Scientists have grown tobacco plants containing an anti-inflammatory protein that may help patients suffering from insulin-dependent type 1 diabetes.
European researchers said Thursday they had produced tobacco plants with interleukin-10 (IL-10) anti-inflammatory protein that could help stop type 1 diabetes and other autoimmune diseases.
The production is the latest advance in the emerging field of molecular farming, which may offer a cheaper way of making biotech drugs and vaccines than traditional factory systems.
"Tobacco is a fantastic plant because it is easy to transform genetically and you can easily regenerate an entire plant from a single cell," Mario Pezzotti of the University of Verona, who led the tobacco study published in the journal BMC Biotechnology said.
Currently, antibody medicines and vaccines are produced in cell cultures inside stainless steel fermenters.
Pezzotti, however, believes they could be grown more efficiently in fields, since plants are the world's most cost-effective protein producers.
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