Although it ’s mostly harmless , some strains of the bacteriumE. colican make fairly dangerous health problems , like infections orfood poisoning . A squad of Nipponese bioengineers has now genetically engineered this common gut microbe in orderliness for it to take on a very different theatrical role : producing painkiller precursors chemically related to morphine , as report in a new study inNature Communications .
Morphine is an opiate , sourced fromraw opiumfrom the seed of the opium poppy . In what is typically a long , drawn out process , the poppies are grown by licenced farmers , which are then embark to pharmaceutic companies for pull out a significant quantity of drug molecules . A undivided mint of morphia - based painkillers can take a twelvemonth to make .
scientist have been explore choice , truehearted morphine product methods for some time now , and a 2015 report revealed howgenetically modify yeast cellsare able-bodied to develop certain opiates . This physical process could n’t create morphine , but it could get compound that are part of the chemic family that morphine belong to .
This new work let out a way to makeE. coliproducethebaine , another chemical compound relate to morphine , but significantly one that is generated just prior to morphia in the traditional process . Thebaine , along with morphine and codeine , is one of thethree principle painkillersderived from opium .
E. coli ’s vim - producing ( metabolic ) process are not onlyhighly efficient , but the biochemical reaction necessitate pretty resemble some of the steps used in the traditional process to grow opiate . This research team therefore wondered whether it could be put to use commute nothing more than sugar into the sought - after pain pill .
Poppy seeds – the traditional source of chemicals require to make opiate pain pill . Linda Vostrovska / Shutterstock
factor from opium poppy were spliced intoE. coli , along with several genes from other bacteria . The combination of these additional genes modifiedE. coli ’s metabolic processes in such a way that thebaine could be produced .
“ Morphine has a complex molecular structure ; because of this , the product of morphia and similar painkillers is expensive and fourth dimension - consuming , ” said study co - author Fumihiko Sato , a bioengineer at Kyoto University , in astatement . “ But with ourE. coli , we were able to give way 2.1 milligrams of thebaine in a matter of day from around 20 grams of kale . ”
This new appendage is so efficient that it produces300 times more thebainethan using the equivalent amount of barm . If this process is fine-tune further so as to raise morphine itself , it could overturn the pharmaceutical market .
The yeast - based method actually come in for someethical criticismwhen it was publish , with some saying that such desktop methods could result inunregulated opiate production . Although barm is indeed promptly available , four separateE. colistrains are required for this raw method to work – tense that most citizenry wo n’t be able to get their hands on without considerable trouble .
