Tobacco plant altered to produce five psychedelic drugs
Why it matters: This innovation could simplify the production of psychedelic compounds for medical research, potentially reducing reliance on threatened natural sources.
- Asaph Aharoni and his team at the Weizmann Institute of Science modified tobacco plants using agroinfiltration to produce psilocin, psilocybin, DMT, bufotenin, and 5-methoxy-DMT.
- The modified plants can produce compounds typically found in mushrooms, various plants, and even the Colorado river toad, with the potential for permanent, inheritable alterations, though Aharoni acknowledges the "tricky" implications for recreational use.
- Rupert Fray of the University of Nottingham highlights that approximately 25% of prescription drugs are plant-derived, emphasizing the significant opportunity for "green factories" to cultivate new compounds in greenhouses.
- Pharmaceutical farming ("pharming") is not new, with plant-produced protein drugs approved in the US since 2012, and previous research in 2022 used tobacco plants to synthesize cocaine at about 1/25th the level found in a coca plant.
Scientists have engineered tobacco plants to produce five powerful psychedelic compounds, including psilocybin and DMT, in a single crop, offering a simpler and more sustainable method for drug production compared to natural harvesting or chemical synthesis. This breakthrough, achieved by introducing nine genes into Nicotiana benthamiana plants, aims to facilitate research into therapeutic uses and the creation of future medicines, though ethical considerations regarding inheritable modifications for recreational drugs are noted.
