Egg Therapy

"Would you like a side of bacon with your therapeutic proteins this morning?" Huh? That's science-speak for, "Do you want bacon with your eggs?" We are well into a new age. Many of us these days are aware of advances in biopharming, and how scientists are producing pharmaceuticals by growing them in plants, but did you know that scientists are also adding a twist or two to the genetic makeup of common chickens, enabling them to lay eggs which come pre-loaded with antibodies and other proteins for treating such plagues to humanity as cancer and arthritis? According to LiveScience.com, the hope is that such avian alterations will make it possible to produce treatments faster and cheaper than traditional drug production methods--not to mention how much tastier this approach is than anything doctors have prescribed up till now. "Take two eggs, and call me in the morning," has a nice ring to it, don't you think? These eggs are even okay for the cholesterol-wary patient, since the desired proteins reside in the egg white, making them just right for that oh-so-yummy egg-whites-only omelet. Combine them with some fluorescent green ham from genetically modified porkers, and you add new meaning to the term "health food." Do you think Dr. Seuss would approve?

Milk It

Dr. Henry I. Miller at TCS Daily is, as ever, keeping an eye on advances in medicine and agriculture, and pointing to a potentially life-saving treatment coming out of biopharming--and the inevitable objections coming out of the woodwork. According to Miller, two million children a year die in the developing world due to diarrhea, which presents little real threat to people in more advanced countries, but is a serious danger in places without ready access to the clean water and the many medical advantages that most of us with easy access to the Internet enjoy. Moreover, this illness, which can lead to death by dehydration, can also become chronic, with damage to the digestive system making victims more vulnerable to further attacks, leading to malnutrition and anemia, among other conditions. However, this scourge can be lessened in duration and intensity by an innovative twist on nature developed by a California company called Ventria Bioscience, and pursued in cooperation with "...researchers at the University of California, Davis, and at a leading children's hospital and a nutrition institute in Lima, Peru." The twist is the introduction of two human proteins into rice, which is then used to produce an oral rehydration solution.

Oral hydration as a treatment for diarrhea is nothing new. In fact, Miller says that an orally administered glucose-based, high sodium liquid has become, "the standard of care for childhood diarrhea in the developing world," and has saved countless lives. He points out, though, that this treatment does nothing to address the problem of shortening the length of illness, nor reduce its severity. That's where the modified rice comes in. You might ask what adding human proteins to a hydration solution could do to put the clamps on a bout of the revenge. Miller explains that these proteins, lactoferrin and lysozyme, are present in breast milk, and breastfed children, "...get sick with diarrhea and other infections less often than those fed with formula. " Lysozyme has an anti-microbial effect, and lactoferrin "...promotes repair of the cells of the intestinal mucosa damaged by diarrhea," thus reducing recurrence.

So, the proteins help heal kids quicker, and have the long term effect of making them more resistant to future infection. I guess this could make one draw the conclusion that children should be weaned at high school graduation, but this is hardly practical, eh? What Ventria has done is make the protein easy to incorporate into an oral treatment solution:

What makes this approach feasible is Ventria's invention of a method to produce human lactoferrin and lysozyme in genetically modified rice, a process dubbed "biopharming." This is an inexpensive and ingenious way to synthesize the huge quantities of the proteins that will be necessary. (In effect, the rice plants' inputs are carbon dioxide, water and the sun's energy.)

If the proteins are grown in the rice, which is then used to grow more rice, a lot of the chemistry is done up front, with the rest being a matter of farming. The rice is then used as the base for the hydrating solution--another example where scientists are basically "growing medicine". This is where the objections are raised. Opponents cite fears that the modified rice will contaminate other rice fields, cross-pollinating and spreading the modification. Miller points out, however, that because rice is self-pollinating, this is unlikely, but even if it were to happen, it's hard to conceive of actual danger, because the proteins in question are already in us anyway, not just in breast milk, but in our tears and saliva as well. It's interesting to note that the people objecting, at least the ones Miller references, are mostly rival rice producers. It looks to me like that might be more fear of competition than a real concern about the dangers of modified rice. I don't mean to belittle legitimate concerns about biopharming, and the need for caution and safeguards, but, at least judging by Miller's article, the objections seem weak in this case.

I continue to be amazed at the ways that scientific ingenuity is taking the blocks that God created and building with them. I suspect there are limits beyond which God will not let us pass, but who knows where those limits are? Until we find out for sure, I'm getting more and more comfortable with the notion that searching for answers to the common problems that plague mankind, by utilizing the elements He used in our creation, is a good use of resources, and part of the stewardship with which He entrusted us. I don't want to see people start to tinker with other people, but rice? Grow forth and multiply.

Biopharming

At TCS Daily, Dr. Henry Miller has a piece on biopharming and the effects of over-regulation on this promising scientific industry. Biopharming, for those of you who, like me, had never heard of the term, is "the programming of plants to produce pharmaceuticals that can be purified, or that might even be delivered by eating the plant material itself." He describes one woman's efforts to introduce genes into bananas so that they essentially "grow" vaccines for typhoid fever, rabies and the HIV virus. She's trying to make vaccine that's deliverable by banana chip. It's a fascinating article, that looks at the possibilities for amazing medical advances, the potential risks and abuses of the field, and the roadblocks to further progress. Have a look. It's educational.