Transgenic tobacco plants product active IL-10

A team of European scientists led by Mario Pezzoti of the University of Verona, Italy, have developed transgenic tobacco plants that can  produce biologically-active interleukin-10, an important cytokine.  The research, which was part of the Pharma-Planta Project, found that  the plants were able to process both viral and mouse forms of IL-10  correctly, producing the active cytokine at high enough levels that it  might be possible to use tobacco leaves without lengthy extraction and  purification processes. The next step will be to test the plants by  feeding them to mice with autoimmune diseases, the authors noted.