We could soon be harvesting anti-viral antibodies from tobacco plants
With infectious disease outbreaks such as
COVID-19 remaining a continual threat, and cancer rates on the rise, we rely on modern medical treatments like antibodies more than ever before. Antibody production is a major source of research animal use. Scientists use what are called “
humanized mice,” which are mice that have immune machinery to make human antibodies, to create antibodies to human medical treatments.
Antibodies function by tagging “foreign bodies” like cancer cells, bacteria, viruses, or anything that isn’t human, marking them for destruction by the immune system.
If anti-flu plantibodies can make people less infectious if they
do become infected, that can limit viral spread on its own.
Antibodies produced by mice are used for treating a
wide variety of conditions, including cancer, Crohn’s Disease, asthma, septicemia, and viral infections. However, obtaining these life-saving antibodies from the blood of mice is
expensive, not to mention lethal for the animals themselves.
“Plantibodies” offer a new solution to this problem. These are antibodies made from plants that have been genetically engineered to express human antibodies. They’ve been in use, under the radar, for a while. Perhaps the most notable plantibody cocktail is the
ZMapp Ebola vaccine that was used to try and stem the outbreak in the Dominican Republic of the Congo (though ultimately found to be less effective than other
therapies).
