A transgenic plant manages to form new chemical compounds

2009/04/01 Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Genetika
• Medikuntza

Genetically changing a plant, chemicals from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have created completely new chemical compounds. Some of these compounds may serve as anti-cancer drugs and other diseases.

The complex metabolic mechanism of the countless herb of Madagascar has been manipulated to obtain new compounds. This plant produces many alkaloid compounds of pharmacological interest in itself, but most are too toxic for human use. Alkaloids are synthesized chemical compounds with psychoactive effect that are used to treat pain in medicine.

To reduce toxicity and increase drug efficacy, Sarah O'Connor and her colleagues at MIT have transformed a plant enzyme. As a result, the plant has generated chemical compounds that it could never have formed.

Genetic engineering is not new, but creating new products to plants by manipulating their own metabolic mechanisms. In the future, researchers are considering creating new compounds in the same way, hoping to create new and more efficient medicines.