This Chemical Compound Could Provide Easier and Safer Medicines
By William Huang
Previously, one chemical compound, carbene, was avoided in lab research. Despite its versatile nature, chemists avoided this organic compound because of its reactivity. But what if we could harness this energy and repurpose these compounds into new substances?
In a recent study published in
Science, scientists may have found a new, safer method to turn these short-lived, high-energy molecules to much more stable ones. Carbenes are molecules containing a neutral carbon atom with two unshared valence electrons. Because of their high energy potential, carbenes can be used in ways unlike other molecules.
In the Nagib Lab, members specialize in harnessing reagents with such high chemical energy, and have helped invent a multitude of new substances and techniques that would otherwise be chemically unobtainable.The researchers developed catalysts made out of cheap, Earth-abundant metals, like iron, copper and cobalt, and combined them to facilitate their new method of harnessing carbene. With this method, they were able to successfully use this new strategy to harness the power of reactive carbenes to fabricate valuable molecules on a larger scale and much more quickly than traditional methods. Nagib compared this leap to engineers figuring out how to use steel to build skyscrapers rather than using brick and mortar.
For example, cyclopropane, a small, strained ring of twisted chemical bonds found in some medicines, has been a chemical that scientists have been trying to make. More recently, cyclopropane has been used as a key ingredient in the oral antiviral pill called Paxlovid. Used to treat COVID-19, the pill reduces the severity of the disease by stopping the virus from replicating.
Although the cyclopropane needed to fabricate the drug has been difficult to create in large quantities, Nagib said using carbene could be applied to create the drug more quickly and at a larger scale. "Our new method will enable better access to dozens of types of cyclopropanes for incorporation into all kinds of medicines to treat disease," he said. Their tool could speed up the discovery of new, targeted medicines. "You could technically apply our methods to anything," he said. "But in our lab, we're more interested in accessing new types of more potent drugs."
Overall, Nagib said he hopes this research will help other chemists do their work.
Citations:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbene
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/08/220805091221.htm
https://phys.org/news/2022-08-harness-power-carbenes-fabricate-drugs.html
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abo6443
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