[Martin Noth]

Martin Noth  asked the Naked Scientists:
   
Dear Chris,

I have a quick question about the story on the "Flu Vaccine from Tobacco Plants" from November 13th.

I cannot help but wonder if one would achieve any sort of immunity from the flu by actually smoking these GM tobacco plants. Has there been any research done on the potential effects of inhaling GM tobacco fumes or is this hypothesis doomed right from the start?

Of course, I realize smoking was not even proposed by the research team. However, it sounds like an interesting scenario to have all of the smokers automatically immunized against flu which might even result in herd immunity.

Kind regards,
Martin

-- University of Braunschweig - Institute of Technology
Language Center

What do you think?

[ironmunya]

I think the antibodies, being proteins, would become non-functional due to the heat from the combustion. proteins are very delicate, alterations in the structure of the antibody, esp the antigen binding site would irreversibly render it non-functional.