Originally published March 28 2005
Anthrax antibodies can be developed using plants, study indicates
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
Government researchers in Baltimore say they may have found a cost effective new weapon against anthrax attacks: antibodies developed in plants. The scientists grew antibodies in some cells of tobacco plants, and then transferred them to mice that had been exposed to anthrax. The "plantibodies" proved just as effective as those that had been produced by vaccines injected into humans. The researchers say this finding may lead to an inexpensive way of fighting anthrax threats.
U.S. scientists have produced in tobacco plants, human antibodies that could be used to treat anthrax exposure.
A team from the Naval Medical Research Center reported Tuesday at a Baltimore conference of the American Society for Microbiology Biodefense Research investigators began by collecting cells that make antibodies from individuals who had been vaccinated against anthrax.
Then genes that encode the antibody itself were inserted into a bacterium that transfers the gene into the plant cells, which made the desired antibody in a few days.
The antibodies were then purified from leaves harvested from the infected plants and tested for their ability to protect mice against anthrax infection.The plant-produced antibodies were found to be just as effective as the antibodies produced by human cells from immunized individuals."The nature of bioterrorism is such that an aggressor is likely to strike at a time and place calculated to induce maximum terror through mass casualties.The unpredictable nature of such events compels us to develop cost-effective, highly stable medical countermeasures to enable authorities to treat individuals exposed to bioterror agents such as anthrax," said Les Baillie of the Naval Medical Research Center.
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