Transgenic tomato to treat Alzheimer’s disease

Biotechnology Letters Journal is reporting that a group of South Korean researchers has genetically engineered a tomato to enable it treat the Alzheimer’s disease, a neurodegenerative disease, which causes dementia.

Having recognized that the human Beta-amyloid is the main component of Alzheimer’s disease, the researchers sought to investigate how genetic engineering could be used to reduce it. They figured out how it could be integrated into the tomato genome.

Using Agrobacterium-mediated nuclear transformation, the researchers, led by HyunSoon Kim of the Plant Genomics Research Center, based in South Korea “generated tomatoes for Beta-amyloid.”

Their goal was that this tomato trait, upon consumption by Alzheimer patients, would suppress the beta-Amyloid generation and thus reduce or diminish occurrence of Alzheimer’s disease.

The researchers found that mice fed on this Beta-amyloid transgenic tomato elicited an immune response, similar to the one patients of the Alzheimer disease would elicit.

The Alzheimer’s disease is believed to mostly affect those aged 65 years and above. Statistics show that about 26 million people currently suffer from the disease. With the publication of this new study, it’s hoped that the transgenic tomato with Beta-amyloid will be a relief to patients of the Alzheimer’s disease.