IIT Bombay’s new discovering might make drug discovery ‘sooner, cheaper, extra sustainable’ | India Information
4 min learnNew DelhiJul 16, 2026 03:19 AM IST
Scientists at IIT Bombay have discovered a novel and environment friendly solution to convert easy, abundantly-available, straight-chain carbon compounds into complicated ring-shaped molecules that may be constructing blocks for medicinal or different worthwhile chemical substances.
Their new methodology claims to unravel a long-standing drawback in artificial chemistry: Conversion of lengthy, straight-chain carbon molecules into ring-shaped molecules, which, at current, entails a multi-step course of that’s time-consuming and costly. The analysis, led by Professor Debabrata Maiti of IIT Bombay, has been revealed within the prestigious Nature journal. Maiti stated the newly-developed methodology might make drug discovery sooner, cheaper and extra sustainable.
Straight-chain carbon compounds like fatty acids are a number of the mostly accessible chemical substances in nature. Alternatively, most of the biologically-relevant natural compounds, together with a number of medicine, have ring-shaped molecular buildings. Scientists typically undergo a multi-step course of to transform the easily-available fatty acids into extra helpful molecules with a wide range of purposes.
In easy fatty acids, a number of carbon atoms are linked to one another in a protracted straight chain. Many of those carbon atoms are indistinguishable from one another. This makes it extraordinarily troublesome to chemically goal any particular carbon atom within the chain from the place the sequence resulting in ring formation may very well be initiated. Often, a number of websites within the chain may very well be affected. Due to this, conversion may very well be achieved solely via a protracted course of involving a number of steps.
The analysis crew at IIT Bombay, which included Maiti’s college students Tanay Pal, Md Saimuddin Sk, Animesh Ghosh and Yazhinimuthu CM, was in a position to make a breakthrough with the event of a brand new chemical compound which proved to be essential within the selective focusing on of the specified carbon atom within the lengthy chain. Using this new chemical entity achieved the conversion in fewer steps, with a lot better effectivity and considerably decreased chemical wastage. Somnath Kar from Bhabha Atomic Analysis Centre collaborated on the analysis.
Fixing an issue in artificial chemistry
Straight-chain carbon compounds similar to fatty acids are a number of the mostly accessible chemical substances in nature. Alternatively, most of the biologically-relevant natural compounds, together with a number of medicine, have ring-shaped molecular buildings. Scientists typically undergo a multi-step course of to transform the fatty acids into extra helpful molecules. The brand new methodology solves this long-standing drawback in artificial chemistry.
Maiti informed The Indian Categorical that the importance of the breakthrough lay in the truth that the tactic was not restricted to conversion of any particular single molecule right into a desired compound, however was a basic course of relevant to a big selection of natural compounds. “The strategy acts as a platform that may rapidly convert easy saturated fatty acids into many alternative bioactive molecules. This might assist scientists research and enhance compounds utilized in conventional drugs programs similar to Ayurveda, and pace up their growth into fashionable medicine,” he stated.
In actual fact, researchers used their new methodology to synthesize greater than 10 biologically and industrially related molecules which have purposes in medicinal chemistry, chemical biology and the fragrance and flavour industries. These included a molecule known as muricatacin, which is of course present in Laxman phal (soursop) and is believed to have anti-cancer properties. Extracting muricatacin from naturally-occurring substances is taken into account extraordinarily troublesome and inefficient. Solely about 15 mg of muricatacin is obtained from about 15 kg of plant materials, and that too is blended with different substances, Maiti stated.
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The researchers have been in a position to synthesize muricatacin within the laboratory in a simple and extra environment friendly method by changing different fatty acids. They have been then in a position to modify this compound in such a way that it exhibited anti-cancer properties corresponding to muricatacin obtained from pure vegetation.
