Biotechnological Approach to the Synthesis of 9α-Hydroxylated Steroids

• The steroid 9α-hydroxylase gene has been cloned from Mycobacterium smegmatis into Escherichia coli BL21. Progesterone added to bioreactors was subjected to in vivo transformation into 9α-hydroxyprogesterone. In 7 days, 43.6 mg9α-hydroxyprogesterone was formed from 53.8 mg/L progesterone. The enzyme also has shown evidence of processing 4-androstene-3,17-dione in vivo. An extensive analytical method development, including LLE, HPLC-DAD, MS, andNMR was performed to verify the product and to enable a quantitative analysis. Protocols for analytical and preparative separation have been developed, using binaphtol as internal standard. Both the growth pattern and the bioconversion ratewere unaffected by the presence of binaphtol in the bioreactor. The enzyme was purified by immobilised metal affinity and ion exchange chromatography, resulting in low in vitro activity.

Subject headings

NATURVETENSKAP  -- Kemi (hsv//swe)

NATURAL SCIENCES  -- Chemical Sciences (hsv//eng)

Keyword

Progesterone

4-Androstene-3

17-dione

Steroid

9α-Hydroxylation

9α-Hydroxyprogesterone

Recombinant expression

Chemistry

Kemi

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

art (subject category)