Biologicalfactoriescouldaddmuch
valuetosoybeancropsforspecific
purposes, inthenearfuture
R
esearch work focused on the
contribution of soybean to Aids
treatment, which started back in
2005, is basedon the inoculation
of cyanovirin, a protein pres-
ent in algae and able to prevent the HIV vi-
rus from multiplying in the human body,
into genetically modified soybean seed for
large scale production. The final objective
is the development of a gel (with viral prop-
erties) for women to apply on their genital
organ prior to intercourse.
According to Elibio Rech, from Embra-
pa Genetic Resources, tests with other bio-
factories have been conducted, like tobacco
plants (N. tabacum and N. benthamiana),
bacteria (E. coli) and leaven (S. cerevisiae).
However, the best option for producing cy-
anovirin was transgenic soybean seed. It
makes it possible for protein to be widely
scaled to the appropriate quantity. Further-
more, there is also the benefit of the low in-
vestment cost required for the production
of the rawmaterial for the extraction of this
molecule” explains Rech.
The researcher stresses that the geneti-
Farmof
pharmacy?
Seedswill be cultivated in greenhouses
cally modified seeds are not planted in the
field. They are cultivated under controlled
conditions in greenhouses. Although hav-
ing reached visibility only in 2015, this po-
tential had been evaluated for a long pe-
riod. The positive effects of cyanovirin
against Aids have been known since 2008,
based on tests performed on monkeys by
the North-American Institute.
“The natural property of this protein, ex-
tracted fromblue-green algae (Nostoc ellip-
sosporum), to interact with sugar toprevent
the virus frompropagating has been known
by the global scientific community for 15
years. “What wasmissing was to find out an
efficient and economic manner to produce
this protein on a large scale. There is where
we came in”, concludes Rech.
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