Genetically-engineered tobacco plants could help in the creation of an anti-cancer vaccine to attack the human papilloma virus (HPV), a sexually transmitted virus that can lead to cervical cancer. Kenneth Dretchen of Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., explains that fragments of HPV would be genetically altered in a tobacco plant, which would then be harvested and used in the vaccine. The HPV grown in the tobacco plant could then help attack the HPV causing disease, Dretchen says. The vaccine wouldn’t prevent illness, but would be a therapeutic vaccine, he adds. The vaccine would first be tested in the laboratory on animals and if proved effective, it would then go to clinical trials involving patients.
SOURCE/REFERENCE: Reported by OnHealth, 6/2/00
