Lies of The Planet of The Apes?

To date, chimp uprisings have been few, far between and - if one believes UK adverts from the 1970s​ - limited to the odd unruly tea party and damaged piano.

But before filing “Rise​…” in the entertaining-hokum drawer and settling in to await the inevitable sequel, I decided to take a closer look at the science of the film and particularly its use of viral vectors.

In the movie the fictitious biopharma firm Gen-Sys is developing a ‘viral-based drug’ called ALZ-112 as a cure for Alzheimer’s disease. In the original version of the script the drug was called ADV-112 or adenovirus-112​ in a clear reference to real-world gene therapy delivery vectors.

There’s not much more info provided about ALZ-112 other than that the next generation version of the drug – ALZ 113, obviously – is delivered as a gas, which is not well tolerated by humans. Think pandemic influenza but more so.

To an ex virologist – I have a BSc in the subject from Warwick University in case you’re interested – this all sounded a bit thin.

But as I've been out of the virology game for a while I thought I’d better get a second opinion from a bona fide​ virus researcher and asked adenovirus expert Dr Roger Grand of the University of Birmingham in the UK for his view.

Doesn't deliver​

And his verdict on the film’s ‘science’ ? "Not good​."

“As you know adenoviruses are used in gene therapy. An initial point would be that I doubt it is applicable to Alzheimer’s disease for a couple of reasons. It is really only useful delivering a single, preferably smallish gene and there is no indication as far as I know that Alzheimer’s has been attributed to loss of a single gene.​

“Also,​” Dr Grand continued, “as the virus probably won’t cross the blood/brain barrier it would have to be injected-for this you would need to know specific small locations that have been affected by Alzhiemer’s disease​.”

Chatty chimps?​

The other key point about ALZ-112 is that it boosts chimp intellect to the point where our hairy hero - a chimp called Caesar - starts talking. Claiming viruses can do this is also something of a scientific stretch according to Dr Grand.

“Undoubtedly viruses can cause changes in personality and possibly IQ as a result of infection but the whole area of intelligence is so complex and a virus is so like a sledge hammer, although a very clever one for its own ends, I can’t imagine that you could use one to improve the other if you see what I mean.​

He was similarly skeptical about the possibility of delivering adenoviruses via inhalation, describing the approach as inefficient and suggesting that ALZ-112 would “be much more likely to have an effect if it were injected.”​

Pan-demonium?​

The film also hints that the next generation inhalable version of the drug is really rather bad for people with the implication being that it is responsible for the pandemic that allows the apes to gain the upper hand in the original film series.

And here too the writers are wide of the mark according to Dr Grand, who said: “There have been a very small number of patient deaths following adenovirus-based gene therapy. However, these have been attributed to extremely high virus doses.​

“With regard to ALZ-113, for it to be very toxic the gene delivered would itself have to be deadly-presumably having an antagonistic effect on the host immune system. In reality adenoviruses are not normally given systemically because of the very large doses required and to avoid a host immune system response but injected into the tissue/organ where they are needed​.”

Verdict​

So there you have it. Continued development of biopharmaceuticals does not increase the likelihood that the apes will take over, adenovirus vectors probably are not the best option for Alzheimer’s disease treatments and delivering such viruses in a gaseous form is inefficient.

I would like to thank Dr Grand for taking time out to contribute to this hopefully entertaining post.

Also - just FYI - the sequel "Dawn of the Planet of the Apes"​ is scheduled for general release in July 2014.