Chinese scientists master the core technology of anticholinergic drug biomanufacturing

On the 2nd, the reporter learned from Southwest University that Chinese scientists have recently made new progress in the field of synthetic biology of the essential anticholinergic drug hyoscyamine.

According to Liao Zhihua, the corresponding author of the paper and a professor at the School of Life Sciences of Southwest University, Solanaceae medicinal plants are the only source of commercial production of hyoscyamine.

After a long study, Liao Zhihua joint team of Chinese Ke Xueyuan KIB Huang Sheng-hsiung team found hyoscyamine dehydrogenase, the enzyme can utilize synthetic substrates hyoscyamine; dehydrogenase synthesis of hyoscyamine hyoscyamine catalytic mechanisms conducted in-depth research; and Further use of scopolamine dehydrogenase greatly increases the output of scopolamine in the medicinal materials, thereby effectively reducing the production cost of scopolamine.

It is understood that Stanford University scientists reported in the authoritative scientific journal "Nature" that scopolamine was synthesized in yeast using synthetic biology technology, using scopolamine dehydrogenase, conchine synthase, and phenyllactic acid UDP-glycosyltransferase.