Researchers have found that bacteria can be used to turn plastic waste into painkillers, opening keo ty le bong da hom nay possibility of more sustainable drug production.
According to keo ty le bong da hom nay Guardian, chemists at keo ty le bong da hom nay University of Edinburgh found that E. coli can help make paracetamol (also known as acetaminophen) from plastic bottles. “keo ty le bong da hom nay technology reveals keo ty le bong da hom nay potential to combine chemistry and biology, enabling more sustainable paracetamol production while cleaning plastic waste from keo ty le bong da hom nay environment,” said Stephen Wallace, lead author of keo ty le bong da hom nay study from keo ty le bong da hom nay University of Edinburgh.
In a paper published last week in keo ty le bong da hom nay 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.
keo ty le bong da hom nay 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 keo ty le bong da hom nay researchers annealed keo ty le bong da hom nay material with a harmless strain of E. coli, they found it transformed into another compound called Paba during keo ty le bong da hom nay process involved in keo ty le bong da hom nay Lossen rearrangements.
While keo ty le bong da hom nay Lossen rearrangement reaction usually requires strict experimental conditions, it occurs immediately in keo ty le bong da hom nay presence of E. coli, which is catalyzed by phosphate in keo ty le bong da hom nay cells themselves. According to keo ty le bong da hom nay team, Paba is keo ty le bong da hom nay essential compound that bacteria need to grow, especially DNA synthesis, which is often produced in cells from other compounds. However, E. coli used in keo ty le bong da hom nay experiment has been genetically modified to block this pathway, meaning keo ty le bong da hom nay bacteria must use PET material.
Next, keo ty le bong da hom nay researchers modified keo ty le bong da hom nay E. coli gene further, inserting two genes taken from fungi and soil bacteria, which helped keo ty le bong da hom nay bacteria modify PABA into paracetamol. When using E coli in this way, they can turn keo ty le bong da hom nay 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 keo ty le bong da hom nay above method on a commercial scale, keo ty le bong da hom nay results can be applied in practice.
Sources: keo ty le bong da hom nay Guardian
