Tobacco is world renowned for bringing upon detrimental health to society, it kills millions of people each year, but did you know that tobacco can also be a health benefit? Scientists from multiple European Research Organisations have created a transgenic plant (a plant with genetically modified genes from another species).The tobacco plant is the only plant they have found to be able to produce both types of interleukin-10 correctly, which is a potent anti-inflammatory. The first type is from a virus while the other is from a mouse. They have discovered that the tobacco leaves produce high enough levels of the anti-inflammatory that they do not require to perform extensive processes of extraction and purification. So far the next step they will be required to perform is to feed the plants to mice that have an autoimmune disease. Scientists are also interested in further planning to see if the plant is able to prevent type-1-diabetes with other auto-antigens. They plan to create another transgenic plant with an auto-antigen called 65-kDa which is an isoform of the enzyme glutamic acid decarboxylase. They believe that with a combination of the auto-antigen and the anti-inflammatory they can prevent diabetes. The leading scientist Professor Mario Pezzotti states that “Transgenic plants are attractive systems for the production of therapeutic proteins because they offer the possibility of large scale production at low cost, and they have low maintenance requirements. The fact that they can be eaten, which delivers the drug where it is needed, thus avoiding lengthy purification procedures, is another plus compared with traditional drug synthesis."Sources:
Article- http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/03/090318211236.htm
Image- http://www.impactlab.com/2009/03/19/tobacco-plants-genetically-modified-to-produce-medicine/
Elaine Chiu
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