INSULIN grown in plants has been injected into people for the first time. The hope is that plants will provide a cheaper source of insulin for people with diabetes.
, a Canadian company based in Calgary, Alberta, inserted human insulin genes into safflowers, causing them to make a compound called pro-insulin. Enzymes then converted this into a type of insulin called SBS-1000.
Previous tests indicated that SBS-1000 is identical to human insulin, so last month Sembiosys compared its effects with insulin from other sources in healthy volunteers. The company plans to release the results later this year.
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Most insulin products are produced by bacteria in a fermenter. As this is an expensive process, Sembiosys hopes using plants will be cheaper because they do not need this stage.
Safflowers are not widely grown in North America, and have no wild relatives there. This should minimise the risk of genes escaping from insulin-producing safflowers grown there, says Maurice Maloney of Sembiosys.
