Tobacco plant may be key to Ebola drugs

Dr. Kent Brantly and Nancy Writebol received an experimental serum called ZMapp, engineered from antibodies harvested in mice. Questions remain about the extent to which ZMapp was responsible for the patients' recovery, but demand for the drug has skyrocketed. Unfortunately, the process used to make the doses given to Brantly, Writebol and a few other patients is costly and time-consuming. Public health officials are now looking for ways to develop more of this experimental drug quickly. Tobacco plants may hold the key.The process begins by cloning a gene and inserting it into a virus. That infected gene is then injected into the tobacco plant, where it multiplies within the leaves before it is extracted and purified. Unlike with egg-based and mammalian cell-based products, each tobacco plant can produce enough antibodies for dozens of doses of a pharmaceutical, experts say. This is different than the flu shot. . Flu vaccines, for example, are most commonly produced by injecting fertilized hen eggs with the virus. The virus is incubated for days so it can replicate, be harvested, inactivated or weakened, and then made into either a flu shot or nasal spray.http://www.cnn.com/2014/10/03/health/ebola-tobacco-plant/index.html