Genetically Modified animals and plants produce drugs

[Each Hit]

January 24, 2007
Genetically Modified Chickens Lay Drugs in Eggs
By Karla Gale

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - British scientists have succeeded in producing multiple generations of genetically altered, or transgenic, hens that produce functional pharmaceutical proteins in the whites of their eggs.

To transfer drug-making genes into chickens, Dr. Helen M. Sang, from the Roslin Institute in Midlothian, UK, and her associates used a lentivirus carrier from which all viral coding sequences were deleted. The genetic material was replaced with the gene regulating ovalbumin production combined with genes for making human interferon or an antibody targeting malignant melanoma.

"This construct is used to incorporate new protein genes into the chicken chromosome," Dr. Sang told Reuters Health.

This was accomplished by injecting the lentiviral vector containing the coding sequences for the desired pharmaceutical protein into the fertilized embryo of a new laid egg.

When the resulting chick is old enough, it is then bred it and the offspring examined. "If the offspring are transgenic, we will see the new genes in every cell of their body, but only expressed in the oviduct," Sang continued.

In their paper in the early edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the researchers explain how a single transgenic cockerel was crossed to normal hens. Of 463 chicks they examined, 19 (4 percent) were transgenic.

When transgenic hens lay eggs, the foreign protein is expressed in the oviduct where the egg white is made. In the case of interferon produced in egg white, the researchers were able to confirm that the compound was functional by showing that it was active against a test virus.

Sang hopes that using transgenic chickens to produce therapeutic proteins will "bring down the costs of drugs that currently are prohibitively expensive."

The Roslin Institute, renowned for its creation of Dolly the cloned sheep 10 years ago, is working in collaboration with gene therapy company Oxford BioMedica and biotech company Viragen to develop their transgenic chicken system as a large-scale biomanufacturing alternative for a variety of proteins.

"But it is still early days yet," said Sang. "We've made significant steps in developing a process that we hope will be an alternative production platform for protein drugs."

SOURCE: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, online January 15, 2007.

[Forthesevenlakes]

SWIM has often wondered about this as a viable method of large-scale manufacture of drugs. For example, if the gene coding for THC (or morphine, or DMT, or whatever) in one's plant of choice was known and sequenced, it could be excised and inserted into other, non-illegal plants, or bacterial DNA, or animals as is the case here, and manufactured on a large scale. It'd be the perfect way to move product, after all, who would suspect that a truck full of chickens would be one's ticket to DMT elf-land? However, psychologically, drug users would have to get over the fact that they are about to eat a psychedelic omelette, or ingest a pill primarily manufactured by bacteria (although this used to if not still was the method of choice for making certain amino acid supplements on a large scale...)

[Nagognog2]

Next Up:

"Man arrested for breeding roosters that lay Eggstacy!"

[Forthesevenlakes]

Originally Posted by Nagognog2

Next Up:

"Man arrested for breeding roosters that lay Eggstacy!"

Not to mention that one day soon, one's scrambled eggs and their hash will be one and the same...and we'll have to forbid discussing the street price of the average breakfast.

[BeetleJuice]

Lol, Eggstacy.

I personaly dont like the idea of people messing with that kind of stuff,who knows when some crazy dude will put some harmfull stuff in products. like those carrot things iv heard abit about in china that can make people important
(i think)

[Forthesevenlakes]

Originally Posted by BeetleJuice

like those carrot things iv heard abit about in china that can make people important
(i think)

I firmly believe that everyone is important! Although its nice to be important, its more important to be nice.

Seriously though, transgenic technology is already widely used in foods. Most widely available vegetables and fruits are modified in some way, using transgenes to create pest resistance, longer shelf lives, etc.

The technology is not without its dangers, however the involved industries would like to present it. In 1989 many people contracted a fatal autoimmune disease from ingesting tryptophan supplements created by transgenic bacteria.

SWIM is somewhat uneasy at the prospect the ever-widening use of this technology, but he also thinks it is one very possible future of drug manufacture and distribution.

[Nagognog2]

Go get a copy of the Woody Allen movie: Sleeper. 1973.

[Riconoen {UGC}]

I'd love to eat an opiate omlete or acid over easy. Tastes good and feeds your head at the same time.

[BeetleJuice]

ah sorry, was a typo, i meant that ittle make people impotence, like it destroys the sperm for reproduction system, i also agree that every person on the planet is important (cept bush) lol.

I can see how some aspects of genetic modification can be usefull but like everything else there is always someone who wants to use tech for bad reason, an example is how the wonderfull drug LSD,opened the minds of many back in the 60s, meanwhile the cia and others saw it as a usefull chemical weapon.

