From Fox News, 24 June 1999

Bio-Engineered Honey Could Help Medicine Go Down

LONDON — Dutch researchers are breeding genetically modified plants whose nectar could be used to produce honey containing drugs or vaccines, New Scientist magazine said Wednesday.

Scientists at the Center for Plant Breeding and Reproduction Research in Wageningen are adding genes for various drugs to the plants to produce a healing nectar.

They discovered a genetic switch, or promoter, that activates the genes in the nectary of the plant where the nectar is made. The switch is specific to the nectary so the drugs are produced only in the nectar.

"It's a production system that would require very little purification," Tineke Creemers told New Scientist magazine.

The genetically modified honey could either be fed to patients or the drugs could be taken from it.

Creemers and her colleagues are using a similar system to grow genetically modified petunias to produce a vaccine against a dog disease called parvovirus.

"Once the plants are fully grown and begin producing nectar, bees will be unleashed on them to produce honey that the researchers hope will contain the vaccine," the magazine added.

The study is restricted to greenhouses so the researchers can guarantee the bees are only feeding on the modified plants.

The scientists are also looking into whether the sugar in honey will act as a preservative which could be a big advantage for vaccination programs in tropical countries which lack large supplies of refrigeration equipment.

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