TY - JOUR
AB - Biosynthesis of chemotherapeutics Yousefzadi et al., Eng. Life Sci. 2010, 10, 281–292. Taxol, vinblastine, vincristine, or camptothecin and podophyllotoxin derivatives are used as anticancer agents and are originally derived from plants. Plant biotechnology provides new tools for the production of these therapeutics. However, despite considerable efforts to produce vinblastine and vincristine in cell cultures, the biotechnological production of taxol has only been achieved at an industrial level by few companies. Podophyllotoxin was originally isolated as an active anti‐tumor agent from the roots of Podophyllum. Etoposide, teniposide and etophoside are semi‐synthetic derivatives of podophyllotoxin and are used for the treatment of cancer. This review by Javier Palazon from Barcelona, Spain, and colleagues from the University of Teheran, Iran, discusses biotechnological approaches for biosynthetic production of podophyllotoxin, including the use of cell cultures, and the application of biotransformation and metabolic engineering ………………281 http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/elsc.201000027 Iron biosensor Sharma and Gohil, Eng. Life Sci. 2010, 10, 304–310. Siderophores are bio‐organic ligands secreted by microbes to chelate and assimilate iron. Siderophores and their analogs have tremendous therapeutic and analytical potential. However, only few practical applications have been realized. Authors from New Delhi, India, looked at the optical and biophysical features of the siderophore azotobactin secreted by the nitrogen fixing bacteria Azotobacter vinelandii. The peptide exhibits fluorescence in the visible range and proves to be sensitive enough to be used as a fluorescent marker in biochemical assays. Azotobactin can successfully be used to determine the levels of iron in biological fluids, particularly in human serum. Furthermore, it was demonstrated that it can be encapsulated in sol–gel matrices without significant loss of its fluorescence signal. These results show that azotobactin is suitable to be used as an optical Fe (III) biosensor. …………… 304 http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/elsc.201000038 Cell‐free expression system Ma et al., Eng. Life Sci. 2010, 10, 333–338. Cell‐free protein synthesis systems offer several advantages over traditional cell‐based expression methods. This study by researchers from China investigated the effects of extract preparation and addition of energy‐regenerating systems in an E. coli cell‐free system. Among four ATP‐regenerating sources, the cAMP/CP/CK system (including cAMP, creatine phosphate and creatine kinase) proved to be the most efficient to support high‐level expression of model protein eGFP. Furthermore, the system was successfully used to produce two human proteins (AK2 and CoAase) and two membrane proteins (subunit b of F1F0 ATP synthase and AqpZ). This will enable further studies to develop the highly efficient cell‐free technology for the production of various proteins with different bio‐origins. …………… 333 http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/elsc.201000052
TI - In this issue
JO - Engineering in Life Sciences
DO - 10.1002/elsc.201090016
DA - 2010-08-01
UR - https://www.deepdyve.com/lp/wiley/in-this-issue-Wgm03GR2kf
SP - 278
EP - 278
VL - 10
IS - 4
DP - DeepDyve
ER -