GMO tobacco ‘mystery serum’ rescues Ebola virus victims

Genetic Literacy Project ^ | 8/6/2014 | Meredith Knight

[Valpal1]

When American Ebola patient Dr. Kent Brantly arrived in Atlanta, Georgia, Aug. 2, he had reportedly already had one course of treatment with an experimental drug called ZMAPP made with genetically engineered tobacco. Although it has only been tested previously in animals, the FDA is rumored to have authorized emergency approval for the drug for Brantly and another American who contracted the virus doing medical aid work in Liberia during the ongoing West African Ebola outbreak.

MAPP is produced by a small San Diego-based biotech company. The scientists use a common tobacco bacteria, genetically engineered with different components of the Ebola virus, to infect a large number of plants. The infection spurs the plants to make antibodies to the virus, including the pieces of viral Ebola DNA. The tobacco is then crushed up and the ebola serum is extracted. It contains antibodies that target several parts of the virus.

[Sacajaweau]

The folks who made the serum have already gotten mega bucks in the last couple years.

One of the women scientists/biologists ( I believe she is the true creator of the serum) did a gig for Obama and said his girls could work in her lab.

I see a Fort Deitrick (sp) II in her future.

[Foundahardheadedwoman]

I knew smoking was good for me. In the fifties/early 60’s some docs told their patients to smoke to help with their asthma. True story, notice I did not say they were good docs.

[OneWingedShark]

That is why they are bringing people here to help increase the sample size....

I read something about there being a parent on [a strain of] Ebola owned, IIRC, by the CDC.
A few days ago, I was chatting w/ a freeper remarking on the carry-on like nothing's wrong attitude held by our governing elite; esp WRT finances.

Conspiracy Theory time:

1. Government owns Ebola strain, and presumably vaccine.
2. Government imports Ebola into the country, disguising the intentional infection as a botched humanitarian aid mission much like Fast & Furious was a botched gun-trafficking sting.
3. Government uses this quickly spreading pandemic to hype up the need for a vaccine.
4. Government erases massive amounts of debt-obligations as much of the general population dies off.
5. Government seizes deceased properties, assets, and monies.
6. Government distributes vaccine, for a profit, to other countries — the political elite having already been protected.
7. Government uses seized assets to pay off foreign debts… or perhaps blackmails them with a debt-forgiveness for cure deal.

[TigersEye]

2. Tobacco is not a human food.

Speak for yourself. There's nothing like a good Bull Durham brownie to go with a pipe full of Black Cherry.

[Sacajaweau]

They said she could have walked in...but they chose the gurney for her.

Who knows. Since the survival rate is 55% when caught early, they might have made it on their own.

[EEGator]

I believe they prefer Newport and Kool.

[DJ Taylor]

" In the fifties/early 60’s some docs told their patients to smoke to help with their asthma."

And I'm sure you remember, "More doctors recommend Winston than any other cigarette."

[ameribbean expat]

Make their head spin worse than a lip full of Copenhagen. But fair’s fair, they make my head spin on a regular basis and if this is what it takes to make theirs spin, I’m all for it.

They’ll probably just spin it to say the EPA’s new regs and taxes on cigars are needed to fund ebola research and serum distribution in Africa cuz Lawd knows howz many Africans were brought to ‘Merka to labor in the tobacky fields...

[Kenny Bunk]

Please stop attempting to introduce factual material in this sort of thread, OK?

In re #2: Tobacco is not a human food.

OK. Well maybe not now, but Tobacco, Eggplant, Potatoes, Tomatoes, and deadly Nightshade are all part of the same botanical family, so IMNVHO, I think The Obama Administration should begin work on a new GMO-crop. Imagine eating the tomatoes, Picking the tubers, slicing the eggplant,and getting high by chewing the stem of just one easy-to-grow plant, not to mention smoking the leaves!

Job Creation, Obama style.

[sitetest]

Extremely cool.

[Kenny Bunk]

It’s “Camels,” DJ. You are shamefully deficient in ‘50’s lore.

[windsorknot]

Wait for the TV ads from the ambulance chasers aimed at the "victims" of the "mystery serum". Every drug is a potential bad drug.

[Valpal1]

Nice luddite spin, but the research tobacco plant is also GMO. Upwards of 90% of tobacco grown in the US is GMO.

[GreyFriar]

Tobacco & Ebola story I mentioned last night

[Ken H]

[lee martell]

Now that is what you call a Lucky Strike!

[upchuck]

Tobacco has killed lots of people (I was on my way until I quit in 1999). Who knew it could also kill Ebola?

[familyop]

The article left this out. Ebola DNA are split, and the fragments injected into three mice. The blood of the three mice is combined for the antibody injection into a patient.

[familyop]

http://www.businessinsider.com/zmapp-serum-used-to-treat-ebola-infected-americans-2014-8

[familyop]

The truth of the matter.

The Recovering Americans and the 'Top Secret' Ebola Treatment
The Atlantic
James Hamblin Aug 5 2014
"zMapp...The 'top-secret serum' is a monoclonal antibody. Administration of monoclonal antibodies is an increasingly common but time-tested approach to eradicating interlopers in the human body. In a basic monoclonal antibody paradigm, scientists infect animals (in this case mice) with a disease, the mice mount an immune response (antibodies to fight the disease), and then the scientists harvest those antibodies and give them to infected humans."