U.S. scientists use enzymes to synthesize natural drugs in lab

U.Sscientists have announced for the first time that they have successfully simulated the process of mixing different enzymes in cells to produce complex chemicals, using enzymes to produce natural drugsThe team, led by Bradley Moore of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego, mixed different enzyme catalysts in flasks and synthesized a natural antibiotic drug, enteromyin, in just two hours using bacteria from Hawaiian seabed sediments, where only complex mechanisms in cells previously allowed the enzymes to mix to produce drugs with complex chemical structures, such as penicillinSimilar studies
at Harvard Medical School, both of which were published in the September issue of the British journal Nature Chemical Biology, mark the beginning of a new era of drug synthesis, according to Moore, a professor of marine biology and biomedical biology at Harvard Medical SchoolThe results show that the synthesis method is relatively inexpensive and reduces the use of artificial chemical
drugs, and can produce green drugs, although much more needs to be done to achieve mass productionScientists believe that in the future, it may be possible to use specific natural enzymes to produce molecules that do not exist in nature and invent new drugs"The Moore team took the biosynthesis pathway to a new level," said Robert of the University of Minnesota"
most of the drugs on the market today are syntheticAs drug-resistantdiseasesand available resources are decreasing, researchers such as Moore are looking for new discoveries in the rich oceansThe ocean, which accounts for 70 percent of the Earth's surface, is by far the largest habitat for life, with twice as many organic species as on land, and scientists hope to extract effective drugs from marine life to treat cancer and other problems