An affordable treatment for malaria is closer thanks to a process
using both biology and chemistry to make artemisinin – an effective drug
currently extracted from plants.
The method bypasses plants as the source of the drug. Instead, modified yeast change sugar into an advanced chemical that can be converted into artemisinin. Skirting plants decreases the cost, increases supply and avoids chemical extractions. A team of industrial and academic researchers in Berkeley, Calif., developed the biochemical route to the drug.
The process provides an alternative to traditional extractive procedures and highlights the increasing use of biotechnology in greener drug manufacturing.
Globally, the mosquito-borne infectious disease claims nearly 1 million lives per year. Health organizations estimate that 300 - 500 million people are infected on an annual basis, a population based primarily of children in Africa and Asia.
New medicines are needed because the current drugs do not work as well as they once did and controlling mosquitoes with insecticides – such as DDT – can harm the environment and human health.
Read more: http://www.environmentalhealthnews.org/ehs/newscience/2012/04/2012-0531-making-natural-malaria-drug/
The method bypasses plants as the source of the drug. Instead, modified yeast change sugar into an advanced chemical that can be converted into artemisinin. Skirting plants decreases the cost, increases supply and avoids chemical extractions. A team of industrial and academic researchers in Berkeley, Calif., developed the biochemical route to the drug.
The process provides an alternative to traditional extractive procedures and highlights the increasing use of biotechnology in greener drug manufacturing.
Globally, the mosquito-borne infectious disease claims nearly 1 million lives per year. Health organizations estimate that 300 - 500 million people are infected on an annual basis, a population based primarily of children in Africa and Asia.
New medicines are needed because the current drugs do not work as well as they once did and controlling mosquitoes with insecticides – such as DDT – can harm the environment and human health.
Read more: http://www.environmentalhealthnews.org/ehs/newscience/2012/04/2012-0531-making-natural-malaria-drug/
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