The researchers at the University of Queensland (UQ) have shown that the Australian native tobacco plants are useful for Buofactories to produce medicines in large quantity.
A report published by the University of Queensland stated that a variety of native wild tobacco known as Nicotiana Benthamiana has been demonstrated to have great potential to produce large quantities of drugs, cheaper and more sustainably than traditional industrial manufacturing methods which use harsh chemicals, expensive and also generating a lot of waste.
This is one of the series of studies worldwide in using plants as biofactories.
The report says the researchers engineered the plant to produce molecule of interest - cyclotide, which when it matured, the wild tobacco leaves were harvested, freeze-dried and the molecule is processed to be turned into oral medication.
Further work and studies help the team of the researchers grow a drug known as T20K, which is currently on phase 1 clinical trial. The drug is capable to treat multiple sclerosis, an autoimmune disease that affect central nervous system.
The T20K is said to be the first cyclotide drug that has move on to clinical trials and it is being developed by Cyxone, a clinical biotech company based in Sweden.
Share This