November 14 2024
By Minhoo Jeong
Recent in molecular skeletal editing, especially in "single-atom editing" technology, is bound to usher in a new epoch in the development of drugs. Although many medicines will take effect based on a single important atom, changing that vital atom within the complex chemical structure has always been extraordinarily difficult to achieve. Scientists had to make up the entire molecule from scratch in an effort to change atoms in the core structure of a molecule. But in recent years, by virtue of fast advances made within the area of "skeletal editing," it has become possible to remove or replace atoms selectively in any one given position of a molecule's framework.
Recently, the new approach that has been introduced by a research team led by Professor Yoon-Soo Park was termed "single-atom editing." This is a way of precisely changing individual atoms from within the structure of a molecule. The researchers have developed a "molecular scissor" that can cut out unwanted atoms and then replace them with other atoms. Based on an acridinium-based photocatalyst, this reagent acts under the impetus of visible light with great efficiency to target and replace atoms.
For example, the team tested an extract from coffee called cafestol, and its furan structure-a five-membered ring compound composed of four carbon atoms and one oxygen atom. Using the catalyst under visible light at room temperature and normal pressure, furan was transformed into a pyrrole structure, which is a similar ring but with nitrogen instead of oxygen, by means of a selective replacement of the oxygen atom in furan with nitrogen. Repeated experiments with more than 60 kinds of furan structure-containing compounds produced the target pyrrole compounds with high efficiency.