CITY OF SAN FERNANDO — Those who malign the tobacco plant find it weird that the high value-crop can in fact save a person’s life against some of the worst diseases.
Tobacco, which has long been demonized for ruining human health, is now slowly being hailed as a miracle of modern medicine as the plant, in its genetically modified form, is now being used to produce plant-based vaccines to combat the world’s deadliest diseases.
Not surprising since the first treatment of two Ebola-infected American health workers in 2014, using virus antibodies harvested from genetically modified (GM) tobacco, proved successful despite lack of clinical trials. Ebola originated in 1976 in the countries of Sudan and Congo and had caused the death 1,013 deaths people mostly in West Africa.
Arizona State University professor Charles Arntzen pioneered the development of genetically modifying tobacco plants to produce Ebola medicine ZMapp.
Since then, interest in GM tobacco moved rapidly. The idea of turning tobacco plants into “factories” for producing other complex drugs is not something that is easily ignored.
GM tobacco plants are now used as living pharmaceutical factories were proteins within the plant are harvested to produce vaccines for certain diseases. This approach produces complex and valuable proteins for medicines.
The process involves infecting the tobacco plants with the artificial virus. The plant then will act on the virus and produce the antibodies to combat the virus. It is these antibodies that are extracted from the plant for later use.
Most drugs are currently made with fermentation vats containing bacteria or mammalian cells. The process alone is astronomical but with advances in the technology to mass produce medicines in genetically modified plants, costs drop dramatically.
The prospect for tobacco is so enticing that companies are now engaged in research to produce medicines and vaccines against such targets as HIV, cancer, the deadly Marburg virus.
The European Pharma-Planta project has started testing anti-HIV biotech medicine produced using genetically modified tobacco. American company Bayer had also started tobacco-based treatment for lymphoma, a kind of blood cancer, since 2008 while Norwegian Institute for Agricultural and Environmental Research is using biotechnology on tobacco for the development of vaccines against Dengue fever.
It would not be long before vaccines, made cheaper by the process, end up to benefit developing countries like the Philippines. Studies showed that producing vaccines from GM crops is ten times cheaper compared to current modern methods. The low-cost technologyopens the potential for plants to manufacture a range of drugs and drive prices down.
However, molecular farming and producing vaccines using biotechnology may not be welcomed just yet in the Philippines where there is fervent opposition against genetically modified organisms (GMOs).
GM tobacco for bio-fuel
Majority of tobacco growers in Luzon now have reasons to rejoice as genetically modified (GM) tobacco could be the next big thing in producing biofuels.
This as the research from different countries with tobacco growing industries points to groundbreaking uses of GM tobacco. For one, research from the Public University of Navarre in Spain showed that GM tobacco is a promising raw material for the production of bio-fuel.
Institute of Biotechnology researcher Ruth Sanz-Barrio said that specific tobacco proteins (thioredoxins) can be used to produce biofuels by increasing the amount of starch produced in the tobacco leaves.
Her study was able to increase the amount of starch by 700 percent and fermentable sugars by 500 percent which are within the thresholds for viable biofuel production. This would mean that 40 liters of bioethanol could be produced per 1,000 kilograms of fresh leaves.
And as more and more countries are gearing towards environment-friendly energy security, GM tobacco, as a component for making biofuel, is not so far behind.
Perception issue
While some countries have already moved towards research on medicines made from GM plants, genetic modification remains a sensitive topic in the Philippines which is still battling the negative impressions of certain sectors against GM crops.
GM crops are allowed in varying degrees in the country but mostly for agro-industrial and crop production. Despite of the opposition from certain sectors, the country remains to be the top grower of biotech or genetically modified (GM) crops in Southeast Asia in 2016.
The country ranked as the twelfth biggest producer of such crops in the world, according to the latest report from the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA).
Data from the Department of Agriculture (DA) states that the country was the first in Asia to approve commercial cultivation of a GM crop for animal feed and food in 2002 when it allowed GM corn planting. The government has also allowed GM crop imports for more than a decade. Around 70 percent of the country’s corn output is GM.
However, general current negative impression of the people on GM products has caused opposition and the slow progress on the acceptance of other GM crops. In 2010, the Department of Agriculture has started multi-location field testing of GM eggplant but its possible commercialization is still far from being realized. Possible moves to commercialize Bt cotton is moving slowly while field trials of Golden Rice (GR) have yet to commence.
Unless government and biotech stakeholders combat the negative impression, misinformation, legal and technical hurdles against GM crops, their full potential for food production, industrial, agro-industrial and medical use will not be fully utilized. Until then, GM tobacco, for medical and bio fuel use, would have to wait and let other GM crops and their advocates to pave the way for wider acceptance.