{"id":276405,"date":"2024-01-05T16:51:44","date_gmt":"2024-01-05T11:21:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/?p=276405"},"modified":"2024-01-05T16:51:44","modified_gmt":"2024-01-05T11:21:44","slug":"researchers-engineer-plant-cells-to-produce-drug-for-cancer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/researchers-engineer-plant-cells-to-produce-drug-for-cancer\/","title":{"rendered":"Researchers engineer plant cells to produce drug for cancer"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Sources:<\/strong> This post is based on the article <strong>&#8220;Researchers engineer plant cells to produce drug for cancer&#8221;<\/strong> published in \u201c<b>The Hindu<\/b>\u201d on 5 January 2024.<\/p>\n<h2>Why in News?<\/h2>\n<p>Researchers at the Indian Institutes of Technology Madras and Mandi have metabolically engineered plant cells to increase the production of<strong> anti-cancer drug camptothecin (CPT).<\/strong><\/p>\n<h2>What was Done in the Research?<\/h2>\n<p>1) Camptothecin, an allopathic medicine, is <strong>produced using <span class=\"italic\">Nathapodytes nimmoniana<\/span><\/strong>, a native, <strong>endangered plant<\/strong>.<br \/>\n<strong>Note-<\/strong> The IUCN has red-listed this plant as in the past decade alone there has been a 20% decline in the plant\u2019s population.<\/p>\n<p>2) The Plant Cell Technology Lab of IIT Madras researchers have developed <strong>a genome-scale metabolic model for N. Nimmoniana plant cells<\/strong> <strong>using c<\/strong><strong>omputational tools.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>3) Researchers have grown cultures of the plant in the lab and extracted cells from the plant. These cells are then <strong>genetically engineered to augment the production of CPT<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>4) In 2021, researchers at IIT Madras identified a microbe as a sustainable and highly productive alternative source for CPT.<\/p>\n<h2>What is the Significance of this Research?<\/h2>\n<p>1) It offers an <strong>alternative and sustainable source for Camptothecin<\/strong>, thereby contributing to the <strong>production of vital cancer-treating drugs<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>2) The technology employed for model-based rational metabolic engineering of plant cells can also be adapted to <strong>enhance the production of many other high-value phytochemicals<\/strong> (chemicals produced from plants).<\/p>\n<p>3) This will help to <strong>conserve natural resources<\/strong> and reduce dependency on nature.<\/p>\n<h2>What is Camptothecin (CPT)?<\/h2>\n<p>1) <strong>Camptothecin (CPT)<\/strong> is an important <strong>anti-cancer drug lead molecule<\/strong> for high-value drugs like Topotecan and Irinotecan.<\/p>\n<p>2) It is extracted mainly from <strong>Camptotheca acuminata<\/strong> (native to Eastern Asia) and <strong>Nothapodytes nimmoniana<\/strong> (native to India).<\/p>\n<p>3) The Chinese variety of the plant used to extract the cell is listed as critically endangered. There are only 4,000 of the species left. In India the plant is a <strong>native of western ghats<\/strong> and in the last decade there was a <strong>20% decline in population<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>UPSC Syllabus: Science and technology<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sources: This post is based on the article &#8220;Researchers engineer plant cells to produce drug for cancer&#8221; published in \u201cThe Hindu\u201d on 5 January 2024. Why in News? Researchers at the Indian Institutes of Technology Madras and Mandi have metabolically engineered plant cells to increase the production of anti-cancer drug camptothecin (CPT). What was Done&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/researchers-engineer-plant-cells-to-produce-drug-for-cancer\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Researchers engineer plant cells to produce drug for cancer<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10366,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1566,1738],"tags":[11872],"class_list":["post-276405","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-daily-factly-articles","category-science-and-technology-daily-factly-articles","tag-9pm-daily-factly","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":{"total":20,"cached_at":"","cached_date":1704491973},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276405","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10366"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=276405"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276405\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=276405"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=276405"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=276405"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}