Team:UCL/Safety
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SAFETY CONSIDERATIONS
An integral part of Biosynthage
VITELLOGENIN
UCL Biosynthage Vitellogenin project has two aspects: the application of RNAi in pest control and anti-anging in human.
Pest control:
As stated in the vitellogenin proposal, pest control can be achieved via feeding the silverleaf whitefly B.tabaci using the species-specific RNAi-mixed food. It is expansive if applied widely and may provide food resources to other species of pests. Once B.tabaci has taken up the RNAi-mixed food, its vitellogenin level will be lowered and oxidative stress will increase, which becomes more susceptible to death. At this moment we do not know if this will induce any other potential mutation that makes the pest selectively more competitive. As the pest is involved in virus transmission, does the change in vitellogenin gene alter the virus? When the parasitic wasps E.formosa lay eggs in the larvae of B. tabaci, what effects can the lowered Vitellogenin level exert on the development of E.formosa that lives on the host? These questions need to be answered in the future research to be conducted.
Anti-aging in human:
Due to the time limit and the amount of grant sponsored, we have not been able to conduct this part of research. According to the proposal, we plan to test whether vitellogenin can reduce oxidative stress in human cells using the recombinant yeast cells P.pastoris. If it works then potential gene therapy can be conducted to transfer the recombinant cell into human. However, there has not been any research published explaining the side effect of the up-regulation of vitellogenin in human. The recombinant P.pastoris cells have been studied previously, does P. pastoris vitellogenin behave in the same way as human cell?
The next step of research is to increase the expression of vitellogenin human cells to test the level of oxidative stress.
