West Nile virus is almost always spread to people by the bite of an infected mosquito. Mosquitoes become infected after feeding on birds that carry the virus. West Nile virus belongs to a family of viruses called Flaviviridae.

It is spread by mosquitoes that have fed on the blood of infected birds. West Nile virus is a member of the Japanese encephalitis virus complex of the genus Flavivirus , family Flaviviridae . This genus includes nine viruses distributed around the world.

West Nile encephalitis or meningitis has the potential to lead to brain damage and death. Approximately 10% of patients with brain inflammation do not survive.

Humans can be infected through the bite of an infected mosquito. Although WNv has not yet reached BC (see summary table below), it has been found within a few kilometers of our southern and eastern borders.

Human data is updated every Tuesday and Friday by 4pm. Dead bird and squirrel data are updated every Wednesday by 4pm. Humans are the only source for these viruses. These viruses do not multiply outside the human body.

Human-to-human transmission of Nipah virus has not been reported. Humans, horses, and some other mammals are highly susceptible to infection by the virus (7 ), and not all become too sick to travel during periods of potential viremia. Furthermore, it is unlikely that all animal hosts and vectors have been identified.

Infectious virus could not be recovered from the brains and organs of animals infected with gp50 or gp50+gp63 mutants, indicating that progeny virions produced in vivo are noninfectious.

Virions that lacked gp50 in their envelopes, and a phenotypically complemented pseudorabies virus gII mutant (which is unable to produce plaques in tissue culture cells), proved to be nonvirulent for mice. Infected trees can be bulldozed or cut with tree removal equipment. It is important to eradicate sucker shoots developing from tree stumps because they are known to be a good source of PPV.

Infected plants can serve as a source of inoculum for the rest of the field, so rogue (pull out and dispose of) symptomatic plants. Solanaceous plants such as tomatoes, peppers, nightshade and ground cherry can harbor the virus and serve as a source of inoculum.

Infected pea plants develop mosaic and chlorotic vein flecking (appears as translucent windows) and veinal enations (blisterlike outgrowths), which are very characteristic for PEMV (Plants are stunted, and proliferation of basal branches is common. Infection with the virus seems to be becoming more common in the United States, according to officials from the U.S.

This virus is different from other adenoviruses that cause the common cold in that it may produce an unusually severe illness requiring intensive medical care.

Viruses also carry genes for making proteins that are never incorporated into the virus particle and are found only in infected cells. These viral proteins are called nonstructural proteins; they include factors required for the replication of the viral genome and the production of the virus particle.

Viruses are strange things that straddle the fence between living and non-living. On the one hand, if they’re floating around in the air or sitting on a doorknob, they’re inert. Viruses are sometimes confused with computer worms and Trojan horses . A worm can spread itself to other computers without needing to be transferred as part of a host, and a Trojan horse is a file that appears harmless.

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Biopharmaceuticals is a related branch of Pharmaceutical engineering. Biopharmaceutical plants use the concepts of biotechnology to develop medicines. Some of the living organisms especially belonging to plant origin have great healing capacities. Biopharmaceutical plants use these plants and other botanical sources to develop medicines.

There is a huge demand of safe and recombinant proteins. These proteins are highly potential and can cure a number of diseases. Insulin, growth hormones and red blood cell stimulating agents can cure many diseases such as multiple sclerosis, arthritis and other orphan diseases. Thus the main aim of pharmaceutical engineering is to produce more and more recombinant proteins to develop solutions for a number of diseases.

At present, there are about 80 biopharmaceutical plants in the market and around 500 are under their development stages and yet to be launched. There are some recombinant proteins such as recombinant antibodies (rAbs) and monoclonal antibodies (Mabs) which are highly in demand as they are highly potential and can cure various diseases. Biopharmaceutical plants accounts for the 40% of the total production of these highly potential recombinant proteins. It is also working in other key areas such as transplant, auto-immunity and other cardiovascular disorders.

