The inevitable happened , and Donald Trump wound up hospitalized with covid-19 . But now Trump is supposedly find and back to his usual business , like tape galaxy - brain videos call his infection a“blessing from God . ”One thing that the president has said may well be true : that he recover with the aid of a still - observational monoclonal antibody cocktail produced by drugmaker Regeneron , called REGN - COV2 .
This handling was made possible in part thanks to fetal tissue paper research that happened over 40 years ago , though no actual embryonal stem cells were used in its product or development . The hypocrisy here is that the Trump administrationhalted federal foetal tissue researchin 2019 , a blast to medical science .
Some of Trump ’s critics have strike this connection a minuscule too far . Take Democratic Representative Ted Lieu , for example , who tweeted out document Regeneron has posted to its web website :
A person infected with SARS-CoV-2Photo: SAUL LOEB / AFP (Getty Images)
Regeneron , an experimental drug which@POTUStook , swear on “ human embryologic stem cells . ” I support this research . I inquire if@realDonaldTrumpand Amy Coney Barrett support this research?pic.twitter.com / NRdkl7tTrU
— Ted Lieu ( @tedlieu)October 6 , 2020
The representative ’s title spread far and wide , rack up over 28,000 retweets and over 64,000 like as of Thursday good afternoon . A hunt for “ human embryonal root word cell ” on Twitter shew that it has been anear - unceasing subject of discussionall week . One tweetmaking the claimREGN - COV2 was “ made with stem cells ” and has 81,000 retweets and over 324,000 likes , whileanother hasover 5,300 retweets and 11,800 the likes of . legion other indistinguishable claims have gone viral on Twitter , and stem turn cell claim are circulate on Facebook , too , sometimes with the implication that Trump ’s recovery hinged on some relatively recent abortion .
To be clear , Regeneron ’s antibody cocktail was n’t produced using any human embryonic stem cells , though it was test with the help of line of cells that was primitively derived from aborted fetal tissue more than 40 days ago . This particular cell line — which , again , was never actually in a foetus — is wide used in scientific research and has been culture again and again over the 10 .
Neither of the two company working to develop monoclonal antibody effective against the SARS - CoV-2 computer virus have used embryonic bow cells in the process .
PerScience Mag , Regeneron ’s monoclonal antibody antibody cocktail and another being made in collaboration between AstraZeneca and Vanderbilt University were develop via a technique that postulate harvest B prison cell from consenting adults ( or laboratory mouse ) who had recuperate from the computer virus , then identifying which create antibodies are in force against it . They then injected the gene to raise those antibody into epithelial jail cell dividing line derived from the ovary of Formosan hamster . ( “ Chinese hamster ” is the common name for the species C. griseus and does not suggest anything about where the hamsters were needfully site . ) Hamster ovary cell are utilized in a broad spectrum of aesculapian enquiry . That part of the cognitive operation does n’t involve anything relate to a human foetus .
Lieu describe the posted document as testify that “ Regeneron , the experimental drug ” rely on “ human embryonic stem cells . ” The papers he posted is actually a billet statement from Regeneron — the corporate entity , not its as - yet - unnamed drug — on the utilization of stem cells published in April 2020 , when the company was in theearly stagesof its research on covid-19 antibodies . The statement merely establishes that Regeneron conduct stem cell enquiry in general . It also state that when Regeneron conduct such enquiry , it more commonly trust on mouse or adult human stem cell than it does on embryonic prow cell make by in vitro fertilization .
That papers is n’t relate to Regeneron ’s intervention , company spokesperson Alexandra Bowie wrote via electronic mail to Gizmodo , because it does n’t utilise stem electric cell .
“ … This is our oecumenical position statement on stem cell enjoyment , ” Bowie wrote . “ This fussy discovery program ( REGN - COV2 ) did not involve human base cells or [ embryonic stem cells ] . ”
Lieu ’s office did n’t reply to a asking for gossip from Gizmodo asking what sources they had to back up the claim the antibody cocktail “ bank on ‘ human embryonic theme cells . ’ ” However , some skill - minded folks on Twitternoticedthat Regeneron ’s ownsupplementaryresearch textile referenced human embryonic cells — specifically a derivative instrument of the widely apply HEK 293 line , HEK293 T , with HEK stand up for “ human embryonic kidney”—as playing a role in production .
