Tobacco can help fight nerve toxins

After the incident in Syria, the whole world was once again wary of chemical toxins in which the type of nerve-damaging toxin was the most dangerous destruction weapon. Unlike nuclear and biological weapons, these toxins are easy to produce, lead to goals and forecast usage results. The world is accumulating huge reserves of toxins that people have not yet thought of effective protection against them.

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Experts DARPA plans to develop a method to protect against nerve gas. To do that, they will raise the special type of liver enzymes Butyrylcholinesterase in transgenic tobacco plants.

For many years, scientists rushed to find an effective antidote against the effects of chemical weapons. To date, the main work to protect against the effects of poison is to develop sensors and protective equipment. However, the achievements of biology and genetic engineering are opening up new perspectives in the fight against one of the most terrible weapons humans ever invented.

Modern antidotes do not destroy neurotoxic vapors but only against neurotoxic symptoms such as seizures, vomiting, shortness of breath . All detoxifying substances have serious side effects such as loss of vision, rapid heartbeat, distraction and the ability to properly recognize what's around.

Unlike many other antidotes, Butyrylcholinesterase binds to toxic chemicals and destroys them before they start to affect the nervous system. The safety of Butyrylcholinesterase is confirmed by a series of experiments on animals and humans.

Unfortunately, when poisoning, the human liver secretes too few types of yeast to save that life, but the production of Butyrylcholinesterase is still a very complicated problem. Scientists, thanks to genetic engineering, have even found a special goat breed for this yeast-containing milk, but this is not the most effective way to produce thousands of antidotes.

DARPA wants to solve this problem with genetically modified tobacco plants. The technology is similar to the production of influenza vaccines: special genes are introduced into tobacco plants, and it begins to produce the protit needed to produce vaccines. This method allows fast, large and cheap production of the most complex protit in which Butyrylcholinesterase