Microbes produce medicines

2001/03/02 Galarraga Aiestaran, Ana - Elhuyar Zientzia

• Mikrobiologia
• Farmakologia

Escherichia coli is a well-known bacterium for the laboratory. According to a paper published in the journal Science, researchers at the University of Stranford have managed to produce several pioneering polychaetes of important drugs. With this, the production of medicines is facilitated and it is achieved that they are cheaper.

Many of the commonly used drugs are made from these raw materials, such as erythromycin antibiotic, immunosuppressor FK506 and lobastatin that lowers cholesterol levels. Its economic importance is enormous, as they move a lot of money in the pharmaceutical industry. Being hardly synthesized, it is necessary to resort to natural sources. They are obtained from bacteria and special fungi whose growth is long and fragile, so the production is expensive. In addition, they do not manage to genetically alter the enzymes produced by polykinetics.

The bacterium E. coli, on the other hand, grows easily, but the researchers have had to overcome many difficulties to produce polychaetes. Initially, three genes from the bacterium Saccharopolyspora erythrea were introduced, coding the enzyme called polyquetide synthase. For its part, the polychloride synthase produces a certain polychloride, but for this purpose it needs a cofactor (phosphopanteteine). That's why he was introduced to another gene from Bacillus subtilis, which encodes the enzyme that gives phosphopanteteine. In addition, E. coli was modified on two metabolic pathways for researchers to obtain chemical raw materials for the production of polychetics.

Thus, E. coli can produce as many polychets as S. erythrea. In addition, if a component of S. erythraea polyquetide synthase is replaced by an enzyme that is used to make another drug, a hybrid enzyme is obtained that produces a polycyte not present in nature. According to the researchers, that is a real revolution.

However, they still do not know if the polychaetes produced by E. coli will be able to produce at the industrial level, but the advance has been really important.