Recent Patents on Biotechnology - Volume 3, Issue 2, 2009

Lactic acid bacteria (LAB) are gaining importance due to their “generally recognized as safe” status, long-term use in food and beneficial, probiotic properties. They can acquire new, desirable traits by the incorporation of genes that allow the expression of heterologous proteins, and several patents and patent applications describe the use of recombinant LAB. We first focus on the available expression systems, their improvement towards “food-grade” status, and modes of regulating the expression. LAB have been used as vehicles for the delivery of proteins to the mucosal surfaces. Delivered proteins may interact with the immune system and have been shown to be effective, either as vaccines or as toleranceinducing, anti-allergy agents in mice. Proteins with biological functions that could be used in therapy have also been delivered. Delivery of interleukin 10 (IL-10) in Crohn's disease, which was tested in a human phase I clinical trial and has proceeded to phase IIa, is the first example of use of recombinant LAB in humans. Another field of recombinant LAB application is metabolic engineering. Existing metabolic pathways have been modified to improve the properties of LAB as food fermentation starters, and heterologous metabolic enzymes have been introduced to LAB for the production of industrially relevant chemicals.

Peroxidases are hemoenzymes with a wide range of applications, from fine chemical synthesis to environmental biocatalysis. These outstanding biocatalysts are able to catalyze reactions such as heteroatom oxidation (Nand S-oxidation), epoxidation, hydroxylation, and the oxidation of alcohols and indole, often giving high yields and enantiomeric excess values. This makes these biocatalysts very useful for application to several biotechnological processes. In this paper, recent advances and patents surrounding the use of peroxidases are reviewed, covering different aspects related to the applications of peroxidases and the modifications carried out to improve their functionality as biocatalysts.

Launching a new drug on the market is an extremely time-consuming and expensive process. The total costs from the lab bench to the patient's bedside are in the range of $800 million for each new compound. Innovative preclinical assays are urgently needed to select the most promising drug candidates. High-throughput molecular screening does not provide information on the effects on cellular functions. Testing on animals is expensive, ethically controversial, and poorly predictive of the response in humans. Conventional two-dimensional (2D) cellular assays do not accurately reflect the drug response in vivo. To overcome these limitations, biotechnologists are developing three-dimensional (3D) cultures. 3D cultures provide more accurate compound screening and can eliminate toxic and ineffective substances at an early stage. Moreover, 3D cultures can accomplish the 3R agenda (refinement, reduction, and replacement) for the replacement of toxicity testing on animals. We provide an up-to-date overview on the patents in the field.

As cosmetic technology advances, there is an increasing need to use new active ingredients in the development of cosmetic products. In the last few years application of fullerene C60 and its derivates in cosmetics has been intensively tested. Fullerenes display a wide range of biological activities. Potent scavenging capacities against radical oxygen species (ROS) and excellent potential as biological antioxidants made fullerenes suitable active compounds in the preparation of skin rejuvenation cosmetic formulations. Currently published evidence on biological activities of fullerenes relevant for their cosmetic use and examples of published patents to illustrate application of fullerenes in cosmetic technology are presented. Future trends in the development of cosmetic formulations including fullerenes are discussed.

This review provides a broad overview of recent patents and developments in the field of small scale bioreactors. The scope of the work will focus on vessels from about 500 ml down to the submilliliter scale. This field of research is of acknowledged relevance, since the rational use of these devices is contributing to speeding up several areas of bioprocessing, in particular due to their intrinsic capability for high throughput. Within such framework, small scale bioreactors are currently used for a wide array of applications, from cell screening to process optimization. Small scale bioreactors are available in different working volumes, configurations and architectures, each of those presenting advantages and limitations. These issues will be tackled in the present work, which will thus address both shaken vessels, such as Erlenmeyer and microtiter plates, as well as miniature bioreactors, which are literally scaled down versions of bench/pilot scale reactors. Reference will be made to commercially available platforms that allow for parallel operation. Considerations will also be made on the necessary requirements for the effective use of the data gathered using these devices in bioprocess development.

About 300 of steroid drugs have been identified since the research and development to steroid drugs was triggered in 1950's. Although much progress in microbial biotransformation on steroid drugs is well-achieved, many efforts are ongoing in order to improve the efficiency of steroidal drug production as well as to degrade their derivatives. In this work an overview of recent and important findings related to patents and various microbial biotransformations of steroidal compounds including dehydrogenation/reduction, hydroxylation, esterification, methylation, halogenation and methoxylation is presented. Both metabolic pathway and genetic manipulation and screening for new strains capable of metabolizing/transforming steroid drugs, as the powerful endocrine disruptors, are introduced since they are serious environmental contaminants.

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