Chickens that help develop cancer cures Image caption These chickens have a human gene that allows them to lay eggs with high levels of protein.

Researchers have developed genetically modified chickens that can lay eggs containing proteins used to fight arthritis and certain cancers.

They hope that this discovery will one day lead to the production of a life-saving drug at an additional cost.

At first, proteins will be used in research, but laboratory tests have already shown that they work at least as well as equivalent drugs.

This new research was developed by the University of Edinburgh, Scotland, in partnership with Roslin Technologies

• The freezer that produces chicken meat without killing a bird
  • Chicken paparicadas

    According to researcher Lissa Herron of Roslin Technologies, chickens do not suffer and are more "pampered" than the animals on the farm.

    "They live in very large pens, fed, hydrated and cared for daily by highly qualified technicians, they lead a very comfortable life."

    "For the chicken, it's like laying a normal egg, this does not affect his health, just continue what they already do, lay normally. "

    Scientists have already shown that animals such as goats, rabbits and chickens Genetically Modified Can be Used to Produce Proteins with Properties

    "Production from Chicken Eggs"

    "Chicken Egg Production"

    "Production from Chicken Eggs" Eggs of chicken can cost 10 to 100 times cheaper than factories, so I think we will be at least 10 times less than the total cost of manufacturing, "Herron said.

    Right Image
    
    Russell Norrie, The Roslin Institute

    The greatest saving comes from the fact that poultry houses are much cheaper to build and operate than highly cleaned and sterilized laboratories for industrial production.

    Many diseases are caused by the natural non-production of our body. chemical or protein. Health problems of this type can be controlled with drugs containing the missing protein.

    Herron and his colleagues have managed to reduce these costs by inserting a human gene into the DNA part of the hens responsible for the egg white.

    These drugs are made synthetically by pharmaceutical companies and can be very expensive to manufacture. Two types of protein

    After breaking the eggs, the scientists left the yellow aside. "These proteins are too expensive to produce," says Herron, "because you can not simply synthesize them in a chemistry lab."

    ] "You need a living system to make them because proteins are very large, very complex molecules, and they need all the material from a cell to produce them properly. "

    Up to now, hens have been genetically modified to produce two types of proteins essential to the immune system

    One of them is interferon alpha 2a, which has potent antiviral and anticancer effects ; and the other is the CSF macrophage, which is being developed as a therapy stimulating the regeneration of damaged tissues.

    Three eggs are enough to produce a dose of the drug and hens can lay up to 300 eggs a year. The researchers believe that with enough chickens, they will be able to produce the drug on a commercial scale.

    The development of drugs for human health, with all the necessary regulatory procedures, will take between 10 and 20 years.

    This includes drugs that, unlike antibiotics, stimulate the immune system of farm animals, which would reduce the risk of developing new strains of animals.

    Researchers hope to use chickens to develop drugs for animals. super-bacteria resistant to treatment. And there is potential for using the healing properties of CSF macrophage to treat pets, according to Herron.

    "For example, we can use it to regenerate the liver or kidneys of a damaged pet." We still do not produce drugs for humans, but this study shows that production of chickens is commercially viable, "he said," suitable proteins for studies of new drugs and other applications of biotechnology, "said Professor Helen Sang of the Roslin Institute of the University of Edinburgh.

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