Vaccines from tobacco? Scientists engineer plants to make vital element

By Isobel Williams via SWNS

Tobacco is revolutionizing the way that vaccines are made, a new study has revealed.

A valuable ingredient used to create vaccines has been replicated in tobacco plants for the first time, opening unprecedented opportunities for the industry.

Originally sourced from the soapbark tree, the molecule QS-21 is a potent ingredient that boosts the strength of human vaccines for shingles, malaria, and others under development.

It is known as an adjuvant, immunostimulant that primes the body’s response to the vaccine.

For many years scientists have been looking for ways to produce QS-21 more sustainably, in yeast or tobacco plants.

This new study, published in Nature Chemical Biology, used around 70 candidate genes and transferred them to tobacco plants, which was then narrowed down to the final 20.

Professor Anne Osbourn from the John Innes Centre, Norwich, said: “Our study opens unprecedented opportunities for bioengineering vaccine adjuvants.

“We can now investigate and improve these compounds to promote the human immune response to vaccines and produce QS-21 in a way which does not depend on extraction from the soapbark tree.”

This study is the first to achieve this replication in an alternative host plant, which will transform the sustainability of the vaccine industry.

Dr. Laetitia Martin said: “This is the first time QS-21 has been produced in a heterologous expression system. This means we can better understand how this molecule works and how we might address issues of scale and toxicity.

“What is so rewarding is that this molecule is used in vaccines and by being able to make it more sustainably my project has an impact on people’s lives. It's amazing to think that something so scientifically rewarding can bring such good to society.

“On a personal level, this research was scientifically extremely rewarding.

"I am not a chemist so I could not have done this without the support of the John Innes Centre metabolomics platform and chemistry platform.”