A compilation of information on alternative medicine: how anticancer drugs can be produced in yeast, a new tea plant with low caffeine naturally, potential antidote for botulism.

I just got my very first curation on this amazing community with my first article How the use of Cannabis affects sperm structure. I am really happy about that. I want to say thank you to everyone who read and upvoted the article. I want to specially thank @justtryme90, @lemouth, and @mobbs for their support. Today, I'm going to be discussing with us on some very interesting topics. I thought to myself, I want to make a compilation of information that people would read and gain a lot from. A compilation that I put together myself. Hence, I decided to make this collection of information on alternative medicine. I would be discussing with us on three very nice topics in that regard. So just sit back, relax, and let's sail together...

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The first topic I would be discussing with us is how anticancer drugs can be produced in yeast.

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We live in a very twisted world, and it's really almost impossible to understand why some things are the way they are. It happens to be so inexplicable why the natural molecules that are used in the treatment of cancer cannot be chemically produced. Hence, many of the companies around us that deal in anticancer drugs production have to yield a very enormous amount of special plants as well as the seeds they produce with the aim of extracting the medicinal substances they possess. And to make matters worse, the methods used in extracting these medicinal substances produce chemical waste that are hazardous to our environment. And, what is most troubling is the fact that these plants may be going extinct.

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_{Cancer cells. Flickr. Public domain}

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All these put together, creates a great need for us to find new methods of extracting these medicinal substances without putting our environment in danger. It becomes even more pressing, as the United Nations have of late put down new rules and regulations in order to conserve our environment, maintain our biodiversity and to protect our natural resources. What am I trying to say - we need to create new alternatives of extracting these medicinal substances, if not, it would become increasingly difficult to produce anticancer drugs, considering the new rules and regulations the United Nations have put down.

The reason I'm sharing this with us is to inform us that a project has been initiated, to figure out alternative ways of producing anticancer drugs without waste products that endanger us. The name of this project is MIAMi. As I mentioned above, the chemicals produced by some plants that have anticancer properties have not been able to be produced chemically - that is, scientists haven't found a way of producing these chemicals in the laboratory, they only extract it from the plant itself. This is because a bio-catalytic process is involved. Now, the very purpose for initiating the MIAMi project is to find out a route for producing these chemicals by making use of yeast as the biological system. To begin the project, the scientists intend mapping the bio-synthetic pathway of a particular plant called Indian snakeroot - as it's common name and it's botanical name is Rauvolfia serpentine.

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_{Rauvolfia serpentine (Indian snakeroot). Wikimedia Commons. CCO Licensed}

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Over the years, it has been found that the Indian snakeroot synthesize substances that have anticancer properties. But unfortunately, as I've mentioned above, scientists haven't found a way of manufacturing these medicinal substances outside the plant. This is as a result of the fact that the bio-synthetic pathway isn't known yet. A bio-synthetic pathway involves particular genes that code for particular enzymes, and these enzymes are responsible for the manufacturing of the valuable medicinal substances in the cell. It is important to know the genes involved; so that these genes can be transferred into yeast. Now, this is where yeast plays it's role. A yeast is a single-celled microorganism that falls under the kingdom fungus. In relation to this article, we would be more concerned about the relevance of yeast as a model organism in modern day cell biology. A model organism is an organism that is not any of the species of humans; used in research works in order to comprehend different biological issues. The purpose of using model organisms is to make discoveries, as the model organism would provide scientists with insight into the way their experiment would go on other organisms. Basically, some human experimentations are unethical, that's why lower organisms are used. It's possible because all living organisms have a common decent. Hence, all living organisms share some things in common. In the MIAMi project, yeast is the model organism to be used in the experimentation for anticancer drugs by inserting the genes from Indian snakeroot that code for enzymes that produce these medicinal substances into the yeast cell. The yeast cells help in manufacturing large amounts of the medicinal substances. I hope I've been able to inform us on that, in case we didn't know of the project already. Now, let's move on to our next topic.

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The second topic I'd be discussing with us is the discovery of a tea plant that has very low-caffeine naturally.

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Now, if you are like me, a serious lover of tea, then you'd want to read more about this. I drink tea several times a day. The truth is that I love tea. It helps me kick start my day. I honestly can't imagine a day without tea. Most of my close friends are really so surprised that I don't put even a little bit of sugar in it, and yet I take it every now and then. It surprises me too honestly, but I just happen to enjoy my tea that way. Feel free to comment below and share with us how you love your tea - with sugar or without. Now, moving on to our topic, there's a new tea that has been found. It naturally has little or no caffeine at all in it. This tea plant was discovered in China. What makes it so different from other teas is the fact that it has its low caffeine naturally and not that it was decaffeinated. And yet, it still has so many health benefits associated with it. Whether or not you are a lover of tea, it wouldn't change the fact that so many people drink tea; but basically, people have a preference for caffeinated tea - which is no surprise, as it gives extra kick - but also, there are those who don't take caffeinated drinks at all for several reasons. And surely, they are the ones that would find this discovery very nice. Now, in order to decaffeinate tea, tea makers make use of hot water treatment or they use carbon dioxide. When they do this, it actually affects the flavor of the tea. It even reduces the health benefits of the tea, such as lowering cholesterol, as well as reducing the risk of stroke or heart attack etc, I still haven't told you the name of this newly discovered tea plant right? - the name is hongyacha (HYC).

