Tobacco Prevents West Nile Virus

And we all thought tobacco was evil, evil, evil. Well, a team of scientists at Arizona State University have conducted an experiment with a drug produced in tobacco plants that can be used to prevent death in mice infected with a lethal dose of West Nile virus. The study represents an important first step in the development of a treatment for the mosquito-borne disease that has killed 400 people in the US within the last two years. In the study, scientists introduced a gene into a "deconstructed" plant virus vector, then they introduced the vector into the tobacco plants. After about 10 days they were able to extract a substance from the tobacco plant, inject it into laboratory mice that were infected with the virus, and in 90 percent of cases, the mice evaded death and made a full recovery.

Tobacco plants are unique because they are capable of producing a large amount of proteins and seeds, properties that make them ideal candidates for scaling-up production of this type. Although the process has not yet been tested on humans, scientists plan to eventually use it to penetrate living brain matter and hopefully get the same results. According to the researchers, the tobacco plant might one day be associated with more than smoke-related cancer, as it could also help prevent thousands of people from suffering serious neurological complications, and even death.