Newly Developed GMO Chickens Lay Pharmaceutical Drugs

A research team in Japan has developed GMO hens that lay eggs filled with interferon beta (photo credit)

A few days ago, researchers from the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) in Japan announced that they have come up with a new innovative method to produce expensive pharmaceutical drugs. They have them laid by chickens! 

For now, the AIST researchers have successfully created three genetically modified hens that lay eggs containing high amounts of interferon beta. 

Interferon beta is a protein used for treating multiple sclerosis, hepatitis and other diseases and may cost $300 to $1000 for just one microgram. To give you an idea how expensive a treatment can get consider that an interterfon dosage for an MS patient or treating MS can start at 30 mg or more... That's a hefty bill!

With the help of GMO chickens, the researchers hope to dramatically cut down the costs, up to 90 %.

“This is a result that we hope leads to the development of cheap drugs. In the future, it will be necessary to closely examine the characteristics of the agents contained in the eggs and determine their safety as pharmaceutical products.” said Hironobu Hojo, professor at Osaka University to The Japan News.  [3]

To create the GMO chickens, the researchers first introduced  interferon-beta-producing genes into sperm precursors cells and used them to fertilize eggs. The hens that hatched out of them inherited those genes and started to produce eggs with interferon beta. 

Now, the next step for the research team is to increase and stabilize the interferon beta amount in the eggs. Their hopes is to achieve up to 100 milligrams per egg.  

For now, the interferon eggs are only used for research but hopefully one day they may even be approved for mainstream application. However, this is easier said than done as it will take years and multiple clinical trials before this happens. 

"You'll have to show (the drug) is exactly the same as the drugs that have gone through all the clinical trials." said Professor Helen Sang from the Roslin Institute at the University of Edinburgh in the UK.  [2]

This on-going research is the joint effort between Cosmo Bio Co. in Tokyo, AIST and the National Agriculture and Food Research Organization in Ibaraki Prefecture.

Unfortunately I couldn't find any info answering the first question that popped into my mind when I first heard about this research... How do these eggs actually taste like?  

References

• Phys.org/news/2017-10-japan-scientists-drugs-chicken-eggs.html
• Cnn.com/2017/10/17/health/japan-genetic-engineering-of-cancer-drug-in-chicken-eggs/index.html
• Splice-bio.com/genetically-modified-chickens-lay-cancer-fighting-eggs/

Steemstem & SteemitEducation
Steemstem is the go-to place for science on Steemit. Check it out at @steemstem or visit the #steemSTEM channel. A big thank you also goes to the guys from @steemiteducation for supporting my content!

Greek Community
A final big thanks goes to my fellow greeks for their support and love. Follow the greek-trail or check the facebook page for more greek content!