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_{A nice cup of tea. Wikimedia Commons. CCO Licensed}

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It's found in China, as I mentioned above, but specifically in the mountains in Southern China. The people living in that surrounding say that HYC can help in treating cold, stomach troubles as well as it can be used to treat so many other diseases. But not much had been figured out about the composition of this tea plant - and that's where researchers came in. The leaves and buds of this plant tea were collected and studied. It has been found that there are a number of very medicinal compounds in HYC, that are even not found in other popular teas. It was also found that HYC has very little caffeine in it. After doing more studies on this tea plant, the researchers discovered that HYC has such low caffeine as a result of a mutation. One that caused the genes that code for the enzyme called tea caffeine synthase not to function. Hence, HYC couldn't synthesize caffeine, like other tea plants. There are reasons to believe that as a result of the fact that HYC naturally has little caffeine content, unlike other teas that have to be decaffeinated, it would become a popular tea in no long time. If we didn't know about Hongyacha already, now we do. Let's move on to the last but not the least topic of today.

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The third topic I'd be discussing with us is the potential antidote for botulism.

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I don't know if you've ever heard of botulism. Whether or not you have, I think there would one or two things we can learn together. Now, scientists have found a compound that inhibits botulinum neurotoxin to a very high degree. You should also understand that Botulinum neurotoxin is the most toxic compound in the whole world at the moment.One can only imagine how dangerous that compound is. The name of the compound that inhibits botulinum neurotoxin is called nitrophenyl psoralen (NNP). Paralysis caused by botulism can be treated with NNP. There are fears that botulinum neurotoxin could be used as a bioweapon and I think that fear is valid, as there is no cure or should I say antidote for it that is FDA approved. There's been a recent research, and the scientists had to first figure out the exact enzymes in this dangerous toxin that causes damage to neurons, thereby leading to paralysis.

For the study, the scientists had to search through about 300 plus compounds that could possess enzymes that may be able to counter the activity of this compound that makes it cause damage to neurons in the body. By doing this serious search, the scientists then found a compound that has a very powerful effect against the enzyme that causes this damage to the neurons, and of course that compound is nitrophenyl psorelen as I've already mentioned. Botulism neurotoxin has seven serotypes (variations); among which, the Botulinum neurotoxin type A is the most toxic. Hence, the scientists tested the activity of NNP against the type A serotype. They tested the activity of NNP in cell culture, and it was found that NNP had very effective anti-botulinum toxic activity. The NNP reduced the toxicity to a point where it was of no harm to the human cells.

Although, I understand that rats are not humans, but I hope you remember what I said about model organisms in the first topic we discussed. In this case, rats are very useful for toxicity experimentation, as it would give scientists an insight of how it would be in humans. Back to the topic, hence, NNP was used in cases of paralysis in lab rats caused by Botulinum neurotoxin, and it was found to reverse the paralysis in the lab rat. Globally, the cases of botulinum neurotoxin is often very low yearly. Only about 200 people in the whole world suffer from this toxins yearly. But, the cost of treating these few cases is far more than the cost of treating thousands upon thousands of others diseases, e.g Salmonella. Actually, botulism is the most costly type of food poisoning to treat in the whole world. That should be no surprise, as you should remember I told us that botulinum neurotoxin is the most toxic compound in the world.

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_{Clostridium botulinum. Wikimedia Commons. CCO Licensed}

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The Botulinum neurotoxin is a compound synthesized by a bacterium called Clostridium botulinum. This bacterium is found basically in soil. Even when you boil the spores of this bacterium, the spores are still active. Although, botulism can also affect humans through other ways aside from through food poisoning, such as through wound contamination. It's really good to know that there's now a compound that can inhibit the activity of botulinum neurotoxin. We've come to the end of this article, I hope that you enjoyed all the topics we've discussed. Thanks a lot for reading. Bye for now!

References

• Scientists to produce anti-cancer drugs in yeast by Anders Østerby Mønsted, Anne Wärme Lykke
• Hongyacha, a Naturally Caffeine-Free Tea Plant from Fujian, China by Jin, Yun-Feng Chai, Yu-Fei Liu, Jing Zhang, Ming-Zhe Yao and Liang Chen
• Natural Compounds and Their Analogues as Potent Antidotes against the Most Poisonous Bacterial Toxin by B. Patel, Shuowei Cai, Michael Adler, Brajendra K. Singh, Virinder S. Parmar, Bal Ram Singh

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