Researchers use greenhouse gas to produce a drug for sleeping sickness

Not just harmful waste: researchers use greenhouse gas for sleeping sickness

According to experts, the global propellant gas concentration has increased dramatically in recent years. One of the gases that contributes to increasing environmental pollution is fluoroform, a by-product of Teflon production. Researchers have now used this substance to manufacture a drug for sleeping sickness.

Sleeping sickness can lead to death

Sleeping sickness (African trypanosomiasis) represents a huge health risk for the population in many parts of Africa. The tropical disease is transmitted through the tsetse fly. The first symptoms include severe headache, insomnia, swollen lymph nodes, anemia and rash. In the late stages of the disease, progressive weight loss and a twilight state, which gives the disease its name. If the infection remains untreated, it ends fatally. Researchers from Austria have now developed a new drug for sleeping sickness - and used a greenhouse gas.

Sleeping sickness represents an enormous health risk for the population of other parts of Africa. Researchers have now developed a new drug for the disease - and used a greenhouse gas for it. (Image: Ralf Geithe / fotolia.com)

Valuable substance from harmful waste product

Chemists at the Karl-Franzens-University Graz show how a harmful waste product can become a valuable substance for the production of important medicines.

Univ. Dr. C. Oliver Kappe and his team have found a way to use the powerful greenhouse gas fluoroform via flow chemistry for the synthesis of the drug eflornithine.

The work was recently published in the journal "Green Chemistry".

Drug for sleeping sickness

Fluoroform accumulates during the production of Teflon. So that the gas does not get into the atmosphere, it is usually burned. On the one hand, this costs energy, on the other hand CO2 is generated, which in turn causes unwanted emissions.

"In the flow process developed together with an industrial partner, we have succeeded in applying fluoroform to meaningful use," explains C. Oliver Kappe in a statement from the university.

"We use it to make eflornithine, an important sleeping sickness drug, which has been placed on the list of essential medicines by the World Health Organization (WHO)," said the scientist.

In flow chemistry, the substances required for a synthesis are pumped in a continuous process through reaction chambers in the milliliter range, in which the individual processes run one after the other.

Extreme temperature and pressure conditions can accelerate reactions many times over.

"Flow chemistry saves time and money compared to traditional processes and is often more environmentally friendly because there are no waste products between the individual reaction steps," says Kappe.

Revolution in 3D

The scientists combined their "green" synthesis with a revolutionary technique: a flow reactor that was produced in a 3D printing process.

The chemists have developed the design of the reactor with researchers from Graz University of Technology and Research Center Pharmaceutical Engineering GmbH (RCPE) - a competence center owned by TU Graz (65%), University of Graz (20%) and Joanneum Research (15%) and tested.

The company Anton Paar printed the reactor by means of metal laser sintering from steel powder. The new technology convinces with its advantages:

"With 3D printing, you can create flow reactors of any complexity, while using traditional manufacturing methods, you can limit that. This also means a huge cost savings, "explains cap.

The results were recently published in the journal "Reaction Chemistry & Engineering". (Ad)