Synthetic biology makes it possible to "eat biscuits to cure diabetes".
2021-12-09
The Liu Tao team of Peking University School of pharmacy and the Ye Haifeng team of East China Normal University developed a new cell using synthetic biology technology. The diabetic mice implanted with the engineered cells can raise the level of insulin and lower their blood sugar by eating a specific amino acid biscuit. Eating biscuits to treat diabetes? This dream of many "sugar friends" appeared in the recent international top journal Nature · Chemical Biology - Liu Tao, Professor of School of pharmacy of Peking University, and ye Haifeng, team of East China Normal University developed a new cell by using synthetic biology technology. In their research, diabetic mice implanted with the engineered cells can increase insulin levels and lower blood sugar by eating specific amino acid biscuits. "This is the first time that gene code expansion technology has been used in cell therapy." Liu Tao, one of the corresponding authors of the paper, told Science and Technology Daily that it only takes 90 minutes for mice to reduce blood sugar, which is equivalent to the onset time of insulin injection. Eat biscuits and sound the start number of insulin production In the "sugar friend" body to produce insulin, just eat "biscuits"? Not really. Cookies are just a key. Ye Haifeng, one of the corresponding authors of the paper and a researcher at the school of life of East China Normal University, explained that there are three codons in the organism that do not encode amino acids (also known as terminators, whose function is to terminate protein translation). Through artificial transformation, one of them can only listen to the command of "biscuits". Therefore, the modified codon has a dual identity - as soon as the special artificial amino acid in the biscuit comes, the codon pair starts the insulin translation process. As soon as the special artificial amino acid goes, the codon is still a "terminator", and the whole assembly line is closed. This is the complete treatment process of eating biscuits to synthesize insulin. Open a "special express" for artificial amino acids But the problem comes again. The amino acids in biscuits can't be found in nature, and there's no matching delivery system. "The messenger RNA used to be responsible for transporting amino acids has its own codon, just as JD logistics is responsible for transporting JD's goods, SF express is responsible for transporting SF's goods, and Yuantong Express is responsible for transporting Yuantong's goods. What should we do with an unnatural 'express list'?" Liu Tao made a vivid example to solve this problem, Synthetic biology is back. "We have opened a 'special line express' for artificial amino acids," said Liu Tao. An artificial synthase can send unnatural amino acids to the "courier", that is, through aminoacylation reaction, connect unnatural amino acids with specific transport RNA and send it directly to the "assembly line" of insulin. After a series of "divine operations", the unnatural amino acids in biscuits directly become an important part of insulin in organisms. The formal name of this "special line express" is "biological orthogonality", which means that the artificial reaction will not be recognized by the endogenous "elements" of the body, nor interfere with the endogenous biochemical process. In other words, the whole manufacturing process of insulin will not interfere with other life activities. In the future, controlling blood sugar may become easy and simple "Using our technology, we only need an unnatural amino acid with a concentration of Nanomole per liter, and one minute of administration is enough to activate the system, express and release insulin." Liu Tao said that this unnatural amino acid is similar to the ingredients added in many functional drinks and is very friendly to the human body. Animal experiments showed that the modified engineering cells were wrapped in materials and implanted subcutaneously into mice, and the mice were fed with biscuits containing unnatural amino acids, which could stably and effectively reduce the blood glucose of mice within one month. A series of animal safety experiments also showed that after taking an effective dose of unnatural amino acids for one month, there was no significant weight loss or other biochemical changes in mice. "Maybe one day, you need to take a non natural amino acid before meals, or eat foods containing non natural amino acids and suitable for diabetics, so you can control your blood sugar," Liu Tao said. Professor Gu Zhen, Dean of the school of pharmacy of Zhejiang University, believes in the comments published at the same time that creating engineering cells through synthetic biological methods to produce therapeutic proteins is an attractive alternative method to solve the challenges of poor stability of protein molecules, including insulin, short biological half-life and uncontrolled release. (outlook new era)
Edit：Yuanqi Tang Responsible editor：Xiao Yu
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