A more concise way to synthesize tetrodotoxin

Bob Yirka is a research scientist at Phys.org.

A small international team of researchers has developed a way to synthesise tetrodotoxin. The group describes their process in a paper published in the journal Science.

TTX is well-known for its association with pufferfish, as the fish don't make the toxin, but it is bioSynthesized bybacteria. The chemical is used as a means of defense by other less well known species. TTX is so toxic to humans and other animals that it can cause paralysis and death as organs fail.

TTX has been used as a learning tool. If a way could be found to control application of the chemical in the body, it could be used to eliminate neural activity, which would result in numbness and the absence of pain.

Scientists are interested in TTX because of its ability to disrupt activity in the brain. They've spent a lot of time in the lab trying to recreate it. It took years of work to come up with a way to make it. versions of the method involved conducting 25 to 67 steps. It was not efficient and only yielded 1%.

The researchers have come up with a way to reduce the steps to 22 and bring the efficiency up to 9%. The process can be scaled up to manufacturing standards by cutting down the number of steps. It is possible to make TTX derivatives that are less toxic and more useful by using the reactions in the process.

More information: David B. Konrad et al, A concise synthesis of tetrodotoxin, Science (2022). DOI: 10.1126/science.abn0571 Journal information: Science

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