Tobacco has definitely taken a beating over the past couple of decades, but scientists may have discovered a redeeming factor.
A group of scientists hailing from several European research organizations have created transgenic tobacco plants (plants in which genes from other species, or even kingdoms, have been artificially inserted to modify their characteristics) that produce a powerful anti-inflammatory protein (cytokine) known as interleukin-10 (IL-10).
Currently, many antibodies and vaccines are created in the laboratory; however, some agrochemical companies have been working towards finding ways in which complex protein drugs can be made in plants (molecular farming), leading to more efficient production as plants produce proteins at a more cost-effective rate.
It was found that the transgenic tobacco plants were able to correctly process IL-10 extracts from both mice and a virus, creating the active protein at levels that may be high enough to forego tedious extraction and purification processes. While several plant forms have been investigated, tobacco still remains as one of the strongest contenders. Why? “Tobacco is a fantastic plant because it is easy to transform genetically and you can easily regenerate an entire plant from a single cell,” says Professor Mario Pezzotti, who led the investigation.
From here, Pezzotti and his team will proceed to feed the genetically modified tobacco to mice with autoimmune diseases in order to determine just how effective they really are. They are also planning to test the effect of small repeated doses of the plant in conjunction with other anti-antigens, such as glutamic acid decarboxylase (GAD65), which have also been produced in transgenic tobacco plants. They hope that it will have an effect on type 1 diabetes, possibly even preventing the medical condition. In fact, Diamyd, a Swedish biotech company is already testing the effect of a GAD65 vaccine on diabetes.
If successful, tobacco may finally have something to soothe all the flak it’s copped.
http://www.reuters.com/article/scienceNews/idUSTRE52I04720090319 (Accessed 23 March 2009)
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