Common Gut Bacterium Can Turn Everyday Plastic Waste into Paracetamol
Paracetamol, a pain medication also known as acetaminophen, is traditionally made from supplies down of fossil fuels, including crude oil. Thousands of tonnes of fossil fuels are used each year to supply factories that produce pain relievers, alongside other drugs and chemicals. Professor Stephen Wallace and his colleagues at the University of Edinburgh have discovered that Escherichia coli Bacteria can convert a molecule derived from a paracetamol plastic bottle.
Johnson and al. Report a biocompatible loss rearrangement which is catalyzed by phosphate in the bacteria Escherichia coli For the transformation of acyle hydroxamates activated in metabolites containing primary friend in living cells. Image credit: Johnson and al., DOI: 10.1038 / S41557-025-01845-5.
The problem of plastic waste is a constantly increasing problem, and developing durable means of cycling plastic remains a priority.
Metabolic engineering – exploitation of the network of chemical reactions used in a biological cell to produce desirable molecules – can be combined with organic chemistry to create new small molecules.
However, if these reactions can be combined to upcycler plastic in a useful product is not clear.
“Our work shows that the Polyethylene Plastic Téréphtlate (PET) is not only waste or a material intended to become more plastic – it can be transformed by microorganisms into new precious products, including those who have a potential for the treatment of diseases,” said Professor Wallace.
In their research, Professor Wallace and the co-authors have revealed that a type of chemical reaction called loss rearrangement can take place in living cells, catalyzed by phosphate from the interior Escherichia coli (E. coli).
This chemical reaction produces a type of organic compound containing nitrogen which is essential for cellular metabolism.
The researchers used chemical methods to degrade a plastic bottle of TEP to produce the starting molecule for the chemical reaction and show that cell metabolism can then remedy this molecule derived from plastic.
They also found that this molecule derived from plastic can be used as a starting material to produce paracetamol in E. coli With a yield of 92%.
The results may present the first instance of paracetamol produced from E. coli using waste.
Additional research could involve studying how other types of bacteria or plastic can generate useful products.
“Biocompatible chemistry must therefore be considered complementary to emerging work in the design and engineering of enzymes for abiotic chemistry and integrated into cooperation as a tool in living cells to extend synthetic chemistry which is possible in engineering biological systems,” said scientists.
The work of the team was published on June 23, 2025 in the newspaper Nature chemistry.
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NW Johnson and al. A rearrangement of biocompatible loss in Escherichia coli. Nat. Chempublished online on June 23, 2025; DOI: 10.1038 / S41557-025-01845-5
