Artemisinin, a natural compound from Artemisia annua (sweet wormwood) plants, is highly effective against drug-resistant malaria, but low-cost artemisinin-based drugs are lacking because of the high cost of obtaining the natural or chemically synthesized compound.

In seeking a way to produce a low-cost version of artemisinin, investigators at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (Israel) turned to the tobacco plant. Tobacco has high biomass and grows rapidly, so a suitably modified version would be able to produce large quantities of the drug at low cost.

A recent paper in the December 8, 2011, online edition of the journal Nature Biotechnology reported that such a genetically modified tobacco plant was now available. The authors described the creation of transgenic plants that expressed five plant- and yeast-derived genes involved in the mevalonate and artemisinin pathways, all expressed from a single vector. This study demonstrated that artemisinin can be fully biosynthesized in a heterologous (that is, other than A. annua) plant system. Although the artemisinin levels that were generated in transgenic tobacco were currently lower than those in A. annua, this experimental platform may lead to the design of new routes for the drug's commercial production in heterologous plant systems.

This invention has been patented by Yissum (Jerusalem, Israel), the technology transfer arm of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, which is now seeking a partner for its further development.

Yaacov Michlin, CEO of Yissum said, “This technology provides, for the first time, the opportunity for manufacturing affordable artemisinin by using tobacco plants. We hope that this invention will eventually help control this prevalent disease, for the benefit of many millions of people around the globe, and in particular in the developing world.”

Related Links:
Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Yissum