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Gm organisms

Prisons without bars

Nature Reviews Genetics volume 4, page 577 (2003)Cite this article

Although a range of confinement systems have been developed to minimize the survival and spread of GM species and their transgenes, none have managed to combine high levels of functionality and safety. Now, in the July issue of Nature Biotechnology, Lothar Steidler and colleagues describe the first system for the therapeutic use of GM bacteria to deliver on both counts.

The authors have designed a technique for the treatment of human inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), in which GM Lactococcus lactis supplies the therapeutic anti-inflammatory cytokine interleukin 10 (IL10) directly to the intestine by in situ synthesis. Existing methods of IL10 delivery have undesirable side effects, so the benefits of this system are clear — but what if the GM bacteria escaped into the environment, or the synthetic IL10 crossed into other microorganisms?

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ORIGINAL RESEARCH PAPER

  1. Steidler, L. et al. Biological containment of genetically modified Lactococcus latis for intestinal delivery of human interleukin 10. Nature Biotechnol. 15 June 2003 (10.1038/nbt840)

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Authors
  1. Victoria Kitchener
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Kitchener, V. Prisons without bars. Nat Rev Genet 4, 577 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrg1142

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nrg1142

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