Slashdot Mirror
West Nile Virus May Have Met Its Match: Tobacco
An anonymous reader writes in with news about a compound produced using genetically altered tobacco plants that may prove useful in battling the West Nile virus. "Some people think of tobacco as a drug, whereas others think of it as a therapy — or both. But for the most part, it's hard to find people who think of the tobacco plant in terms of its medical applications. Qiang Chen, an infectious disease researcher at Arizona State University, is one such person. His team of scientists conducted an experiment, published today in PLOS ONE, that demonstrates how a drug produced in tobacco plants can be used to prevent death in mice infected with a lethal dose of West Nile virus. The study represents an important first step in the development of a treatment for the mosquito-borne disease that has killed 400 people in the US within the last two years."
My father got tobacco dust for free at the local ciggie factory (the owner was a friend) and spread it in the garden to control insect pests.
Excuse me, but please get off my Pennisetum Clandestinum, eh!
Jesus, does no one even read the summary? The drug isn't nicotine -- it's a genetically-engineered monoclonal antibody produced by the tobacco.
So the nicotine kills the bacteria?
It wasn't "found" in tobacco, it was inserted into tobacco by genetic engineering. Even by slashdot standards that is a terrible summary.
About 15 years ago a partner and I did a large-ish scale guerilla-style marijuana grow on timber company land in SE Humboldt County. Spent almost 10 months hiking through dense brush and scrub forest every day, often working or walking along the streams -- prime territory for ticks and mosquitos.
My partner was a serious hippie. He was vegitarian and ate macrobiotic, grew his own wheat grass, didn't smoke (tobacco, anyway), body was his temple. He got eaten alive. Every day he'd have a half dozen or more ticks take a bite, mosquitos swarmed him every chance they got.
Meanwhile, I was living on Mountain Dew, McDonalds and Marlboros. Anytime I saw a mosquito I'd light a cigarette and they'd go away. I think I got three tick bites the whole season.
Of course I was 18 and could get away with it....but still
The GM is done because that is what provides the cure. Tobacco is used because it produces a large amount of proteins and seeds.
Proteins are what bind to the disease delivering the cure and seeds are needed to grow enough plants for use.
Jesus, does no one even read the summary? The drug isn't nicotine -- it's a genetically-engineered monoclonal antibody produced by the tobacco.
So... This wasn't just a Lucky Strike?
You have the right to remain sentient. If you give up the right to remain sentient, you will be elected to public office
kills the virus as well...
If that were true then coroners wouldn't need to worry about Hep-C. The virus can live on long after the host is dead.