Enzyme Discovery Promising for Drug Production

Researchers at the Universities of Manchester and York have discovered an enzyme in Aspergillus oryzae - a kind of fungus used for making soy sauce - that can help accelerate and improve manufacture of drugs, with particular beneficial impact in production of a class of medications called monoamine oxidase (MAO) inhibitors. This class includes the drug Rasagilin which, by increasing a substance in the brain that affects motor function, helps to reduce involuntary tremors and fatigue associated with both early and advanced conditions of Parkinson’s.

The new biocatalyst (RedAm), identified by a team working with Professor Nick Turner, Professor of Chemical Biology from the Manchester Institute of Biotechnology (MIB), accelerates a process called reductive amination, a method used for the synthesis of chiral amines, important chemical building blocks in the pharmaceutical production. The application of RedAms has potential for a dramatic reduction in time required for chiral amine synthesis, thus also positively impacting on costs and manpower.

A recent analysis of drugs approved by America’s Food and Drug Administration (FDA) found that approximately 40 percent of new chemical entities (NCEs) contain one or more chiral amine building blocks. This means this new enzyme could also be key to improving the manufacture of numerous other medications on the market treating multiple conditions.

Professor Nick Turner said: ‘This is a very exciting discovery from both a chemistry and pharmaceutical perspective. It is the first enzyme of its kind that has these properties and has the potential to improve the production of this and other important drugs.’

The discovery, ‘A reductive aminase from Aspergillus oryzae’ was published in Nature Chemistry.