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For many centuries of human existence, we have relied on nature for our medicines. It was not until the late industrial revolution and the advent of synthetic chemistry that we began to synthesize key compounds that became the foundation of early pharmaceutical treatments. Despite the synthetic nature of many early pharmaceuticals, they often were compounds that had been extracted and isolated from plants. Some of the most prolific and life-saving pharmaceuticals have been derived from plants and other organisms. Aspirin, a drug used to reduce heart diseases and strokes, was first extracted from willow bark and subsequently synthesized years later. The opium poppy was the biological basis for medicines like morphine and codeine. Quinine, a compound used to treat malaria, was extracted from a plant and later synthesized. The process of synthesis from compounds extracted from plants has provided a pathway for pharmaceutical development. In the 1980s, major break-throughs in genetic engineering made waves throughout the pharmaceutical space. Can we use plants to make hard-to-synthesize drugs? This is the million dollar question and thanks to developments in the field of bioengineering, the answer is yes!

The process of making these kinds of plants, the ones that give us the compounds we need for pharmaceuticals is arduous. There are many obstacles to transfection, which is defined as the introduction of foreign DNA necessary for drug production, that have proven to be particularly challenging for this field’s development. First, the plants that are used have to be especially susceptible to infection by an Agrobacterium (a type of bacterium that lives in soil) and the plants have to be able to have sufficient tissues from which you can harvest the drug. This issue has caused many scientists to begin using plants like wild tobacco. Tobacco is something that by any normal standard is objectively bad for human consumption. Despite this, through the transfection of foreign DNA into the plant, engineers can suppress the nicotine producing genes and express genes that produce the protein product or compound that is desired. Additionally, the process of transfection includes infection which can kill the plant if the bacteria are not designed properly. Despite this challenge, with the right bacterial design and just a little bit of luck, transfection takes place. Luck might not be what you think of when you hear about engineering and science. After all, aren’t scientists supposed to produce replicable results? But when working with living organisms, sometimes the process simply doesn’t work and a scientist or engineer must try again. Once the process of transfection has been completed and the DNA has been successfully integrated, the next challenge is to successfully reproduce the plants and create a stable genetic line that expresses the products at an acceptable and cost-effective level.

This process of inserting the DNA, transfection, is critical but not always permanent. The DNA is in the plant, the plant has accepted it, and has begun to use it, but not every cell in the plant has the necessary DNA. This is when selective breeding comes into play. Selective breeding is the process by which organisms are bred to produce offspring with desirable traits, like how sheep are bred to have more wool. This technique has been used throughout the centuries to boost crop yield, create drought resistant or plight resistant plants and to make the food we eat more nutritious. Similarly, when dealing with transfected organisms of any order, selective breeding is key to make sure that the plants will stably produce the desired compound even after several generations. This process, though long and challenging, has shown promise, especially in the field of cancer drug development. The adaptability of plants is what creates both the challenges of transfection and benefits of transfection. It is also what makes them key for creating drugs that are more accessible and less harmful for our planet.

The whole point of using plants to create drugs is to offer a sustainable and environmentally friendly way to make the drugs that today may only be available synthesized from harmful processes. An example of a drug derived from a harmful process is heparin. Heparin is an incredibly important glycan that is key in the formation of blood clots and is often used to treat patients after surgery to minimize risk of internal bleeding. This life-saving medication and compound is only widely available from pigs. The promise of plant-based heparin would save the lives of millions of people and animals around the world by making the drug cheaper and more accessible. The environmental impact is also incredibly important. Many pharmaceuticals and their development are toxic to the environment and produce trace levels of pollution and carbon emissions. Using plants to make these medicines has a two-fold benefit: the first is that the plants do not expose the environment to toxic compounds, in fact plants are a main component of heavy metal and toxin cleanups, the second is that the plants actively use carbon dioxide and remove it from the atmosphere to create the compounds we desire. But this takes effort and while this field is promising it hasn’t expanded into the corporate world.

A roadblock is the lack of consistent and regularly producing genetically engineered plants. There are not a huge number of scientists working on the design and development of these plants let alone engineers to build and design proper facilities for processing or growing the plants. This field is still new, while most research into plants involves creating better, more resilient plants for food and for ecosystems, it is not focused on the pharmaceutical potential of said plants. But this does not mean there is not a future for the field. In 2012 the FDA approved a plant-cell based treatment for Gaucher’s disease, a disorder in which lipids build up in cells and cause damage. This medication is made using recombinant carrot cells in a bioreactor which produce the key protein needed to treat the disease. This is a key example of what a plant based medicine can look like. Whether grown in a field or in a bioreactor, plants can produce life saving compounds that find their way into the hands of the people that need them. Our medicine has historically relied on plants and what they provide and with advances in genetic engineering, they are now becoming powerful tools for the production of the drugs that matter the most to us. While the process is long, tedious, and often takes much more effort than expected, the benefits of producing ethical, clean, and life-saving pharmaceuticals far outweighs the pitfalls. Synthesis was the breakthrough that led to the creation of modern medicine, but plants may be the future, healing us and the planet through their incredible abilities.