Modified E. coli pump out psilocybin
C&EN Global Enterprise October 7, 2019 DOI: 10.1021/cen-09739-scicon9
Summary
A major advance in Chemistry and Psychedelics and Drug Studies: bacteria now efficiently produce psilocybin, the psychoactive compound from magic mushrooms. This breakthrough allows *E. coli* to act as tiny bioreactors, manufacturing large quantities crucial for Mental Health and Psychiatry. Psilocybin, discovered decades ago and with its enzymatic pathway detailed in 2017, is in clinical trials for depression. Optimizing this biological assembly, potentially leveraging Computer Science for process efficiency, overcomes synthetic hurdles for its complex molecular structure. This scalable method could meet future demand for this promising psychedelic.
Abstract
A team of researchers has turned Escherichia coli into tiny bioreactors that can manufacture large amounts of psilocybin, the ingredient in magic mushrooms that leads to their psychoactive effects (Metab. Eng. 2019, DOI: 10.1016/j.ymben.2019.09.009). With the compound in clinical trials for treating depression and other brain diseases, says J. Andrew Jones, the Miami University chemical engineer who led the work, scaled-up manufacturing processes may soon be needed to meet consumer demand. Scientists discovered psilocybin decades ago, but the enzymatic pathway that fungi use to make the molecule wasn't described until 2017. That synthesis, scientists found, starts with a tryptophan-based compound and ends with a phosphorylated product. The phosphate on psilocybin is unstable, however, and in the human body, it's stripped to make psilocin, which can cross the blood-brain barrier, Jones says. So getting that phosphate onto psilocybin is challenging with synthetic methods, he says, but "biology is good at adding