MSU Drug Innovation Boosts Green Production, Grows Wider Market

Research by Michigan State University (MSU) chemist Kevin Walker is paving the way for a cleaner, more efficient production of cancer-fighting paclitaxe—better known as Taxol.

Taxol “is definitely a front-line drug and is used to treat many cancers,” including those of the breast, lung, head and neck, says Barbara Conley, chief of the MSU Department of Medicine’s hematology and oncology division. But potential new uses of the drug for conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease and tuberculosis are expected to help boost the world market for paclitaxel by 10 percent by 2012, according to Global Industry Analysts, Inc.

Walker’s team’s research was funded by the Michigan Agricultural Experiment Station (MAES).

“The science and technology of plants and natural systems is becoming increasingly relevant in human medicine as scientists look for greater efficiencies and ‘greener’ ways of manufacturing drugs and other health care products,” said MAES director Steve Pueppke.

Paclitaxel has been around since 1967 when it was first isolated from the bark of the Pacific yew. It has since been made synthetically. But Walker’s method employs natural enzymes instead.

"Pharmaceutical companies could reduce the steps involved in making Taxol while cutting chemical byproducts," Walker says.

Walker notes that “a plant enzyme can do in one step what traditional synthetic construction does in multiples steps. Under our process, the construction of Taxol uses a biological assembly line where each enzyme does its job to create the final product. Particular enzymes on the assembly line can attach slightly different components on the molecular frame to create new-generation Taxol molecules. This can lead to more effective drug variants and eventually better health care treatment.”

Source: MSU

Gretchen Cochran, Innovation & Jobs editor, may be reached here.