'Brewing' Opiates From Yeast? Step Aside Poppies

Researchers have recently figured out how "brew" major pain-killer ingredients from yeast alone, eliminating a reliance on poppies, which are finicky plants, and far too easily used for other illegal purposes.

Opiates are at the heart of the most widely used and consumed pain medications across the globe. Because of this, the demand for them is incredibly high. Specialty farmers are constantly struggling to accommodate for this demand, despite the fact that the poppy plant - which opiates are made from - are relatively difficult to grow and require a very specific environment. This, in turn, spikes the price of pain-killers during a poor growing season.

Now, researchers from Stanford University believe they have found a way to wean the world off its poppy addiction, and it's not by taking away the meds.

"We are now very close to replicating the entire opioid production process in a way that eliminates the need to grow poppies, allowing us to reliably manufacture essential medicines while mitigating the potential for diversion to illegal use," said Christina Smolke, who led the research that was recently detailed in the Aug. 24 edition of the journal Nature Chemical Biology.

According to a recent Stanford release, Smolke has already spent a decade genetically tweaking yeast to reproduce the biochemistry of poppies. Her ultimate goal is to one day brew opiate-based medication like beer, producing painkillers from start-to-finish in fermentation vats.

Nearly There

So how could they pull this off? Genetic modification of course. In their report, the research team explains how they carefully inserted five genes from the poppy plant and from bacteria that lives on poppy stalks into the yeast's genetic information. This created new traits that nearly mirror poppies' opiate properties.

Smolke first managed to insert traits into yeast that would allow it to turn simple sugar molecules into complex precursor opiates called salutardine back in 2008. However, that's only the first stage of a complex process.

Opiates like morphine can be made naturally from poppies, but others like oxycodone - deemed "safer" and slightly less addictive - have to be produced from an alteration of a chemical within the poppy called thebaine. This new stage of Smolke's research covers that other end, helping yeast to produce thebaine and other important synthesis chemicals.

Now all that is left is to bring these two trait pathways together into one strain of yeast.

The Problem With Poppies

In talking to New Scientist, Smolke explained that she thought that the world could hugely benefit from having the main producer of opiates transfer from the tentative shoulder of poppy farming to a more sturdy and predictable crop.

"It is difficult or impossible to secure many thousands of acres of poppy fields which are grown out in the open," she said. "Yeast will be grown in closed fermenters and can be kept in secure facilities."

Which, in turn, allows for tighter control of a product that can be severely abused and used in the crafting of illegal drugs such as heroin.

The medical world has already been relatively concerned about its dependency on poppies. For instance, according to The New York Times, a whopping 85 percent of the world's thebaine supply comes from poppies grown in Tasmania. That's an island off Australia's southern coast that's just about the size of West Virginia.

Steve Morris, the general manager of opiates for GlaxoSmithKline, a global narcotics provider, told the Times that it is understandable why there's worry.

"They look at the map of the world, see Tasmania at the bottom, and say, 'Are we taking a hemispheric risk, and putting all our eggs in one basket?'" he explained.

Between battles among main poppy holders, legal regulation on this island, and the ever present threat of a bad growing season, it must seem like fantastic risk to take - especially for an industry that desperately needs its pain killers for both patient's and the global economy's sake.

Yeast then, a hearty product, may be a viable alternative.

"This will allow us to create a reliable supply of these essential medicines in a way that doesn't depend on years leading up to good or bad crop yields," Smolke said. "We'll have more sustainable, cost-effective and secure production methods for these important drugs."