Acetaminophen Metabolics

"Antipyretic drugs, by being analgesics, reduce not only the fever but also the pain."

~Clinical Manual of Fever in Children

We aim to genetically modify PCC 7942 to produce acetaminophen, a common mild anes-thetic and antipyretic recognized by the WHO as an essential medicine ^[1]. However, in many countrieswith lower regulations and faulty policies regarding drug manufacturing, acetaminophen can be syn-thesized with lethal toxins that result in hundreds of deaths worldwide ^[23]. Acetaminophen is oftenused in conjunction with opioid pain medications postoperatively to enhance pain relief, thus reducingreliance upon opioid pharmaceuticals ^[24].

[1] World Health Organization, ed.,The Selection and Use of Essential Medicines: report of theWHO Expert Committee, 2007 ; (including the 15th model list of essential medicines). No. 946in WHO Technical Report Series, Geneva: World Health Organization, 2007. OCLC: 254437808.

[23] P. N. Newton, M. D. Green, and F. M. Fern ́andez, “Impact of poor-quality medicines in the‘developing’ world,”Trends in Pharmacological Sciences, vol. 31, pp. 99–101, Mar. 2010.

[24] S. A. Schug, D. A. Sidebotham, M. McGuinnety, J. Thomas, and L. Fox, “Acetaminophen as anadjunct to morphine by patient-controlled analgesia in the management of acute postoperativepain,”Anesthesia and Analgesia, vol. 87, pp. 368–372, Aug. 1998.

Team:UCSC/Acetaminophen

Acetaminophen Metabolics