Scientists from the Universidad de Lleida (University of Lleida) have published a study confirming that maize seeds are an effective and sure platform within molecular agriculture to alleviate diseases. Over the next few years AIDS could be one of the first diseases to benefit from these results, although regulations for this technology are being developed at the same time as research is being undertaken.
Maize, the third most important cereal in the world, has a great number of advantages for molecular agriculture. Among these are its physiology, its capacity to express recombinant proteins in the seeds, its widespread cultivation and its genetic diversity, as well as being anti-allergenic and non-toxic.
Last March, transgenic maize became the first plant to be developed commercially for medical use. The PNAS review published the following findings: a maize seed with genes from the 2G12 antibody (already known for its capacity to neutralise infection from the virus) could produce antibodies against the transmission of HIV. Researchers from the Departamento de Producción Vegetal y Ciencia Forestal [Department of Plant Production and Forest Science] at the Universidad de Lleida, were those who actually designed this drug during an international project known as Pharma-Planta (made up of 39 European and South African teams), and headed by the British man Paul Christou.
Currently, the same team of scientists from the Universidad de Lleida who took part in this research have put forward in the review Plant Science “a more practical and productive approach to evaluate the ecological and toxicological risks, in which a scientific problem refers to a significant, final evaluation, and the hypotheses of risk predict effects in which the final evaluation is not a transformed plant, but the product resulting from that plant”, Paul Christou explains to SINC.
According to the researchers, the use and genetic modification of plants for the production of protein-based drugs is useful for the treatment, prevention and early detection of human and animal diseases, as well as for the production of vaccines against tuberculosis, diabetes and rabies. Paul Christou states that “In the last two decades, plants have been shown to be an excellent alternative for the production of medicines in laboratory research”.