Scientists decode how a rare tree makes its cancer drug
Tian R, Lin F, Guo N, Liu C, Chen K
Medicinal Plants
The plant behind this discovery, Cephalotaxus, is endangered in the wild, so figuring out its chemistry could mean lab-grown versions of a leukemia medicine instead of stripping more trees from shrinking forests.
There's a slow-growing, endangered tree called Cephalotaxus that makes a rare compound doctors use to treat leukemia, but nobody could grow enough of it because the trees are so scarce. Researchers spent years tracing every chemical step the tree uses to build this compound, right down to two nearly identical enzymes that somehow make two completely different molecules. Now that they've found the missing pieces, they got a tobacco relative plant to produce the same chemicals, which could eventually mean making the drug without cutting down more of these rare trees.
Key Findings
Researchers identified the previously unknown enzymes completing the biosynthetic pathways for cephalotaxinone and homoerythratine alkaloids
Two highly similar cytochrome P450 enzymes (CfCYP2 and CfCYP3) were found to catalyze divergent oxidation reactions, producing two structurally distinct compounds
The team reconstituted the full biosynthetic pathway in Nicotiana benthamiana (a tobacco relative), demonstrating a route to producing these alkaloids outside the endangered source plant
chevron_right Technical Summary
Scientists have fully mapped the biological assembly line that a rare tree uses to make homoharringtonine, a leukemia drug, potentially opening the door to producing this scarce medicine without harvesting endangered plants.
Abstract Preview
Original paper
Complete biosynthesis of the anticancer cephalotaxinone and homoerythratine.
Cephalotaxine-type and homoerythrina-type alkaloids are structurally unique and biologically important natural products isolated from endangered species that belong to the genus Cephalotaxus. Among...
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Cephalotaxus, commonly called plum-yew or cowtail-pine, is a genus of conifers comprising 11 species, either considered the only member of the family Cephalotaxaceae, or in the Taxaceae when that family is considered in a broad sense. The genus is endemic to eastern Asia, though fossil evidence s...