The cost of using genetically modified yeast to make painkillers in the United States is expected to be reduced by 10 times.
Release time：2015-08-26
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Yeast can be used not only to make steamed bread, but also to make painkillers. Recently, a study published in "Science" introduced a method of using genetically modified yeast to produce morphine-based painkillers. The researchers said that the method can not only shorten the production cycle of drugs from a year to a few days, but also reduce the cost to one tenth of the traditional method. When the technology matures in the future, it is expected to greatly reduce the retail price of related drugs.
The production of painkillers often takes a lengthy process: the poppy is first grown by licensed farmers and then sent to a pharmaceutical company when the poppy is ripe, where the drug molecules of the opioid are extracted and mixed with other ingredients to make the drug. This process often takes about a year. Because plants are easily affected by weather, pests and other factors, traditional production methods often have many uncontrollable factors.
Christina Smerk, a bioengineer at Stanford University in the United States, and her research team believe that genetically modified yeast may replace this process. In the new study, they reprogrammed the genetic machinery of baker's yeast to convert sugar into hydrocodone, a close relative of morphine. This substance has a variety of activities similar to the properties of codeine (also known as methylmorphine) and can be used for pain and analgesia. In addition, this method can also be used to make drugs to treat cancer, infectious diseases, high blood pressure and arthritis. The new method also provides greater flexibility for manufacturers to use different compounds to make drugs.
The researchers believe that with further research, the cost of using this genetically modified yeast to produce painkillers can be reduced to one-tenth of the traditional method.
This is going to be an important thing because the people who take these drugs make up a large percentage of the global population. WHO estimates that more than 5 billion people worldwide have little or no access to the painkillers they need. The researchers hope that the new method will significantly reduce the price of these drugs, so that more patients can get the drugs they need at a lower price.
However, Smerk also admits that the new technology is not perfect for the time being: it currently takes 20000 liters of engineered yeast to produce a dose of painkiller. In the next step, researchers need to increase the efficiency of each cell's use of enzymes, optimize the number of drugs produced by yeast, and improve the efficiency of engineered yeast. Smerk believes that a well-funded company can solve these problems in 5 to 6 years.
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