Enveric Biosciences Announces Presentation of Two Posters at Canadian Chemical Engineering Conference (CSChE 2023)
Enveric Biosciences (NASDAQ: ENVB) (“Enveric” or the “Company”), a biotechnology company dedicated to the development of novel neuroplastogenic small-molecule therapeutics for the treatment of depression, anxiety, and addiction disorders, today announced the presentation of two posters at the Canadian Chemical Engineering Conference (CSChE 2023) which was held October 29th to November 1, 2023.
The first poster entitled, “Biocatalytic production of MDMA and other phenylpropylamine derivatives,” presented an alternative process for MDMA production integrating yeast-based bioconversion and biocatalytic steps. First, the Enveric research team achieved the production of milligram quantities of pure compounds in small-scale batch fermentations. The second step of MDMA bioproduction involved transamination and was achieved using a biocatalytic approach, which proved to be more efficient compared with yeast-based conversion. The purified transamination products were converted to methamphetamine derivatives, including MDMA, by chemical reduction and N-methylation.
The second poster entitled, “A synthetic biology platform for the production of novel indolethylamine derivatives as drug candidates to treat anxiety and depression,” presented bioproduction platforms, which offer an emerging alternative to traditional chemical synthesis of psychedelic-inspired molecules with a reduced hallucinogenic potential and sustained therapeutic benefits. The presentation described a collection of biosynthetic tools, including known and previously unidentified biocatalysts, enabling the production of >350 indolethylamine derivatives from simple indolic precursors. Collections of enzymes with known activities including tryptophan synthases, tryptophan decarboxylases (TDCs), halogenases, prenyltransferases, hydroxylases, kinases, N-acetyltransferases, and N-methyltransferases were screened for performance in E. coli and for substrate promiscuity. Using the synthetic biology platform, Enveric researchers were able to produce several previously undescribed, wholly novel products with important activities at target receptors.
“Our team’s presentations showcased the advantages of using metabolic engineering over synthetic chemistry to provide biosynthesis in fewer steps, avoiding complex, multi-step procedures to produce compounds with emerging potential as treatments for mental health disorders like MDMA and psilocybin, and importantly derivatives of these compounds,” said Joseph Tucker, Ph.D., Director and CEO of Enveric. “We were pleased to further demonstrate our team’s innovative work to bring novel methods to the production of New Chemical Entities as we continue to analyze psychedelic and psychedelic-inspired compounds for their potential as improved treatments for mental health conditions, including depression, anxiety, and addiction disorders.
