Snuff against Ebola

The ZMapp drug produced in these cultures were tested in the African outbreak.

The experimental drug ZMapp against Ebola , snuff produced in plants, raises again if there is a future for those crops that appeared to have its days numbered by subsidies and cuts cigars campaigns.The snuff has two major advantages in the production of drugs: their genes can be manipulated very easily after a century of experience in laboratory and production is very high. It was experimentally used to make human, albumin essential for your hospital use. Both in that case and the new experimental drug against Ebola, the key is to introduce human genes into the plant genome: a type of GM crop does not raise objections.
Representatives of the European farming sector snuff hopefully receive any alternative use of that plant, but recognize that until now there is no such initiative that can alleviate the fields. From an initial situation in which 80% of its revenue coming from European funds, and only 20% was covered by marketing (80-20), has gone to the opposite situation (20-80), and the sector provides anxiously complete removal of subsidies planned for 2015 "If crops have medical goals, the EU would have to give up their prejudices," says Teo Moreno, producer of snuff in Extremadura and vice Snuff Advisory Group which advises Brussels .
The death of Spanish missionary Miguel Pajares itself shows that the ZMapp far from being a panacea. It is also true, however, that this relatively late patient received the experimental drug, and that the two American aid workers treated with the same product which you were given before being returnees are evolving very well. In fact, recovery started to show just one hour after receiving treatment. These signs have been moved to the World Health Organization (WHO) to authorize its administration in the affected African countries, despite the absence of valid clinical trials.
Mapp Biopharmaceutical, based in San Diego, California, started operation in 2003, and two years ago won the most promising results to date. In a study of rhesus macaques done in collaboration with government institutions and published in PNAS, scientists from the company showed that his new monoclonal antibody, called ZMapp, was able to protect against Ebola in these nonhuman primates. This is usually the last protocol to complete a new molecule for regulators will authorize a clinical trial. WHO permits its use in humans is exceptional, and gives an idea of the severity of the African crisis.
Tests with monkeys and revealed a clear effect of time. When ZMapp was administered one hour after infection, all monkeys were saved; when it was 48 hours after infection, two thirds were saved. The investigation was led by the military virologist Gene Olinger, the Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (Usamriid). "So far, all attempts to use antibodies to provide protection against Ebola virus had failed," explains the scientist's army in a press Mapp Biopharmaceutical. "The level of health protection (new antibody) is impressive," he adds, referring to the results in monkeys.
ZMapp is actually a cocktail of monoclonal antibodies initially developed in a model of mouse Ebola infection, according to information provided by the company. A monoclonal antibody is a homogeneous (a specific protein), unlike the complex collections of antibodies rather irreproducible, obtained by withdrawing blood to chemical species infected animals.
The genes for these antibodies were later adapted for use in human (humanized, in jargon) and snuff transferred to plants for efficient and cheap production. President Mapp, scientist Larry Zeitlin, coordinator of the study published in PNAS, ensures that the drug obtained from snuff is far superior to that produced in conventional systems, such as mammalian cells in culture. The snuff saves time, the amount of monoclonal antibody produced and greatly reduces the cost of producing it. Adapting the system to generate a new antibody has only been two weeks.
Much signing San Diego and WHO itself is playing in the coming weeks. If doses ZMapp sent to African countries affected are a fiasco, heads will roll in the company that made ​​it and the UN agency that authorized bypassing their own protocols. If the drug saves lives, it curdle a strong argument to accelerate those procedures in other cases. And maybe wash snuff can in extremis butcher reputation.

A classic in the forefront

Nicotiana tabacum, the plant of snuff, and other species of the same genus are one of the oldest model systems in genetics and molecular biology; one of the infectious agents, the snuff mosaic virus was the first virus discovered. But its rapid growth and high productivity, with the facilities offered by this plant for genetic modification -debidas partly to the virus that attackers have put in the very forefront of biotechnology: pharming.
Farming is farming in English and pharming is a neologism that plays with the root of pharmaceuticals (drugs) and designates the generation of medicines in genetically modified animals or plants. In particular, the transgenic plants are often cheaper to produce and maintain than conventional chemical techniques of pharmacology. A simple gases can produce commercial quantities of vaccines, enzymes, hormones, or as in the present case, clinically useful antibodies. The first organisms used for pharming were no plants but two sheep created by the team of Ian Wilmut at the Roslin Institute in Edinburgh since 1990: Tracy (modified to produce in their milk human alpha-1 antitrypsin, an enzyme for treatment of emphysema and cystic fibrosis); and Polly, whose lineage produces valuable human coagulation factor IX for treatment of hemophilia, also in milk. They are less famous than Dolly, but probably more useful.
Among the plants for pharming include corn, rice, potato, tomato, and alfalfa snuff. Rapid virus vaccine H5N1 avian flu, for example, has made ​​snuff and genetically modified alfalfa. This is, as in the case of Ebola, of monoclonal antibodies directed against the virus. Pharming plants, depending on the sector, it is watching braking environmental regulations, demanding with transgenic plants.

The serum against Ebola

The ZMapp serum was obtained from infected mice and has been cultivated in plants snuff. Studies to assess its efficacy and safety are less advanced

Obtaining experimental serum by Americans, just before repatriation, provoked much criticism about the lack of access to medicines for victims of Liberia, Ghana and Sierra Leone, where the virus has hit hardest. The California company that manufactures it, Mappbio also reported that their stocks are almost exhausted, so massively delivery to affected populations, as well as representing a huge ethical and medical challenge, it is still impossible.
Ribner said that for patients, life "after the Ebola", a disease that has been described as "deeply devastating" will continue thanks to a complete recovery if there is no damage to your organs. The team physician who has treated the two Americans did not give more details because he had violated his right to privacy.
"We are extremely proud of Dr. Brantly and nurse Writebol for his recovery," Ribner said. "We are impressed with their determination, courage and hope, which has been an inspiration to us all." Brantly melted into a hug with your doctor and the rest of the team that accompanied him in the press conference on Thursday in Atlanta.
On Thursday I also knew that Writebol had been discharged two days before last Tuesday. The nurse, also belonging to the religious organization Samaritan's Purse, did not appear before the media but Brantly asked to share her "thank you" for their support in recent weeks. Her husband said in a statement that is recovered but the effects of the virus have left "significantly weaker".
"Thank you for your prayers and please continue to pray for all who suffer with this epidemic in West Africa," Brantly said. Dr. said his treatment in America has given them the opportunity to alert the international community to pay attention to the tremendous impact of the disease Ebola virus in Africa, which already has killed 1,350 people and infected more than doubled.

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