It’s also an experiment that has many wondering if an opioid-brewery could get into the wrong hands and only further fuel the illegal drug trade. But the team behind the work believe that the yeast can be substantially improved, and could help to drive down the cost of producing painkillers and develop new opioids.
Advertisement
Scientists have successfully genetically engineered yeast to make opiate painkillers.
Advocates of the rapidly advancing field of bioengineering say it promises to make the creation of important chemicals – in this case painkillers and cough suppressants – cheaper and more predictable than using poppies.
An important predecessor to this work has been the use of genetically-engineered yeast to produce the anti-malarial drug artemisinin.
Stanford scientists have discovered a new and faster method of turning bioengineered baker’s yeast into opioids.
Now, by hacking 23 genes from plants, bacteria and even rats into yeast, Smolke’s lab has worked out how to make microbes manufacture thebaine outright, in addition to the painkiller hydrocodone.
Research head Christina Smolke explained that some DNA materials were injected into the yeast, which is basically “ordered” to produce sugar that will be converted to hydrocodone.
Smolke admits that such a possibility does exist which is why she claims that unlike poppies, the yeast can be modified further to suit human needs and tolerance.
“The question is, can a microbial-based supply chain be responsibly developed and implemented in a way where it reduces the potential of abuse of these compounds and the supply chain?”
“This represents an elegant confirmation that it is feasible to engineer a pathway for production of morphinans such as thebaine into yeast”, Ian Graham of the University of York, who published an unrelated study that identified the gene used by poppies to create precursors to pain medication, told The Post.
It can take more than a year to produce a batch of medicine starting from the farms in Australia, Europe and elsewhere which are licensed to grow opium poppies.
“This is a major milestone”, says Jens Nielsen, a synthetic biologist at Chalmers University of Technology in Göteborg, Sweden.
One concern of the researchers is that the opioid painkillers are not abused.
However, Dr. Smolke said in another article by the NY Times that the new technology is still unrefined and that it would take more than 4,000 gallons of yeast to produce a decent amount of hydrocodone in one Vicodin tablet. Adding to this very is this only approved farmsteads may get bigger opioid poppy, because it can be used in the banned development of narcotics.
Thebaine itself is poisonous, he noted.
This same type of approach potentially also could be used to make other now plant-based medicines for fighting cancer, infectious diseases and chronic illnesses.
Advertisement
That suggests any method of speeding up the process could be valuable, the researchers say, although the challenges are considerable. But Martin disagrees. “Poppy fields are not readily available to someone in Chicago, whereas yeast can be made available to anyone”. Smolke said in an interview for an article earlier this year about homemade opioids.
