Researchers have found that bacteria can be used to turn plastic waste into painkillers, opening ty le keo 7m possibility of more sustainable drug production.
According to ty le keo 7m Guardian, chemists at ty le keo 7m University of Edinburgh found that E. coli can help make paracetamol (also known as acetaminophen) from plastic bottles. “ty le keo 7m technology reveals ty le keo 7m potential to combine chemistry and biology, enabling more sustainable paracetamol production while cleaning plastic waste from ty le keo 7m environment,” said Stephen Wallace, lead author of ty le keo 7m study from ty le keo 7m University of Edinburgh.
In a paper published last week in ty le keo 7m journal Nature Chemistry, Wallace and colleagues describe how they detected a type of chemical reaction called Lossen rearrangements, which is biocompatible. In other words, it is possible to carry out a reaction when there are living cells present without harming them.
ty le keo 7m team realized this when they took polyethylene terephthalate (PET), a plastic commonly found in food packaging and bottles, and then used sustainable chemistry, transforming it into a new material. When ty le keo 7m researchers annealed ty le keo 7m material with a harmless strain of E. coli, they found it transformed into another compound called Paba during ty le keo 7m process involved in ty le keo 7m Lossen rearrangements.
While ty le keo 7m Lossen rearrangement reaction usually requires strict experimental conditions, it occurs immediately in ty le keo 7m presence of E. coli, which is catalyzed by phosphate in ty le keo 7m cells themselves. According to ty le keo 7m team, Paba is ty le keo 7m essential compound that bacteria need to grow, especially DNA synthesis, which is often produced in cells from other compounds. However, E. coli used in ty le keo 7m experiment has been genetically modified to block this pathway, meaning ty le keo 7m bacteria must use PET material.
Next, ty le keo 7m researchers modified ty le keo 7m E. coli gene further, inserting two genes taken from fungi and soil bacteria, which helped ty le keo 7m bacteria modify PABA into paracetamol. When using E coli in this way, they can turn ty le keo 7m original PET-based material into paracetamol in less than 24 hours, with low gas emissions and up to 92% efficiency. Although more research is needed to produce paracetamol using ty le keo 7m above method on a commercial scale, ty le keo 7m results can be applied in practice.
Sources: ty le keo 7m Guardian
