Tobacco used to produce medicine
Tobacco used to produce medicine
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Thursday, 19, Mar 2009 08:37
Scientists have used tobacco to produce medicine for the treatment of a number of diseases, including diabetes.
Research published in the journal BMC Biotechnology details how genetically modified tobacco plants were used to produce medicines for several autoimmune and inflammatory diseases.
Experts set out to create transgenic tobacco plants that would produce biologically-active interleukin-10 (IL-10), a potent anti-inflammatory cytokine.
They tried two different versions of IL-10 (one from a virus, one from the mouse) and generated plants in which this protein was targeted to three different compartments within the cell, to see which would work most effectively.
The researchers found tobacco plants were able to process both forms of IL-10 correctly, producing the active cytokine at high enough levels that it might be possible to use tobacco leaves without lengthy extraction and purification processes.
The authors claim they are keen to use the plants to see whether repeated small doses could help prevent type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM), in combination with other auto-antigens associated with the disease.
Commenting on the research, Professor Mario Pezzotti from the University of Verona, said: "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."