
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Item Engineering local Kenyan Irish potato varieties as carriers for edible cholera vaccines(Springer Nature, 2025-06-02) Siamalube, Beenzu; Ehinmitan,Emmanuel; Maina, Ngotho; Onguso,Justus; Runo,StevenCholera is a major public health concern in sub-Saharan Africa, particularly in low-resource areas where vaccine access is limited. Plant-based production of antigens, like the cholera toxin B subunit, presents a promising supplement for oral immunization. This study reviews the efciency of Agrobacterium tumefaciens gene-mediated transformation method in expressing antigenic proteins in three farmer preferred Kenyan Irish potato varieties: Wanjiku, Sherekea, and Shangi. Aimed at maximizing gene expression, facilitating a scalable production platform for potential edible vaccines. Genetically engineered Irish potatoes represent a transformative innovation at the intersection of agriculture and biotechnology, ofering a sustainable and cost-efective platform for vaccine production. Acting as bioreactors, transgenic Irish potatoes provide scalable, safe, and stable solutions to the challenges of traditional vaccine manufacturing, such as high costs, infrastructure demands, and dependency on cold chain logistics. Despite challenges like regulatory hurdles, public perception of genetically modifed organisms, and technical barriers in antigen expression, ongoing research and development hold promise for overcoming these obstacles. By harnessing the power of molecular farming, scientists can produce vaccines and therapeutic proteins in potatoes, ofering a near-user-site alternative to traditional production methods.Item Plant-based Edible Vaccines: Can Cholera Be the Case Study in Africa?(Elsevier Inc, 2025-06) Beenzu, Siamalube; Ehinmitan,Emmanuel; Kachenga,Lupupa; Runo, Steven; Maina, Ngotho; Onguso,JustusVaccines are employed as a sanitary approach that is implemented to lessen the hurdles caused by infectious diseases on the safety of public health. A vaccine is biologically made from inactive components of microbes, to enhance immunity and as a defense mechanism adverse to parasitic, bacterial and viral illnesses. Nonetheless, the mode of production that involves purification is quite costly, more so, to low and middle-income countries, especially in Africa. Conventional oral cholera vaccines, though commercially available, face logistical challenges to be transported and distributed to target populations such as Africa. Edible vaccines derived from plants, on the other hand, offer cost-effective and bio-friendly production cost, they are easily administered to all age groups and can be grown near-user-site. This article thoroughly assesses the capability of plant-based edible vaccines as an option for immunization against cholera with exclusive concentration on the African continentItem Recent Trends of Vibrio cholerae: Global and Regional Incidences(2025) Siamalube,Beenzu; Ehinmitan,Emmanuel; Runo,Steven; Onguso,Justus; Maina, NgothoCholera is still with us! The foodborne/waterborne dis ease caused by the bacterium Vibrio cholerae continues to pose a significant threat to the safety of public health glob ally (Mohammed et al., 2024). Despite various medical inter ventions such as the use of oral cholera vaccines (OCVs) (Zeitoun et al., 2024), hundreds of thousands of lives are lost annually worldwide to this virulent disease. Cholera mostly affects vulnerable populations in regions with inadequate access to clean water and sanitation (Bose et al., 2024). Recent outbreaks in parts of Asia (Nasr et al., 2024), Africa (Taty et al., 2024), and the Caribbean underscore the ongoing risk and the urgent need for comprehensive strategies to control its spread (Siamalube and Ehinmitan, 2024). This commentary aims to unravel the challenges caused by V. cholerae by exploring the global cholera inci dences and the multifaceted approaches required to combat this persistent pathogenItem Simple and Fail-safe Method to Transform Miniprep Escherichia coli Strain K12 Plasmid DNA Into Viable Agrobacterium tumefaciens EHA105 Cells for Plant Genetic Transformation(bio-protocol, 2025) Siamalube,Beenzu; Ehinmitan,Emmanuel; Maina Ngotho; Onguso,Justus; Runo,StevenAgrobacterium-mediated gene transformation method is a vital molecular biology technique employed to develop transgenic plants. Plants are genetically engineered to develop disease-free varieties, knock out unsettling traits for crop improvement, or incorporate an antigenic protein to make the plant a green factory for edible vaccines. The method’s robustness was validated through successful transformations, demonstrating its effectiveness as a standard approach for researchers working in plant biotechnology. It enables the introduction of foreign DNA into plant genomes. Conventionally, plant genetic transformation has relied on time-consuming, costly, and technically demanding procedures, such as electroporation and chimeric viruses or biolistic methods, which usually yield variable transformation efficiencies. This study presents a simple and fail-safe protocol that involves a modified freeze-thaw and heat-shock concoction method. This approach involves a streamlined plasmid miniprep procedure to isolate high-quality plasmid DNA from Escherichia coli K12 strain, followed by a target-specific transfer into A. tumefaciens EHA105 strain. The optimized method minimizes DNA degradation and maximizes uptake by Agrobacterium cells, making it a reproducible and accessible protocol for various genetic engineering applications. The transformation efficiency is consistently high, enhancing plasmid uptake while maintaining cell viability, requiring minimal specialized equipment and reagents. The proposed protocol offers significant advantages, including simplicity, reliability, and cost-effectiveness, positioning it as a valuable alternative to traditional techniques in the field of plant biotechnology.