title: Genetic manipulation of antitumor-agent biosynthesis to produce novel drugs.
abstract: Current methods of obtaining novel drugs may be complemented in the near future by the genetic engineering of antitumor-agent biosynthesis in microorganisms. Biosynthetic gene clusters from several antitumor pathways in actinomycetes are presently being characterized and expressed in order to generate novel drugs. Several novel hydroxylated and glycosylated antitumor-drug derivatives have been produced that show a relaxed substrate specificity for secondary-metabolic enzymes, which opens up the possibility of generating novel drugs by genetic manipulation.
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Biologia Funcional e Instituto Universitario de Biotecnologia de Asturias (IUBA-CSIC), Universidad de Oviedo, Spain. jasf@sauron.quimica.uniovi.es
authors.forename: J A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Salas
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Méndez
mesh_terms: D000192:Actinomycetales / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism*; D000970:Antineoplastic Agents / Q000378:metabolism*; D001709:Biotechnology / Q000379:methods / Q000639:trends; D004352:Drug Resistance, Microbial; D005798:Genes, Bacterial; D005818:Genetic Engineering / Q000379:methods*
chemical_list: D000970:Antineoplastic Agents