date of publication :
Tuesday
12:00 2015-9-15
Researchers said they identified the genes that enable a plant growing in the Himalayas to produce a chemical widely used in the manufacture of a chemotherapy drug, then inserted these genes into a plant that is easy to grow in the laboratory to make the chemical.
The endangered plant, called Indian apple and from the Solanaceae family, produces a precursor chemical used in the oncology chemotherapy drug etoposide, which is used by many patients with lung, testicular, brain, lymphatic, leukemia and other types of cancer.
Using genetic engineering techniques, the researchers cultivated a plant (Nicotiana benthamiana) – a wild relative of the tobacco plant – that was used to produce the required chemical.
“Many plant-derived drugs are not found in large quantities in nature and are difficult to grow in laboratories,” said Elizabeth Sutley, a Stanford University professor of chemical engineering, who led the study published in the journal Science.
She added: “Imitating the way nature resorts to producing these molecules is one of the promising alternatives, but to complete this, we must monitor the genes. This is a big challenge because plant genes can be very bulky, making it difficult to access genes.”
The researchers said they discovered 6 genes in the Indian apple plant, which, if combined with 4 previously known genes, can produce the chemical used in chemotherapy. (agencies)