First, scientists engineer bacteria to carry the latest flu markers and wash them over Nicotiana benthamiana tobacco plants. The bacteria dump the DNA into the plant’s cells, which follow its instructions to churn out the flu protein. Technicians then grind up the leaves to extract the protein. Injected into a person, the protein works like any vaccine, training the body to attack the flu virus.
The entire process is about a quarter of the cost and three times as fast as the conventional method, growing live viruses in chicken eggs, a system so sluggish that it contributed to vaccine shortages last fall.
Researchers think a similar approach could produce proteins to treat people who are already sick. This winter, Arizona State University biologists demonstrated the first tobacco-made treatment to cure disease in mice: a protein that gums up the part of the West Nile virus that binds to animal cells. They hope to kick off clinical trials in about five years.
http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2010-05/tobacco-may-keep-us-catching-flu
