Scientists have uncovered how bacteria naturally manufacture multiple versions of powerful cancer drugs, solving a mystery that has puzzled researchers for decades. The discovery could help speed the development of new treatments for cancers that are still difficult to treat.
For years, scientists have hoped to harness bacterial enzymes to create new drug variants through a process known as combinatorial biosynthesis. However, progress has been limited because researchers did not fully understand how the enzymes coordinate their work.
Published in Nature Communications, the new study reveals how bacterial enzymes communicate with one another to assemble a family of closely related anti-cancer compounds. That family includes Romidepsin (Istodax), an FDA-approved treatment for certain blood cancers. By uncovering this natural "mix and match" system and reproducing its underlying principles in the laboratory, the researchers have established a new strategy for designing future cancer therapies.
"For decades, we've known that bacteria can naturally produce multiple versions of powerful anti-cancer drugs, yet we had no idea how they achieved this," said first author Dr. Munro Passmore, Research Fellow, Department of Chemistry, University of Warwick. "This work finally cracks that code. We've identified how the different enzymes communicate and cooperate to produce these drug variants, something that has eluded researchers because the system is so elegantly economical. It's the breakthrough we needed to actually engineer these drugs ourselves."