With the advent of pathogenesis, pharmaceutical engineering has made a huge success. This technique can potentially solve many diseases and can increase the life span of the sufferers. Biotechnology has given many solutions to medical world. The major challenge faced by these plants is that it needs a huge investment cost. Hence, pharmaceutical manufacturing industries are trying hard to make cost-effective medicines so that it can be affordable by everyone.

Pharmaceutical Engineering and Biopharmaceutical Plants making Huge Success is a post from: Nature Technology Corporation

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Anyone in the nursery profession knows that come spring, you have to be able to keep up with the demand of shoppers wanting to buy new plants. In order to produce the numbers of plants needed, one needs an efficient way to propagate plants quickly and cost effectively. Cloning kits are the perfect solution for this sort of propagation dilemma. When used as part of an aeroponics system, cloning kits work together and utilize much of the same equipment to both produce new plants and grow them on to maturity and presentation on your sales tables.

An aeroponics system allows you to grow plants without the expense of needing a growing medium. Plants are grown in the air using this very efficient growing system. Pumps are used to create a misting spray of nutrient solution that dampens the plant roots; this feeds the plants and, combined with the large amount of oxygen the roots are exposed to, causes the plants to reach maturity very quickly. An aeroponic cloning system uses the same apparatus as an aeroponics system, with one exception. Cuttings are suspended in the air in an aeroponic cloning system, and instead of a nutrient mist, a rooting hormone is sprayed over the cut end of the plant material. Using an aeroponic cloning system results in those cuttings emitting roots in only five to ten days. After roots are formed, the plants can be grown on in an aeroponics system, hydroponics system or other gardening system that uses soil as a growing medium. Plant cloning kits such as these aeroponic models utilize several pieces of equipment.

The pump where the mist originates is a very important component, as is the cloning tray that holds the cuttings at the proper height in the air. A clear plastic or glass covering over the plants helps to create a humid environment that is conducive to root formation in these cloning kits. Air pumps and diffusers are important for keeping the entire system properly oxygenated. You will also need rooting hormone for use in plant cloning kits. This is sold in liquid or powder form, and is typically diluted in a certain amount of water. The hormone can also be used in a powder form, but it is more difficult to get even coverage of the cutting with a powder than it is with a liquid, and thus another advantage of using cloning kits that take advantage of aeroponic misting. All sorts of plants can be replicated in cloning kits, including hardwoods and succulents, so that you can produce the popular plants that your customers want every spring.

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Start More Plants With Cloning Kits is a post from: Nature Technology Corporation

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Proteins of therapeutic importance, like those used in the treatment, diagnosis of human diseases; can be produced in plants using recombinant DNA technology. Scaling-up of these transgenic plants to fields results in industrial production of proteins. The area of research combining molecular biotechnology and agriculture is called ‘molecular farming’ or ‘pharming’. It focuses on developing practical and feasible methods of producing recombinant proteins which are used in the treatment, diagnosis of number of human diseases. Recombinant therapeutic drugs like- human erythropoietin, tissue plasminogen activator, cerezyme are currently on the market and many others are in various stages of human clinical trials.

The use of transgenic animal cell lines and microorganisms (e.coli) are still preferred in production of recombinant pharmaceutical proteins. However, the constantly increasing demand for therapeutic proteins has forced to think of other alternatives. Here transgenic plants become attractive systems for production of human therapeutic proteins because of the reduced risk of mammalian viral contaminants, eukaryotic protein processing, low cost productions, large scale production and supply, reduced time to market and the low maintenance requirements. Plant-based strategies also have advantages in the speed and ease at which the feasibility testing and scaling-up to fields can be done.

Many recombinants proteins produced in plants are ideal for laboratory experiments

like tobacco or Arabidopsis thaliana. However, molecular pharming moves towards commercialization of the recombinant products. Thus many issues are considered like selecting host species, selecting the target tissue in which the proteins would accumulate, expression strategies to ensure amplification of the product, down stream processing procedures like extraction and purification, all these however, depends on the protein desired and the state (soluble, secretary) at which it is required.

