A recent study conducted by scientists at Stanford University has found a novel method for creating a common cancer drug, typically only available in a rare, endangered plant, from a common laboratory plant, according to Science Daily. The potent chemotherapy drug was obtained by using genetic engineering on the common plant to harvest the chemical. The Himalayan mayapple (Podophyllum hexandrum) is a common laboratory plant that was used by the scientists to create a precursor to etoposide, a common cancer-fighting drug, according to Phys.org.
"People have been grinding up plants to find new chemicals and testing their activity for a really long time," said Elizabeth Sattely, assistant professor of chemical engineering at Stanford. "What was striking to us is that with a lot of the plant natural products currently used as drugs, we have to grow the plant, then isolate the compound, and that's what goes into humans."
The finding will likely give pharmaceutical companies an abundant supply of the cancer-fighting drug and pave the way for further research that can improve its effectiveness, according to Science Now.
"A big promise of synthetic biology is to be able to engineer pathways that occur in nature, but if we don't know what the proteins are, then we can't even start on that endeavor," said Sattely. "My interests are really identifying new molecules and pathways from plants that are important for human health."
