What do you believe is the single most important factor driving up the cost of living in Nigeria?

A research team led by the University of California, Irvine has engineered an efficient new enzyme that can produce a synthetic genetic material called threose nucleic acid. The ability to synthesize artificial chains of TNA, which is inherently more stable than DNA, advances the discovery of potentially more powerful, precise therapeutic options to treat cancer and autoimmune, metabolic and infectious diseases.

A paper published in Nature Catalysis describes how the team created an enzyme called 10–92 that achieves faithful and fast TNA synthesis, overcoming key challenges in previous enzyme design strategies. Inching ever closer to the capability of natural DNA synthesis, the 10–92 TNA polymerase facilitates the development of future TNA drugs.

DNA polymerases are enzymes that replicate organisms' genomes by accurately and efficiently copying DNA. They play vital roles in biotechnology and health care, as seen in the fight against COVID-19, in which they were crucial to pathogen detection and eventual treatment using the mRNA vaccine.

"This achievement represents a major milestone in the evolution of synthetic biology and opens up exciting possibilities for new therapeutic applications by significantly narrowing the performance gap between natural and artificial enzyme systems," said corresponding author John Chaput, UC Irvine professor of pharmaceutical sciences.

"Unlike DNA, TNA's biostability allows it to be used in a much broader range of treatments, and the new 10–92 TNA polymerase will enable us to reach that goal."

• Read More