Yeast cells are simple organisms. They in life he does two things: to eat and to reproduce. Researchers from the Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences at the University of Copenhagen are now equipping common baker’s yeast cells with new features.

Researchers have replaced the libido in yeast cells with taste and smell that allow them to detect cannabinoids, the active substances in cannabis. Taking it one step further, the researchers made the yeast turn red or glow when they successfully detected cannabinoids. This research Nature Communications.

“We made living sensors out of yeast cells that can now sense cannabinoids or molecules that have the same function as cannabinoids, even though they look very different. This will democratize drug development and pharmaceutical companies are not the only ones poised to discover new substances.

Turns red when it senses cannabinoids

Humans use hundreds of different GPCRs (G protein-coupled receptors) to taste and smell. In our noses alone, 400 different GPCRs enable us to detect and distinguish between the scent of roses and the smell of freshly baked bread.

Professor Campranis and his colleagues exchanged the GPCRs that yeast cells use to sense the opposite sex in the environment with the GPCRs that we humans use to recognize cannabinoids. At the same time, the researchers supplemented the yeast cells’ genetic material with a series of new genes that could turn red or even glow when they sensed the cannabinoids were nearby.

“When there are cannabinoids in the yeast cell’s environment, the yeast cell gives off a signal. This allows us to screen thousands of plants for potential therapeutic substances. It also allows people to take drugs.” or whether someone is illegally trying to smuggle cannabinoids or ‘designer drugs’ through airport checkpoints,” explains Professor Sotirios Campranis. .

Discovered four new substances in one day

Cannabinoids are known to be associated with sleep, appetite and pain relief. In fact, our bodies naturally have something called endocannabinoids. This is exactly why researchers decided to encode the ability to find cannabinoids in yeast cells. But in principle they could do so for opioids and other drug groups.

There is no doubt that yeast cells can discover new substances. In an initial test, researchers used yeast cells to study 1600 random substances from the vast library of compounds available at the University of Copenhagen. It didn’t take long to chew.

Sotirios Campranis said, “Yeast cells have not been associated with anti-inflammatory or analgesic effects so far, but in one day we discovered four previously undiscovered substances that could be used for these purposes.” said.

Today, when pharmaceutical companies look for new drugs, they rely on cutting-edge robotics and laboratory equipment that universities and other non-profits could never get their hands on. This may enable more people to search for useful substances in nature.

“It’s a crowdsourcing approach that allows small laboratories to find more new substances that could potentially be used in medicine. I don’t see it as competition with pharmaceutical companies.” However, we believe that synergies can be created between independent players in the scientific community and the pharmaceutical industry,” said Professor Campranis.

You can find medicines with smartphone accessories

The researchers also developed a portable plastic device loaded with yeast cell biosensors. Plant material, saliva, urine, blood, material from a suitcase, or whatever the yeast cell wants to test can be put into the gizmo.

The device uses your smartphone’s camera to see if the yeast cells light up and provides results in just 15 minutes. This application could help police officers and others track drugs at airports or conduct drug tests.

“We can test both natural cannabinoids and designer drugs (chemicals with very different structures) and they have the same effect as cannabinoids. We can also adapt the cells to oxycodone,” says Sotirios Campranis.

The device can be 3D printed or assembled using materials readily available online. Researchers are currently working to make the testing tool freely available to as many people as possible, while at the same time maintaining control over maintenance and further development.