Researchers have successfully engineered Escherichia coli (E. coli) bacteria to produce the common painkiller paracetamol using recycled plastic as a raw material. This significant scientific achievement was detailed in a study recently published in the journal Nature.
According to the article, the scientists modified the bacteria to perform a chemical process known as the Lossen rearrangement, a reaction that enables the creation of new chemical substances directly inside the bacterial cells. By introducing two specific genes into the E. coli, they were able to synthesize paracetamol from the initial source material in less than 24 hours.
«We report a biocompatible phosphate-catalyzed Lossen rearrangement reaction in Escherichia coli… The substrate for the Lossen rearrangement can also be… applied… for the production of industrial small molecules, including the drug paracetamol,» the scientists stated in their published research.
Stephen Wallace, a chemical biotechnologist from the University of Edinburgh and one of the study`s co-authors, mentioned in an interview with the journal that his team is actively collaborating with pharmaceutical companies, such as AstraZeneca, to further develop and scale up this innovative process for converting plastic waste into medicines.