To a secular , the technical language used to depict the process may take as point fetal cells are an ingredient in REGN - COV2 . Back in 1972 , a squad of Nordic researchersworking with the FDAto crank out the first vaccinum for HIV originally cultivated HEK 293 from the kidneys of an aborted fetus , just like the name suggests .
This is n’t the first time that the origins of this specific cellphone line have made headlines . Back in 2011 , pro - life groupslost their shitafter discovering that a San Diego - based biotech company thathelpscreate the sapidity behind Pepsico and Kraft ’s ware was in reality using HEK to do so . As Snope’sarticleon the topic channelise out , these rumour swirled around for years , lead an integral longstanding mythos that your mac and cheese or dieting soda might hold fetal tissue . The claims , in many ways , vocalize nearly very to the current scream about REGN - COV2 .
Suffice to say , the Pepsico and Trump cocktail rumors are off base . As science writers at the timeexplained , HEK is a cellular telephone culture , meaning that it ’s the outcome of embryonic electric cell pull from a exclusive aborted foetus back in 1972 doing what those embryologic cells areparticularly adeptat doing : multiplying , and multiplyingfast . The HEK cell used by the San Diego company were direct to mimic taste receptors and quickly test unexampled flavors in a science lab setting ; they never came anywhere close to a production line . In Regeneron ’s case , the HEK 293 metric ton prison cell were used to cultivate pseudoparticles that mimic the “ spike ” protein of the coronavirus , which help the computer virus invade prison cell .
Exposing antibodies to these pseudoparticles let scientists to learn how the antibodies might respond to an actual invading coronavirus . It ’s not part of the produced drug , just like eubstance armor ( usually ) does n’t come with bullet stuck in it .
“ The 293 T cell line was originally derived from human embryonic kidney cell ( back in the eighties at Stanford University ) , but is an immortalized epithelial cell — again , not a root cubicle , ” Bowie say Gizmodo . “ These cells were transfected and used in production of a ‘ pseudoparticle ’ that mime the virus ’ spike protein and allow us to test neutralization ability of our antibody against the computer virus . ”
“ The HEK293 cell lines are coarse research tool used to express many kinds of protein , as brieflydescribed here , ” Antibody Society executive director Janice M. Reichert , an expert on antibody therapeutics , wrote to Gizmodo . “ By now , there arenumerous derivativesof the original cell air . HEK293 cell lines are typically buy ( e.g. , from ATCC ) by research lab , not generated de novo using the method acting described in the original paper . ”
In any case , HEK 293 has been culture so many clock time over multiple decades that its stemma scantily weigh — unless , of course , you are vehemently opposed to any kind of fetal tissue paper research . Its versatility has made this line of reasoning a staple fibre of aesculapian science . HEK 293 T has itself been further modify and cultivated . Neither is a line of stem cells , which are undifferentiated or part secernate cellular telephone with the power to develop into specialised cell . The note is of import , as the power of pluripotent stem cells to separate into somewhat much anything offers Bob Hope for novel treatments for everything from physical trauma to genetical and/or degenerative shape .
As Snopes put it in its Pepsico debunker :
Saying that possessing a digitized image of a photocopy of a characterization of a Beethoven holograph is the same as “ owning a document in Beethoven ’s own handwriting ” — the original is not present in means , only in a multi - generational , representational form .
The underlying literary criticism of Trump — that he is the donee of enquiry he opposes — is middling . In June 2019 , the Trump administration moved to reduce offfederally funded researchat the National Institutes of Health utilizing fetal cubicle tissue compile after an elective abortion . It also push scientist receiving grants from the NIH to go through a more exhaustive review outgrowth , include a “ Human Fetal Tissue Ethics Advisory Board ” stocked with opponents of foetal tissue paper research . An investigation by Democrats in Congress later line up , unsurprisingly , that the White House ’s conclusion wasmotivated almost entirelyby political concerns and impeded critical aesculapian inquiry , including coronavirus treatments .
COVID-19Donald TrumpMedicineScience
Daily Newsletter
Get the best tech , science , and culture tidings in your inbox day by day .
newsworthiness from the time to come , delivered to your present .
You May Also Like
