Ethical issues on molecular pharming by Benny

Ethical issues on Molecular Pharming

Molecular pharming or also known as molecular farming is field which mixed both farming and pharmacy together. The field which has been seen as a breakthrough in the pharmaceutical field has contributed a lot to the world. The concept of Molecular Pharming has been developed based on the genetically modified organism’s technique. Molecular Pharming is practically developed based on the ability to changes the genomes in the plants. It can also be considered as another brancing of agriculture biotechnology. In molecular pharming, plants are modified in such a way that they could be able to produce drugs which is needed by human.

One of the question that would arise is that how is it possible? Well, based on the scientific concern, animal would be a better choice since both human and animal would have some similar proteins found in them. This usage of plants might be due to the fact that plants seeds do not contain pathogens that could affect both animals and humans. Plants are also sufficiently closely related to both human and animals. They are also able to configure and process human and animals protein correctly. These few reasons are one of the main points of why plants are being developed as a pharmaceutical platform.

The first few plants which have been used in molecular pharming are tobacco and potato plants. The first molecular pharming project was done in 1990, recombinant plant derived protein of human serum albumin was produced from transgenic tobacco and potato. 15 years after this discovery was found, molecular pharming has been established and have covered a few fields.

            Molecular pharming has been developed over the past few years due to a few reasons. One of the reasons would be that not all drugs are easy to produce.  Besides that, plant also offers the chance to produce a drug which is expensive to be produced by using animals or any other method. Plants also offer various new ways to produce drugs. Plants have emerged to be the cheap, safe and efficient way to produce drugs compared to factory based. Combination of genetic engineering in plants (consider GMO) and traditional farming has been seen as one of the way to produce pharmaceutical products and even protein on large scale.

So, based on these few facts, what benefits would human obtained from the molecular pharming? Well, there are more benefits that human could obtained compared to the possible harms that GMO could bring to us. One of the advantages that human could obtained is new methods of production of pharmaceutical products. As up till now, most of the pharmaceutical products are produced from the factory which is not very cost efficient at a point. The ever growing needs of the products has causes some problems as well. The factory has not been able to keep up with the needs for more drugs. So, the discovery of this methods has allowed some company to mass produced drug in a safer and much cost efficient way which is growing crops rather that building another factory which would need much higher cost.

Molecular pharming has also allowed new research to be done in the pharmaceutical area. What does this mean? Well, all over the years research on pharmaceutical has been done mostly based on animals. Drug has been created bases on the protein expressed on animals. This method also sometimes gives insufficient results to the research. The discovery possible usage of plants in the pharmaceutical area as one of the production platform has open up another big possibility in the research. The ability of plants to express human and animals proteins correctly even though plants and human are only closely related has been the point of interest of scientist. The eukaryotic properties of plants have shown great possibility either. There are a lot more possibilities that plant could offer to the pharmaceutical world.

Even though molecular pharming shows a lot of new possibility and also shows a great future, there are still a lot of concern which people has expressed in terms of its biosafety. Practically tow big question has been expressed in terms of its biosafety concern which is who and what is at risk from the molecular pharming and also what are the biological hazard involved.

            The big concern about molecular pharming would be the gene transfer between the so called transgenic plants to the normal corps. Humans and another organism are also on risk on from being affected by the unintended transfer of genes.

            Transgene pollution is one of the problems that could be face by molecular pharming. Transgene pollution is practically the spread of transgene of the genetically modified organism which happens by the natural gene flows. Transgene transfer could happen through a few pathways, it can happen through transgenic plants to non transgenic plants, transgenic plants to the surrounding wildlife and even transgenic plants to animals and humans. The transfer of the ‘novel’ genes of the transgenic plants could be a serious threat to other organisms. The effect of this gene has not been fully understood yet and on the worst scenario it could disturb the natural ecosystem flows and even causes extinction to a species. The spread of the transgenic genes to non transgenic crops is also undesirable. The transfer would results in the presence of foreign DNA in the food line of animal and human. One of the other concerns which can be associated with the points stated above would be the possibilities of mixture of the products of transgenic crops with the non-transgenic crops which is grown together or close to each other.

            There are various ways in which transfer of genes could occur. The first one would be the vertical transfer of genes. Vertical transfer of genes happens in plants which is partially sexually compatible. This type of gene transfer is the most prevalent compared to the other type of transfer. The transfer is usually done via the transfer of transgenic. Transfer of pollen in between transgenic and non-transgenic plant which is a big concern usually happen this way. The transfer will happen if the plants are close enough for transfer of pollen via wind or by insects. This method of transfer results in a very high gene flow from the transgenic plants to the other wildlife.

            Horizontal gene transfer is also one of the methods of gene transfer which happens in the transgenic plants. Horizontal gene transfer involves plants which is not sexually compatible and also plants which is different in their taxonomical group. This transfer usually happens in between bacteria. Recently, the horizontal transfer between plants and bacteria also happens. The transfer is usually either between plant to bacteria in the soil or to the bacteria which is presents in the plants itself. The transfer will result in new bacterial strains which effects are still unknown. It might causes harm to the other non-harmful bacteria or even affect the other living beings.

            Gene transfer has been viewed as one of the biggest concern to the molecular pharming. Few organizations have been concerned whether this new technique is really safe to carried out. Concerns have also being raised in order to ensure the safety of the other wildlife which lives with the transgenic plants such as insects, and the other crops. Concerns have also being raised on the effect of the plants on human. The possibilities of the mixture of products of transgenic plants and the food product have been the hot issues in the following fields. A few cases on these problems have been reported over the decades. People have been afraid of the accidental mixture of the pharmaceutical used crops with the normal crops due to the unknown effect of the pharmaceutical corps in case of accidental intake by human.

