Transgenic Rice to Benefit Allergy Sufferers

Health Benefits Claimed for Genetically Modified Foods

Sep 5, 2009 Uni Blake

Researchers are taking food to a whole new level by creating foods that are directly beneficial to human health.

Genetically modified plants are here to stay; be it plants that are resistant to herbicides or plants that insects find unattractive. Genetically modified plants are speeding up the natural selection process but with an added twist. They can be genetically manipulated to provide pharmaceutical benefits to consumers; in other words plants that are biopharmaceutical.

What are Biopharmaceutical Crops?

Biopharmaceutical crops are plants that are genetically modified to produce drugs. They are produced by genetic engineering techniques where DNA from another organism is inserted into the plant’s DNA. The gene can be transferred to the plant by using a virus that normally infects plants but has been genetically engineered to carry the new gene section to the plant's DNA.

Potential Uses of Biopharmaceutical Crops

The end result is a plant that, once its genes are activated to produce certain needed proteins, also produces the protein associated with the inserted gene. These transgenic crops have the potential to produce plant-derived vaccines against infectious diseases or even common allergies.

Fighting Allergies through Diet

Researchers in Japan have successfully developed a transgenic rice plant that once consumed will help fight allergies to Japanese Cedar Pollen. Allergies to pollen affect large portion of the population and are of concern. The researchers assume that even as the rice is steamed it will still maintain the protein inserted to alleviate the allergies (Domon et al. “26-Week Oral Safety Study in Macaques for Transgenic Rice Containing Major Human T-Cell Epitope Peptides from Japanese Cedar Pollen Allergens.” Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, 2009; 57 (12): 5633 abstract).

How the Transgenic Rice Was Developed

Treating allergies or allergy immunotherapy is normally done by subjecting an individual to increasing levels of the allergen. The hope is that the individual will develop enough immunity to fight of the allergen when they are exposed. Another form of therapy being developed uses the actual parts of the peptides in an allergen to stimulate T Cell response. The part of the allergen that causes the allergic response is called the epitope. In the biopharmaceutical rice, the hybrid peptide of the human t-cell epitopes was inserted into the rice. Once in the rice, it is expressed as the rice develops exposing the individual who consumes the rice to the epitope building tolerance.

In the Japanese study the rice was tolerated by the test mammals with no adverse reaction observed. The mammals were monitored over a 26 week period. The experiment however does not take into account the possible long term effects or the effects that the transgenic rice plant may have on the ecology.

The copyright of the article Transgenic Rice to Benefit Allergy Sufferers in Biotech/Pharmaceuticals is owned by Uni Blake. Permission to republish Transgenic Rice to Benefit Allergy Sufferers in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

Eating Rice May Help With Allergies

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