Chinese scientists hope to turn yeast cells into cancer drug factories
- Researchers say they will be able to synthesise vinblastine in a lab, paving the way for a cheaper version of the potent treatment
- The alkaloid is derived from a medicinal plant but is costly to produce because of its lack of abundance and structural complexity
Vinblastine is regarded as one of the most potent treatments for several cancers including Hodgkin’s lymphoma, non-small cell lung cancer and melanoma, as well as bladder, brain and testicular cancers.
It is one of 120 alkaloids found in the medicinal plant Catharanthus roseus, commonly known as the Madagascar periwinkle. But natural production is limited by vinblastine’s low abundance – with more than 2,000kg (nearly 2 tonnes) of dry leaves needed to extract 1 gram of vinblastine.
Chemical synthesis of vinblastine has been hindered by its structural complexity but that could be about to change, thanks to a team led by Lian Jiazhang, a professor with Zhejiang University’s college of chemical and biological engineering.
In a paper published in the January issue of peer-reviewed journal Nature Synthesis, the scientists said they had engineered a synthetic version of catharanthine – another of the alkaloids present in the periwinkle’s leaves – to serve as a precursor to synthesised vinblastine.
Pichia pastoris was chosen as the perfect factory for the team’s research. The yeast is commonly used in biochemical research because of its ability to efficiently express foreign proteins, which can account for 30 per cent of the protein in each cell.
By introducing all of the related genes from the plant to the yeast cell’s genome, the scientists were able to reconstruct catharanthine’s complex biosynthetic pathway from simple carbon sources.