Tobacco might be used to create vaccine to cure certain type of cancer for people who had chronic lymphoma, as stated by a result in recent studies in China yesterday (21/07).

The cure will build an immunity reaction to fight the tumor cells within the body. The cure was made from a new approach that dramatically changes the tobacco genetic structure into a certain type vaccine factory. Lymphoma is a type of cancer that involves the body immunity system.

“This is the first time this kind of plant being used to produce proteins that would be injected to the human body” said Dr. Ron Levy from Stanford University School of Medicine in California. His research was published the Proceedings Journal of The National Academy of Sciences. “This would become a way of curing cancer without side-effects” said Levy.

Levy’s team had tested the vaccine with 16 newly diagnosed of Lymphoma follicular B-cell patients. The

According to the studies, none of the patients had a great impact and more than 70 percents of the patients had developed their immunity. Even though the researchers didn’t make sure whether the immunity reaction would be strong enough to destroy the cancer, the researchers hopes that the technique would someday lead to curing those deadly diseases.

“Every lymphoma patient had a target to their tumor cells, but each tumor had different target on the patient” said Levy.

Studies were held by the researchers by scratching the tobacco with virus wrapped with genes to infect the plant. Next the plant will produce an anti-body protein that’s also seen in the body of the patients. The leaf were then picked after a few days and pounded to become green powder. From the leaf, anti-body were extracted and sterilized. “The substance will then be injected to the patient’s body” said Levy.

“This technology is fast and very compatible with this special approach, it’s because each plant would create vaccines for different person” said Levy to AFP. This is the first time a cancer vaccine produced from plants are tested on human body.

Vaccine that comes from plants had some benefits. The vaccine can be developed much faster and cheaper. There’s no risk of infection from the vaccine in case the animal cells were infected. The anti-body that was produced would also have a stronger immunity reaction than on animal cells.

Edited and translated from Kompas.com