To achieve specific protein in plants, the DNA encoding the particular protein is inserted into the plant cells so as to enable transformation. Two major strategies have been developed for efficient transformation of the desired gene- stable integration of the gene and use of plant viruses as transient vectors. Stable integration occurs when foreign DNA is incorporated into the plant genome, a promoter associated with it directs the cell to produce that protein and accumulate it only in specific tissues like seeds. Viruses are used alternatively for direct expression of specific proteins without genetically modifying the host plant. The transformation and expression systems used to engineer these proteins in plants contributes to the stability, yield, cost of purification, and quality of the proteins

The proteins produced in transgenic plants for therapeutic use, are of three main types-antibodies, vaccines, other proteins: Antibodies directed against dental caries, rheumatoid arthritis, cholera, E.coli diarrhea, malaria, certain cancers, Norwalk virus, HIV, rhinovirus, influenza, hepatitis B virus, and herpes simplex virus are known to be produced in transgenic plants. Some of these demonstrating therapeutic values are currently on clinical trials. One of the most advanced products is an anti-streptococcus mutans secretary antibody for the prevention of dental caries. Proteins antigens from various pathogens have been expressed in plants and used as vaccines to produce immune responses resulting in protection against diseases in humans. Plant-derived vaccines against Vibrio cholera, enterotoxigenic E.coli, hepatitis B virus, rabies virus, and rotavirus have been produced. Antigens specific to an individual patient’s tumor are expressed in tobacco, harvested, purified and administered into the patient. This is virus-based system in tobacco to produce personalized vaccines against cancer; the entire process takes as little as four weeks. Edible vaccines enabling oral delivery of the vaccines within foods are also successful as a low-cost delivery mechanism for immunizations against various diseases especially in developing countries. Edible vaccines are known to have successfully immunized test animals against enterotoxigenic E.col, Vibrio cholerae, hepatitis B virus, Norwalk virus, rabies virus, respiratory syncytial virus F and rotavirus. Edible vaccines productions are tested in potatoes, watermelon, squash, tomatoes, bananas, and carrots. Plants are being tested as production systems for a range of other proteins which are of therapeutic importance to be used either directly in foods or after purification like- trichosanthin: inhibits tumor growth, glucocerebrosidase enzyme: deficiency of which results in an inherited Gaucher’s disease, human serum albumin: used in treatment of burns and in liver cirrhosis.

A wide range of therapeutic proteins have been expressed in transgenic plants in the hope of producing an economically viable system for large-scale production. Although active recombinant proteins have been produced, one problem associated with production in plant systems is that these often give relatively low yield upon recovery of product. Various strategies are being devised to overcome this problem, use of novel purification systems and chloroplast transformations being the foremost among them. Despite these difficulties, plants hold out great promise as production systems for therapeutic proteins.

Thus advancement in plant molecular biotechnology does not only help farmers to obtain a more than adequate harvest from the sown crops, but also in producing proteins of therapeutic importance in transgenic plants. The last decade has seen a dramatic progress in plant biotechnology, leading to the development of molecular farming. The scientific community is positive that the next decade will see products approved as pharmaceuticals; with this the molecular farming will finally come of age.

 

 

REFERENCES:

1. Paul Christou and Harry Klee, editors-in-chief, handbook of Plant biotechnology, volume 2.

2. J. Hammond, P. McGarvey and V.Yusbov (Editions), Plant biotechnology- New products and applications.

3. Bruce R. Thomas, Allen Van Deynze, Kent J. Braford, Agricultural biotechnology in California series, ANR Publications, title of the article “Production of Therapeutic Proteins in Plants”, anrcatalog.ucdavis.edu/pdf/8078.pdf.

4. S.S. Purohit, Third edition, Biotechnology: Fundamentals and Applications.

 

 

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