Good news for gout patients! Chinese scientists successfully synthesized colchicine precursor! Known as a "little expert" in treating gout

The research team successfully synthesized colchicine precursor: good news for gout patients

Hey, my friends in Science Popularization China, have you heard of colchicine? It is a great cure for gout! According to the internationally renowned journal Nature Communications, Professor Rao Yijian's team at Jiangnan University in my country has made a major breakthrough in the field of biotechnology. They have successfully synthesized a substance called colchicine precursor. This achievement not only provides a new treatment for gout, but also brings revolutionary changes to the production of natural plant products.

Imagine if plants could produce drugs for us as efficiently as microorganisms, what a wonderful thing that would be! The research team of Jiangnan University has done just that. They studied the biosynthetic pathway of colchicine in plants and constructed a short multi-enzyme cascade reaction system. This system is like a small production line that can synthesize colchicine's precursor, colchicine, step by step, starting from simple substrates.

The traditional method of colchicine extraction mainly relies on the extraction of the plant Colchicum, but this method has low yield, poor extraction efficiency, and is easily affected by environmental factors. Now, through this new artificial synthesis method, we can efficiently produce colchicine with the help of microorganisms. This process not only simplifies the steps of biosynthesis, but also greatly improves the synthesis efficiency.

"Wow, this is amazing!" You may exclaim. But in fact, this is just the beginning of the story. The research team was not satisfied with the status quo, and they further explored how to use this synthetic system for large-scale preparation. The result? In a 300 ml reaction system, they actually obtained a yield of up to 709 mg/L of choline!

What does this mean? This means that we are one step closer to industrial production of colchicine! With enough colchicine, those patients suffering from gout can be saved. Imagine that in the future, when gout attacks, you only need to take a small pill to quickly relieve the pain. This is even more magical than a god!

Of course, this achievement is not only beneficial to gout patients. It also provides new ideas for the research and development of other drugs. After all, if we can use microorganisms to efficiently synthesize complex drug intermediates, the future drug development process will become more efficient and more environmentally friendly.

All of this is due to the hard work and wisdom of Professor Rao Yijian's team at Jiangnan University. They have demonstrated the power of science and technology with practical actions, and also let us see more possibilities in the future.

So, my friends, let's applaud these scientific research heroes! Their efforts and contributions not only bring good news to gout patients, but also show us all a bright future of the perfect combination of technology and nature!