Enveric: Psychedelic bioproduction drug discovery platform described in JBC

Enveric Biosciences announced publication of a paper in the peer-reviewed journal, Journal of Biological Chemistry, describing the discovery of a new enzyme from cane toad and the successful development of a bioproduction platform for the isolation and pharmacological screening of novel indolethylamines with potential use in psychiatric medicine. Enveric researchers and a team from the University of Calgary co-authored the work, which was led by Peter Facchini, Ph.D., professor and Chief Innovation Officer at Enveric…. In the paper titled, “A cane toad or Rhinella marina, N-methyltransferase converts primary indolethylamines to tertiary psychedelic amines,” ” the authors describe the discovery and biotechnological deployment of a novel enzyme, Rhinella marina N-methyltransferase, isolated from the cane toad. The discovery is important as it represents the first alkaloid biosynthetic gene and cognate enzyme isolated from a psychedelic toad. In comparison to N-methyltransferases isolated from other organisms, RmNMT is an effective and promiscuous catalyst, which makes it uniquely suitable for the biosynthesis of novel psychedelic-inspired neuroplastogens. The research team demonstrated the utility of the enzyme as an important biocatalyst in psychedelic applications by purifying its reaction products and subjecting the compounds, which include novel DMT derivatives, to key receptor binding and metabolic stability assays.