Etoposide is one of the most potent cancer drugs it can significantly decrease the blood cells produced by the bone marrow. But the benefits outweigh the risks as it is helping patients diagnosed with stomach, lung, and testicular cancer, as well as non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.
It also comes from a plant.
Many people don't know that a number of drugs used for cancer therapies are derived from plants. The problem is some of the sources are unstable as the plants themselves are rare or difficult to grow.
However, a team from Stanford University is able to replicate the same defense mechanism of these original plants outside of them--that is, in a common lab plant.
Elizabeth Sattely, who works as a chemical engineering assistant professor in the university, and Warren Lau, a graduate student, worked with an endangered plant known as the Himalayan mayapple, which grew in certain parts of China, Bhutan, Afghanistan, and northern India. Due to overexploitation, plant growth has become unstable over the years.
The team discovered that the plant can produce its own defense through a protein series. If these proteins are synthesized, the plant can then produce epotoside.
For the study, the team began by identifying how the plant developed its own defense mechanism, specifically the kinds of proteins that led to such pathway. According to her, identifying the proteins is an essential step in synthetic biology.
Based on their analysis, 10 of the 31 discovered proteins could replicate the same "assembly line." The genes that made up these proteins were then introduced to a common lab plant, which recreated the assembly line.
The next step is to place the same protein in yeast, which is more flexible than plants since its genes are much easier to control and modify. The team also believes that the same technique can be applied to other plants.
In the end, drug creators and researchers would have stable means of producing and enhancing medications and therapies.
The study is now available in Science.
