Metallic copper is no stranger to medicine, having been used in many innovations including anti-infection nanoparticles and implants. However, some UCLA chemists have not yet used copper in this way, paving the way for simpler and cheaper drug production in the future.
Using ozone (a type of oxygen) as a reagent and metals as catalysts, scientists were able to break the carbon-carbon bonds of different types of organic molecules. Ozone breaks the carbon-carbon bonds into hydrocarbons (called alkenes), and the copper catalyst combines the broken carbon-carbon bonds with nitrogen to form carbon-nitrogen bonds, or molecules called amines. The process, known as aminode-alkenation, takes advantage of an abundant, cheap metal rather than other similar catalysts traditionally used to develop amines.
Ohyun Kwon, professor of organic chemistry, said: "This has never been done before. Traditional metal catalysis uses expensive metals such as platinum, silver, gold and palladium, as well as other precious metals such as rhodium, ruthenium and iridium. But we use oxygen and copper, which are among the most abundant base metals in the world."
Amines have strong interactions with molecules in plants and animals and are therefore widely used in the production of agricultural chemicals such as pharmaceuticals and fertilizers. And, as their names suggest, amphetamines and dopamine are also amines. With this versatile combination, the team was able to modify hormones, pharmaceutical reagents, peptides, and nucleosides into amines, indicating that this new approach has broad application prospects.
For Kwon, though, its biggest draw may be its ability to produce cheaper drugs. While chemicals used in some cancer drugs cost pharmaceutical companies $3,200 per gram, researchers can produce the same drug molecules using chemicals that cost about $3 per gram to produce.
The team produced the anti-cancer c-Jun N-terminal kinase inhibitor using just three chemical steps, compared with the dozen or so steps currently required.
In another experiment, the method converted adenosine, a neurotransmitter and DNA building block that costs less than 10 cents per gram, into N6-methyladenosylamine in just one step. This amine plays an important role in controlling cellular gene expression, disease processes, and development. Currently, its production cost is approximately $103 per gram.
Since copper is currently abundant and costs less than $4 per pound, scientists hope this new approach will open up a more affordable market for a variety of amine drugs and other organic materials.
The research was published in the journal Science.