[Each Hit]

food poisoning could be done very covertly, now. i get the feeling our species isn't mature enough to handle all these technological advancements. all we do is make weapons and entertainment.

[Forthesevenlakes]

Originally Posted by Each Hit

food poisoning could be done very covertly, now. i get the feeling our species isn't mature enough to handle all these technological advancements. all we do is make weapons and entertainment.

Theres a pretty good book I read that addresses our inability to do much but entertain ourselves with technology, and how this can be a detriment to civilization since we develop new technologies while seemingly not developing our ethics to handle them responsibly. Its from the 80's, but surprisingly doesn't seem dated even reading it now. Most of the book still rings true to me...it's called "Entertaining Ourselves to Death" by Neal Postman. A bit off topic I suppose but your post just reminded me of that tome.

[Each Hit]

apparently, other animals are being used as well:

http://www.wired.com/news/technology...tw=wn_index_23

Pharm Animals Crank Out Drugs
By Elizabeth Svoboda
02:00 AM Feb, 14, 2007

With its tranquil ponds and rolling fields, the GTC Biotherapeutics farm in Charlton, Massachusetts, looks like a typical pastoral retreat. But its 1,400 goats don't produce any butter or cheese. Instead, the animals are sophisticated drug incubators, with millions of dollars of potential profit accumulating in their udders each day.

GTC Biotherapeutics is among several companies worldwide perfecting the art of "pharming" -- genetically modifying animals to churn out drugs for disorders like hemophilia and cancer. The first government-approved drug from transgenic animals, GTC's anti-clotting agent ATryn, was approved in Europe late last year, vindicating biotech's years-long quest to steer animal husbandry in entirely new directions.

With the approval of the anti-clotting agent, the drug industry will now likely increase the use of transgenic animals, says Robert Kay, CEO of Origen Therapeutics. Kay predicted drug makers will try to develop several transgenic animal "systems," including mice, rats, goats, cows, pigs, sheep and chickens.

"We should begin to see the approach make an impact," he says. "We can reasonably expect that new advances will be made."

The technique offers a way to produce large quantities of drugs that are otherwise difficult to develop. It involves genetic modification of an animal embryo's genetic makeup, or genome. Just after fertilization, "pharmers" insert into the embryo a human gene that codes for a particular protein -- usually one that's produced naturally in humans, but that's lacking in people who have certain diseases. They attach that DNA code with a gene that codes for a sugar found in mammalian milk, insuring that the therapeutic protein will be expressed only in the animals' milk or eggs.

GTC's ATryn contains the human protein antithrombin, which helps prevent blood clots that could lead to a stroke or heart attack. About one in every 5,000 people has a genetic deficiency of this protein. The drug is also administered during surgery because excessive bleeding can lower blood levels of the protein, leading to clots.

"It doesn't appear you can have too much of it," says Geoffrey Cox, GTC's chief executive officer. "But if you have too little, there's a severe risk of thrombosis." Thrombosis is the formation of a clot inside a blood vessel.

Antithrombin is typically extracted from human blood plasma donations, but it's present only in very small quantities. That makes soliciting donors and extracting proteins from the plasma expensive and labor-intensive.

But now that GTC's goat herd has reached critical mass, the protein can be harvested in massive quantities. "Each of our goats can produce a kilogram of antithrombin each year," Cox says. "It takes 50,000 people to donate that same amount."

GTC is developing a similar protocol using rabbits to produce another clotting protein, called rhFVIIa, which some hemophiliacs lack.

At Scotland's Roslin Institute, birthplace of Dolly the cloned sheep, biologist Helen Sang is turning another farmyard inhabitant, the chicken, into a similar drug-production machine. Sang is pioneering a new, more efficient way to engineer chickens that produce human proteins in the albumen of their eggs.

"We're taking up where people left off (with chickens) quite a few years ago, but we're using a more sophisticated viral vector," she says.

Her findings were published in January in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

Chickens reproduce very quickly and generate high concentrations of proteins in their egg whites. So Sang thinks transgenic chickens could emerge as drug factories that are at least as efficient as goats.

"We're not talking about one method being the absolute best," she says. "Chickens may be best for producing one protein, and goats may be best for producing another." The Roslin Institute has formed a partnership with gene-therapy company Oxford BioMedica and anticipates its poultry-based strategy will enable it to manufacture protein-based drugs in the coming decade, though it has not disclosed which ones.

