Genetic Chickens in Japan Are Laying Eggs That Could Fight Cancer
Okay, I got some egg-explosive news folks!
Disclaimer: This piece has got nothing to do with the new X-men movie(but that does not mean it’s any less exciting).
It’s got everything- mutant chickens, even a kickass cancer-fighting egg– a real doctor-approved omelet!!
Okay let’s get cracking- It should be no surprise that the country that brought the world Godzilla, AND a human baby floor mop is now giving us cancer-fighting eggs! The scientists at National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) Kansai have now done some egg-cellent work and succeeded in making hens lay eggs that contain a pharmaceutical agent that can be used to treat such diseases as cancer and hepatitis.
The eggs were developed using genome-editing technology to produce interferons, which is used to treat hepatitis, multiple sclerosis and malignant skin cancer.
Injecting it into cancer patients three times per week can prevent cancer cells from multiplying, while also boosting T cells to fight tumors.
The technique uses genomic editing to prompt the chickens to lay eggs containing a pharmaceutical agent known as interferon beta, a type of protein that plays an important role in the functioning
immune system.The scientists introduced genes that produce interferon-beta into cells that are the precursors of chicken sperm. Those cells were used to fertilize eggs, which then inherited those genes. That allowed the hens grown from those eggs to themselves lay eggs containing the cancer-fighting agent.
“This is a result that we hope leads to the development of cheap drugs,” Hironobu Hojo of Osaka University said.
For now, the cancer-fighting eggs are to be used solely in a laboratory setting. But eventually, if the chicken-laid drugs pass inspection by health authorities, they could be approved for human consumption.
“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,” Professor Hojo said.
In the future, the team plans to stably produce interferon-beta weighing several dozen milligrams to 100 milligrams from one egg, which would result in a dramatic reduction in production costs.
However, as the safety standards for pharmaceutical drugs are high, the team intends to start with the production of interferon beta for use as a research reagent.
So, curing cancer won’t quite be as easy as ordering Eggs Benedict. The researchers are really scrambling to make this dream a reality, relying on original, non-poached ideas. If their research progresses to its ideal conclusion, pharmaceutical companies across the globe will have reason to look at the sunny side of things.
Oh wait, I got another one(but no context). Hard boiled.
