New uses for tobacco that may be… healthy

Research recently published in this week’s Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences show some pretty interesting prospects related to HIV.

There is a drug, known as griffithsin, which has proven to protect some people from HIV by preventing the virus from colonizing in the vaginal lining.

Unfortunately, the only natural source for griffithsin is a lone red algae off the coast of remote New Zealand. This has kept griffithsin from becoming the standard preventative measure.

While it can be produced by genetically engineering the E. Coli bacteria, that proves very costly and time-consuming.

This is where tobacco comes to the rescue. (Thought you’d never hear that, eh?)

The science gurus took the griffithsin gene and injected it into the TMV (tobacco mosaic virus – a common tobacco infecting virus). They sprayed this over a whole bunch of tobacco plants and let biology runs it’s course.

You see, TMV is one of those viruses that hijack cells and reprograms them to reproduce more of the virus. Get where this is going? The TMV forced the cells to produce more of the griffithsin too.

The tobacco plant dies and the scientists harvest the griffithsin gene. Bingo – More HIV fighting drugs at a cheaper cost.

Researchers hope to begin FDA clinical trials of the Microbicide gel (applied before sex to prevent transmission of HIV) within the next year.

Thanks, Nicotiana benthamiana.

Read the full study here (will download as .pdf)