Transgenic animals technologies

The clinical consequences of the currently used benzodiazepines range from sedation, muscle relaxation, seizure reduction, anxiolysis, and hypnosis. Clearly, it would be highly desirable to be able to separate some of these effects. In addition, it would be useful to reduce other undesirable consequences such as development of tolerance and dependence, abuse, synergistic interaction with ethanol, and memory impairment (for a comprehensive review see [22]). Animal models for some of the aforementioned conditions, in combination with transgenic mouse technology, have recently led to a deeper understanding of the contribution some of the individual a subunits make to these behaviors. 

Immune system response, antimicrobial peptides and, 18 255-256 Immunity, transgenic animals with, 12 464 Immunizations, 25 486. See also Vaccine technology... 

The most recent twist in the use of recombinant DNA technology to produce drugs has been the development of transgenic plants with many of the capabilities of transgenic animals. Some authorities refer to this field of research as molecular farming and call the products of their research farmaceuticals. 

Antibodies are expressed by hybridoma cells formed by cell fusion of sensitized animal or human B lymphocytes with myeloma cells, or they are generated by EBV (Epstein-Barr virus) transformation of sensitized B lymphocytes. Other heterologous expression systems such as bacteria, yeast, insect cells, and mammalian cells have also been used for expression of antibodies and their fragments. However, because of renaturation problems, glycosylation, and expression levels, mammalian cells are mostly used for the expression of monoclonal antibodies. More recently, technologies have been extensively developed for the expression of antibodies in transgenic animals and transgenic plants. 

Modern in vitro fermentation technologies can compete with in vivo production of antibodies regarding concentration and purity of the produced material. In fact, a number of more sophisticated methods of antibody expression have been developed in the last decade the most important are cell culture in protein-free media and the expression in the milk of transgenic animals, in transgenic plants, and in egg yolk. 

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