Selective Modifications of Steroids Performed by Oxidative Enzymes

Research on steroid biooxidation is being pursued for development of processes exploitable by the pharmaceutical industry, and also for the purpose of preparation of potentially useful steroid analogues which are otherwise inaccessible. The use of enzymes provides high regio- and stereoselectivity of the reaction to be performed. In this work a review of recent and important findings related to microbial and enzymatic biotransformations of steroidal compounds including hydroxylation, Baeyer-Villiger oxidation, dehydrogenation and sterol side-chain cleavage is presented, with emphasis on processes of practical biotechnological importance. Although some of these bioconversions are well-established, efforts are ongoing in order to increase their efficiency as well as to discover novel steroidal compounds and acquire recombinant microorganisms capable of performing desired steroid biotransformations.