Ethical views on the molecular pharming

            Well, being a new method of research and also one of the breakthroughs in the scientific world, molecular pharming is still not freed from any ethical issues. There must be any ethical issues even though it is a minor one which has been violated somehow. The first ethical issue that a research must fulfill is the autonomy or so called respect. Respect, especially in this molecular pharming context cannot be only associated with humans. This is due to the fact besides humans, animals (wildlife) is also exposed to the possible threat of the transgenic plants. In this context, the respect will be mainly due to the fact of exposure of animals and humans to the threat. Following the context, in order to respect the animals, animals must not be used on as a test subject for the transgenic plants before the effect is fully understood. This is due to the possible unknown effect on the animals.

            The other ethical concern that must be fulfilled by this research will be do good or beneficence. Beneficence in this context would mean that the research which has been conducted must have contributions to the environment. Well, it is still very hard to point out the difference between do good and do no harm which is the third research ethics that must be fulfilled. Doing good does not mean do no harm and vice versa. There is only a thin line which separates these two ethics. So, in this term, the research on molecular pharming has benefits the environment and living being especially humans. In which area does it do well to humans? Well, based on the research, the molecular pharming benefits to humans by offering new methods of pharmaceutical product production and also open up a new door to further research in the pharmaceutical area. Molecular pharming also helps to create a new method of production which is more cost efficient and safe. Besides that, molecular pharming helps to increase yield in farming, especially GMO. The method also ‘does good’ to environment in the sense that the method used in the molecular pharming is safe.

            The third research ethics will be non maleficence or do no harm. All the research done must not be harmful to humans and also environment. As we all know, research especially in the biological world is dangerous if it is misused. Various problems may arise due to misusage of science, such as biological leak, biowarfare, etc. Ethical concern associated with this research ethics will be on the possibility of gene transfer between the transgenic and non transgenic plants. As explained above, the gene transfers whether it is accidentally done or naturally might bring harm to animals and even humans. Besides that, the accidental mixture of the transgenic product and non-transgenic might also bring harm. In order to confine the possible effect done on human and environment, biosafety precautions must be applied in the research. Containment must also be done in case of any accidental leak of the transgenic plants to the environment.

            The last research ethics that must be fulfilled will be the justice and fairness. In the terms of both justice and fairness, the ethical concern which could be brought up will be on how the result of the research. The sample used on the research must be the type of plants which could be planted almost in everywhere to ensure that justice is given to every single country. The results must also be shared to everyone so that everyone could use improve their pharmaceutical knowledge as well. Besides that in this justice and fairness, we could also bring up the topic on the charges implies on the products of molecular pharming. Even though molecular pharming is low in cost, it must be followed by the low selling price of the products as well. This is to ensure the justice and fairness to humans from every class, be it poor or the rich one, as scientific research was meant to benefits human kind without considering their ethnics, skin colour, status and many else.

            These four research ethics are something which has to be fulfilled in order for the research to progress further and produces more benefits to living beings. Without considering these research ethics, the research would end up getting more complains and raises more concerns compared to the possible benefits that it would bring to the world. In case the research ethics was being violated, a lot of chaos will happen and at the end the research will bring more harm if it was misused. So, as we can see, this is the concern on research ethics that everyone is trying to bring up in order to create a peaceful and beneficial science for all of us. Research on molecular pharming also must ensure that it must be fair to everyone and not to benefits only one part of the communities.

As a conclusion, molecular pharming is still a growing field in the scientific research, a lot of questions has not been answered and a lot of problems might arises as well since the field has not been fully explored. Even with a lot of flaws in it, molecular pharming is still one of the promising new age researches especially in the biotechnology field as it upholds more possibility from what we could imagine.

Reference:

Brian T,2001. Biohazards: The Next Generation? Genetically Engineering Crop Plants that Manufacture Industrial and Pharmaceutical Proteins[Online]. Available From:< http://www.saynotogmos.org/molecular_pharming.htm>. Accessed on 15^th October 2011.

 

Didier B., et all. 2009. Biosafety considerations associated with molecular farming in genetically modified plants[Online]. Available From:< http://www.academicjournals.org/jmpr/PDF/pdf2009/Nov/Breyer%20et%20al.pdf>. Accessed on 15^th October 2011.

Rainer F. & Neil E., 2000. Molecular farming of pharmaceutical proteins [Online]. Available From: <http://biotech.korea.ac.kr/lab/jsshin/class/molecularfarming.pdf>. Accessed on 15^th October 2011.

Ulrich C., et all, 2003. Review Article on The biosafety of molecular farming in plants [Online]. Available From: <http://www.writescience.com/RMT%20PDFs/Commandeur%2003%20ABN.pdf>. Accessed on 15^th October 2011.

Sonya N., 2005. MOLECULAR FARMING [Online]. Available From: <http://www.parl.gc.ca/Content/LOP/ResearchPublications/prb0509-e.htm>. Accessed on 15^th October 2011.

Pushpa M. Bhargava,2006. Review on The social, moral, ethical, legal and political implications of today’s biological technologies: An Indian point of view [Online]. Available From : <http://www.biosci.utexas.edu/ib/faculty/jansen/FS301%20papers/Bhargava.pdf>. Accessed on 15^th October 2011.