PROVO — A group of Brigham Young University chemists has developed a cheaper, more efficient way of producing a synthetic molecule that is widely used in modern prescription drugs.
The team was led by BYU chemistry professor Merritt Andrus, who worked with graduate student Erik Hicken and undergraduate students Jeff Stevens and Karl Bedke.
Their discovery could have broad implications in the discovery, production, and possibly the cost of many forthcoming drugs.
Many next-generation prescription drugs, currently in the trial phase of development, rely on chiral molecules, which allow a drug to specifically target infected protein chains in the body and directly treat them.
"In order to intervene and treat a virus, you need to identify a specific protein that is not functioning properly and bind selectively to it," Andrus said. "Chiral molecules are being used more and more, because those protein targets (in the body) are also chiral."
Chiral molecules are asymmetrical and can occur in a "left-handed" or "right-handed" form, depending on which side of the molecule is open for binding to another molecule.
For medicinal purposes, only the left-handed type is useful. Under previous methods of producing chiral molecules, however, both types were produced in equal amounts and half of every batch of chiral molecules went to waste.
But the new process discovered by the BYU team uses an inexpensive protein found in plants, quinine, as a catalyst to force the chiral molecules to all form with the same orientation. Quinine itself is a protein molecule that is always "one-handed."
"Our method improves the efficiency of making this product," Andrus said. "Pharmaceutical companies can more easily make chiral molecules in this class now . . . to discover new drugs, screen new drugs, and also in production."
Andrus said he doesn't know what impact the new process would have on prescription drug prices but said it could potentially drive costs down.
"We didn't do a cost analysis, but this way is more efficient," he said. "There's fewer steps, and you don't waste half the product."
The results of the BYU experiment, which was conducted on a specific type of type 2 diabetes drug that will soon be on the market, appear in the latest issue of the Journal of Organic Chemistry.
The team is already working to expand the applications to other types of diabetes drugs.
"We're working on an improved method; applying this process to other drugs with similar specific needs," said Erik Hicken, a graduate student who worked closely with Andrus on the project. "There are three or four other diabetes drugs in trials with similar needs."
But Andrus said the project won't stop there.
"The method applies specifically to this class of drug, but is broad enough to have a range of applications," he said.
The team is already working on an anti-cancer compound, and hopes to develop anti-inflammatory drugs at some point in the future.
The new discovery is already garnering attention and praise from the scientific community across the nation.
Martin J. O'Donnell, a chemistry and chemical biology professor at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis who pioneered the use of quinine, told BYU he was impressed by the finding.
"Professor Andrus and his research group's novel chemistry represents a highly significant scientific contribution," he said.
But even with all the possibilities he's uncovered and the praise he's receiving, Andrus said the most rewarding part has been helping students.
Hicken will be off to Harvard in January, to study with E.J. Corey, a Nobel Prize-winning organic chemist.
"It's the most rewarding thing as a professor to see those you've worked with succeed," Andrus said. "That's your greatest, most lasting contribution."
Hicken said he was just thankful to be a part of the project, and praised Andrus for his patience and knowledge of organic chemistry.
"It was a great opportunity and a learning tool," Hicken said. "It was a learning experience that will have direct applications in future projects."
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