~~~CIENCE
T T T
SCIENTISTS MANUFACTURE ANTIBODIES FRO"M
,-IF C:) 13;ii
Reprinted with permission: The Economist. cc) grow
antibodies in plants 10.000 times more cheapiv
than ch t. and in huge quantities. . new tech -
November 18. 1989 niques Jill be needed to sort
out the intiboedrics from the
chutTof the plants' natural proteins.
Bicitechnologists a[ Ehc Research Institute of the
Scripps
Clinic in La Jolla. Ciliffirnia. have transplanted
animal
genes into cobucco plancs and made the plant%
produce
animal antibodies. This could be the beginning of
cobacco ,s career in medicine.
The antibodies behave exactly like normal ones.
The
point of growing them in a plant is to obtain them
more
cheaply: the rc2m responsible believes it will be
possible
to gro.antibodies as cash emps in huge quantities.
This
could open the way to using them an a large scale
for
cancer treatment. among other things.
Dr. Andrew Hiatt and his team at the Scripps
Clinic
inserted half of the genes for their chosen
antibody into
one tobacco plant and the other hair into Another
plant;
then they fertilizcd (nic plant with pollen from
the other.
The offspring produced compictu antibodies. That
is
nor as unlikely as it sounds. In human cells. che
genes
that tell a cell how to make an ancibodyarc Also
found in
various different places. just over 1% of the
modified
tobacco plants' leaves arc purc Antibody. Dr.
Hiatt
thinks it will be possible to raise that to 10% by
mcking
extra signals onto the genes. thus making the
plant's cells
pay more attention to them.
Today's laboratory-made antibodies arc produced by
a
technique devised by Dr. Cesar Milstein and Dr.
Georges K6h1cr at Cambridge University in 1975.
Cells
that make antibodies are taken from mice and fused
with
,,(her cells to produce cell cultures. which in
turn
product the -unted, antibody in tiny quantities.
at a cost
of a few thousand pounds per gram.
Dr. Hiatt*% calculatic,ns %u.",,c,;c that it
should be possible
One use for such antibodies could be in creating
cancer.
Another cearn in the Scripps Institutc, and other
ccums
elsewhere. arc developing and testing Antibodies
which
act against cancer cells. sometimes linked to
toxins that
are delivered 10 the rumors by Antibodies. It is
too curly
to say how valuable they will be. but if they pro%
c effec-
rive they would be needed in comparaEivcly large
(juanti-
cies to provide treatment of millions of cancer
patients.
Antibodies from plants might provide enough.
Antibodies might also play a role while still in
the plants.
Plants producing antibodies against organic
pollutants
such as PCBs (polychlorinated biphcnvls) could be
grown in soil or water with low 1e, cis or
contamination as
a way of cleaning it up. Pollutants absorbed by
the plant
might be trapped by the antibodies. so tharat the
end of
chcir growing season. the polluted plants cou Id
be burnr
in a suitable incinerator. ;&rid the pollutants
chus got rid
of. Antibodies might confer disease resistance on
plants.
as well. Genes for antibodies against one plant
disease.
tobacco mosaic virus. arc already being put into
tobacco
plants co see if they give protection. If chat
works. plants
mighc eventually be given the rudimentary
Fragments of
um immune svstem.
Scientists at the Scripps Institute and elsewhere
are
developing antibodies that are engineered to act
as
enzymes (binchernical catalysts). These catalytic
inEi-
bodics--or -jbzvmc3"-Ioc)k promising it) doctors
for
such casks as gobbling up blood clots or scar
tissue. and
to industry ffir producing certain sort% of bulk
chcmicil-4.
Once more. it i% plants which -A-ill he able tip
supply
enough untAxidics. if anything can. 0
10
CO
BAT Industries document for Province of British
Columbia 23 April 1999