Burlingame, California-based Origen Therapeutics is also developing transgenic chickens that express human proteins in egg albumen. The company's scientists plan to develop human cancer-fighting antibodies. They also hope to breed a chicken that will produce the entire range of human antibodies in its eggs. If the company succeeds, harvesting compounds for drug therapies will be a little like choosing a flavor from a soda fountain.

Some consumers, scientists acknowledge, have misgivings about creating animal-human hybrid genomes.

"It's a whole new ballgame, and we need to proceed with caution," said Margaret Mellon, director of the Union of Concerned Scientists' Food and Environment Program.

Mellon said drug-production processes would need to be standardized, which might be difficult when dealing with several disparate species. In addition, there are concerns that viruses could be hidden in animal DNA and passed on to humans, or that drugs produced in milk might be contaminated with prions. There's also the welfare of the animals themselves: The drugs they produce might be harmful to them.

Catherine Willett, a science policy advisor for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, stressed the welfare issues.

"Genetic engineering is responsible for a skyrocketing increase in the numbers of animals being used in laboratory experiments," she said. "(and) is likely to have drastic long term ill-effects in the animals themselves."

But Origen scientist Marie Cecile Van de Lavoir said the potential human health benefits justify tinkering with nature's plan.

"If a transgenic animal produces a great cancer therapy," she says, "I won't hear anyone saying, 'You shouldn't do that.'"

[zera]

Originally Posted by Forthesevenlakes

Theres a pretty good book I read that addresses our inability to do much but entertain ourselves with technology, and how this can be a detriment to civilization since we develop new technologies while seemingly not developing our ethics to handle them responsibly. Its from the 80's, but surprisingly doesn't seem dated even reading it now. Most of the book still rings true to me...it's called "Entertaining Ourselves to Death" by Neal Postman. A bit off topic I suppose but your post just reminded me of that tome.

It's pretty shallow to say that our advances in the past 20 years have been all entertainment related. The IT revolution led to enormous gains in productivity that massively increased people's purchasing power of all kinds of goods and services. The genome has been completely sequenced, life expectancies are increasing, new treatments and technologies are allowing disabled people to live far more normal lives, new imaging technology like fMRI makes diagnosing diseases far more accurate and easier than before, and we have a flood of new technology (cell-phones, email, text messaging) that allows us to communicate in more ways than ever. Shit, how about Google. Nothing like that was even conceived of that 25 years ago, the whole concept of just typing in a few phrases and having the information at your finger tips is one of the most amazing achievments man has ever wrought. I personally would find it anathema to go back to living in the 1980s when Neal Postam wrote the book, and presumably argued for technological halting. Imagine no cell phones, no wikipedia, no viagra, no email, no $15 microwaves at Wal-Mart, no 300 channel television, no home video playing devices, no video games, no $50 round trip fares on Southwest, no year round produce at the grocery store, no Internet shopping, no drugs-forum!

And anyway what's so bad about entertainment technology. Check out a book called "Everything Bad for You is Good." It tries to explain a well known phenomenoh, called the Flynn Effect, that IQs have been rising consistently over the past 100 years (even as educational standards fall in certain Western countries, like the US). The authors hypothesis is that entertainment is actually becoming more complex and challenging our brain, literally making us smarter. Playing Zelda is much more mentally stimulating than playing with action figures. The cable television revolution that led to innovations in TV created shows like the Sopranos, 24, Seinfeld, the Wire, and others which demand significantly more cognitive attention on the part of the viewer than the sitcoms and melodramas of old.

I frankly think entertainment technology is one of the best developements to have, it creates a real improvement in a lot of people's lives. Much more so than the military centered technology research that dominated during the Cold War. Honestly answer this question, would you rather that our society has a 1000 person colony on Mars or Bittorrent? I know which one I'm picking everytime. Ain't no colony on Mars ever going to do anything for my standard of living, let alone stream gigabytes of media straight to my desktop. As for our society's ethics the technology we're creating today is far more benign that most of the research that happenned earlier. Even military research is pretty much focused on stuff like keeping soldiers safe in urban combat, rather than creating super weapons. The main area of focus now, computers, biotechnology and nanotechnology is all extraordinaly more favoured towards making positive contributions to humanity.

[Riconoen {UGC}]

Yeah, maybe in the 23'rd century or something.

[AntiAimer]

New age Corn Beef Hash anyone? MmmmMmMM. Nice find.

[katukulysm]

genetically modified chickens. well, why not.


no no no no......i prefer old age corn beef hash. with greek seasoning added.

[AntiAimer]

Originally Posted by katukulysm

no no no no......i prefer old age corn beef hash. with greek seasoning added.

Yeah but add that with THC(replace with drug of choice)....even better.

