Creating antibodies

Reynolds American is infecting fast-growing tobacco plants with a genetically modified version of the coronavirus to see if they can produce antibodies for a possible vaccine.

Reynolds is working through Kentucky Bioprocessing, a small lab the tobacco company bought in January 2014.

Kentucky Bioprocessing has reached out to the Department of Health and Human Services, stating it could provide a sample of its work by early March.

Kentucky Bioprocessing also helped in creating an Ebola treatment during an outbreak of that illness in 2014. “Kentucky BioSciences quickly focused on producing a tobacco-derived component for the combination therapy ZMapp, one of the first experimental Ebola treatments to become available. ZMapp ultimately fell short as data piled up for other drugs’ effectiveness against the virus,” according to Politico.

The idea of using tobacco plants to fight viruses is not new—in 2012, tobacco plants aided in the production of 10 million flu vaccines. The plants are hardy and grow fast, allowing scientists to create vaccines more quickly.

Though there is promise in the science, it would take thousands of doses to come up with an experimental treatment for coronavirus, according to experts, and it’s possible the outbreak could subside before a vaccine is perfected.