A recent study conducted by chemists from the University of New Brunswick may transform the process of drug manufacturing. Collaborating with researchers from Zhejiang and Westlake universities in China, the UNB team uncovered the mechanism through which certain plants produce cancer-fighting drugs.
The breakthrough revelation led by Yang Qu, an associate professor of chemistry at UNB, indicates a potential for expedited lab production of these drugs. Qu highlighted a significant enhancement in efficiency, enabling the production of the drug at nearly 1,000 times the previously reported levels. The findings of this research have been published in the latest edition of the academic journal Science.
The drug under investigation, vinblastine, is utilized in treating various types of cancer such as bladder, brain, and testicular cancer. However, the manufacturing process of vinblastine is notoriously challenging as it is only naturally synthesized by the Madagascar periwinkle plant. Despite being the sole source of the drug, the plant’s production yield is limited, requiring 100 kilograms of dry plant material to yield just one gram of vinblastine, making it highly inefficient.
Moreover, vinblastine’s complexity adds to the difficulty and costliness of chemical synthesis. By unraveling the plant’s production process, the researchers identified the role of a unique “scaffold protein” employed by the Madagascar periwinkle in drug synthesis. Unlike conventional enzyme-driven reactions in plants, the scaffold protein facilitates the assembly of drug components akin to scaffolds at a construction site, enhancing efficiency and speed of production.
The discovery opens avenues for integrating the scaffold protein into the plant’s microbial system, thereby streamlining the drug production process. While the medical breakthrough has not yet translated into immediate production acceleration, it signifies a significant step towards industrial drug synthesis becoming a tangible reality. Qu expressed optimism about the practical applications of this research in the foreseeable future, bringing the industrial-scale production of the drug within closer reach.