[enquirewithin]

like those carrot things iv heard abit about in china that can make people important (i think)

That is curious! I have heard of people being Big Potatoes but carrots? Does Hu Jintao eat them?

[Alfa]

But what if a THC chicken breeds with an viagra chicken and the DNA sequence would affect the DNA of the human that ingests the egg / chicken in such a way that mutants arise?

Science fiction? Maybe, but probably not.

[Woodman]

Originally Posted by Alfa

But what if a THC chicken breeds with an viagra chicken and the DNA sequence would affect the DNA of the human that ingests the egg / chicken in such a way that mutants arise?

Science fiction? Maybe, but probably not.

If that were the case, I suppose you'ld have a stoner with a perpetual hard-on.

BTW, if you could get that chicken to shit coke, I'll buy a whole fucking farm of them.

.

[zera]

Originally Posted by Alfa

But what if a THC chicken breeds with an viagra chicken and the DNA sequence would affect the DNA of the human that ingests the egg / chicken in such a way that mutants arise?

Science fiction? Maybe, but probably not.

The DNA of what you eat cannot affect your DNA. They're completely unrelated.

Anyway this kind of stuff is very safe, transplanting the DNA of one thing into the DNA of another has been done for decades. For example thanks to this miraculous technology diabetics have injectable insulin, which is made by taking the insulin gene from people and inserting it into mold which secretes it. Or its quite common to see in super markets now eggs with Omega 3 fatty acids, which makes those eggs much better for your heart than traditional ones.

[Psych0naut]

If I'm not mistaken the same thing can be done with plants as well, genetically modify a tomato plant with some of the genes of the coca erythroxylum so it produces cocaine, that would be fun!

[pabel_giboon]

what about modified human fetus that one grown up could get hight by bitting their own nails?
SWIM´d go for psylocibin loaded nails.

[Each Hit]

to say that today's technology is more benign than that of the past is extraordinarily naive. the military uses almost any technological advance it can to produce better weapons. gps is great for driving directions and hiking, but it's also great for targeting ballistic missiles. genetic modification is great for producing healthy foods, but it's also great for producing vaccine-resistant biological weapons. digital imaging means you can take crystal clear pictures of your friends and family. it also means governments can observe us in great detail from orbiting satellites.

computers, biotechnology, and nanotechnology are not just magically benign fields of science. on the contrary, they could be used to create the most destructive weapons to date. bio-weapons have been around for a long time and can be used to target crops, livestock, water supplies, or people, and it's only a matter of time before nanotechnology is used for surveillance or even in applications similar to bio-weapons (imagine tiny machines that could enter your body and monitor your position or alter your physiological state without your knowledge). computers have been used with weapons for decades, and there is no change in sight.

i guess my point is, just because you and i don't look for ways to use technology to advance warfare, don't assume that it isn't being done. considering there's been a significant war every 10 to 20 years, i'd say weapons technology is a prime field for development.


PS - as for colonies on mars, i think it is crucial for us to expand beyond this planet - far more crucial than it is to download media files on bittorrent. if our species is to become truly great, we must be able to colonize other planets. otherwise, a single planetary disaster could eliminate us. once we become interplanetary, our extinction would become far more difficult. i am afraid that the average person shares your opinion on the matter, but sitting and watching movies or playing playstation does nothing to advance our knowledge or understanding of the universe or ourselves. if our species becomes complacent by focusing on entertainment, we might find ourselves facing extinction when the next asteroid decides to slam into our planet. no species ever improved itself by living the easy life. true progress can only be made in the face of adversity. if we do not challenge ourselves, nature will surely find a challenge for us...

Reputation Comments on this post:

	An excellent dissertation! Keep on Truckin'!
	Just found it, love your post. Glad to see someone else who thinks thusly.

[El Calico Loco]

Technology isn't the problem. Neurotic and narcissistic morons who want power and authority are the problem.

So many people are ruled by fear, anger, greed, pride, and/or envy. It's pathetic and sad. It's leftover from a time when we were primitive, tribalistic little primates who had to struggle with nature and with our fellow primates just to survive. Some among us have not yet evolved enough to realize that this is no longer necessary. Not only unnecessary, but likely to be what kills us as a species if they don't stop their foolishness.

Personally, I think ending the drug war insanity would go a long way toward solving the world's problems. Entheogens, in the hands of good psychologists, could put an end to most of this - at least among those who are willing to evolve. Those who are unwilling - those who persist in using deception, manipulation, and violence to fulfill the ignorant goals of their sad, strange little minds - shall be put to the sword. As they sow, so shall they reap.


ECL