Chemistry technique reproducing nature’s complexity may lead to cheaper cancer drugs

Scientists at The Scripps Research Institute have shown how to synthesise in the laboratory an important set of natural compounds known as terpenes. The largest class of chemicals made by living organisms, terpenes are made within cells by some of the most complex chemical reactions found in biology.

The new technique, described in an advance online edition of the journal Nature Chemistry on 23 September 2012, mimics a crucial but obscure biochemical phenomenon that allows cells to make terpenes. The discovery may one day result in cheaper, fully synthetic versions of the cancer drug Taxol, the antimalarial compound artemisinin and hundreds of other useful terpene products.

''It's exciting for us because we're now making molecules that have never been made in the laboratory before, and we've done this by first observing what nature does,'' said the senior investigator for the study Ryan A. Shenvi, a chemist at Scripps Research Institute, one of the world's largest independent, not-for-profit research organisations focusing on research in the biomedical sciences.

Powerful biological functions
Terpenes take their name from one of their best-known representatives, the paint thinner turpentine - a derivative of pine sap. Many terpenes, like those in turpentine, are small, plant-made molecules that turn into vapor at relatively low temperatures and waft easily through the air.

These often serve as important chemical signals for plants, and are used by humans in fragrances and flavourings.

Some terpenes are more complex, and are synthesised by plants and other organisms as powerful cellular defence mechanisms.