The same process could be employed for manufacturing other plant-based medicine, such as that involved in cancer treatment or chronic illnesses.
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It can take a year or more to produce a such kind of medicine, emanating from the farms in Australia, Europe that are licensed to grow opium poppies. The plants are shipped to pharmaceutical factories where their drug molecules are infused into drugs. “We can build and engineer strains much faster than we used to be able to, so I would throw a caution out there to not underestimate how fast this can move forward”.
Scientists have genetically modified yeast cells to make them churn out painkillers that are normally harvested from opium poppies.
Although many modern drugs are made by growing genetically-modified yeast or other microbes in giant fermenters, opiates are a notable exception because of the difficulty of mimicking the elaborate synthetic pathways used by poppy plants in their natural production.
Before that moment, artemisinin was grown in sweet wormwood shrubs, which took more time and money than artificially producing it in a laboratory. Yeast has been effective at producing precursors to other medications including artemisinin, the world’s standard for treating malaria.
“And there’s no reason to think this should stop with pain medication”, Smolke said.
Smolke said that it had to have been “the most complicated chemical synthesis ever engineered in yeast”.
Smolke’s team inserted DNA into the yeast that encodes instructions for the cells to make the enzymes necessary to perform the sugar conversion steps. “They’re the action heroes of biology”, says study co-author Stephanie Galanie.
The study proves opioid painkillers can be produced with bioengineered yeast from scratch. ‘There are a lot of challenges associated with getting the enzymes to be functional – getting them properly folded and processed and localised, ‘ says Smolke.
The thebaine can be changed into oxycodone, the pain reliever in OxyContin and hydrocodone is a pain reliever often paired with acetaminophen in pills like Vicodin.
The new route should also give manufacturers more flexibility to make different drug compounds.
“We can leverage the technology to go after a broad array of medicines, which are developed responsibly and distributed fairly”.
“Biotech production could lower costs and, with proper controls against abuse, allow bioreactors to be located where they are needed”, she said.
After biochemical engineer Christian Smolke and her team successfully made two opioid compounds, thebaine and hydrocodone, using sugar and engineered yeast, they tested to see if the same feat could be done under home brew conditions. Extraction of the molecules from the poppies is also very time-consuming.
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Still, she said she agreed with scientists who’ve said they want to work together with regulators and law enforcement agencies to make a plan to deal with this emerging technology so that its benefits won’t be outweighed by potential abuses.
