Bioreactors: design and operation.

The bioreactor provides a central link between the starting feedstock and the product. The reaction yield and selectivity are determined by the biocatalyst, but productivity is often determined by the process technology; as a consequence, biochemical reaction engineering becomes the interface for the biologist and engineer. Developments in bioreactor design, including whole cell immobilization, immobilized enzymes, continuous reaction, and process control, will increasingly reflect the need for cross-disciplinary interaction in the biochemical process industry.

An enzymatic system for removing heparin in extracorporeal therapy.

The need to fully heparinize patients undergoing extracorporeal therapy often leads to hemorrhagic complications. To enable heparinization of only the extracorporeal circuit, a blood filter containing immobilized heparinase was developed. This filter degraded 99 percent of heparin's anticoagulant activity within minutes in both canine and human blood.

Leveraging Industry-Academia Collaborations in Adaptive Biomedical Innovation.

Despite the rapid pace of biomedical innovation, research and development (R&D) productivity in the pharmaceutical industry has not improved broadly. Increasingly, firms need to leverage new approaches to product development and commercial execution, while maintaining adaptability to rapid changes in the marketplace and in biomedical science. Firms are also seeking ways to capture some of the talent, infrastructure, and innovation that depends on federal R&D investment. As a result, a major transition to external innovation is taking place across the industry. One example of these external innovation initiatives is the Sanofi-MIT Partnership, which provided seed funding to MIT investigators to develop novel solutions and approaches in areas of interest to Sanofi. These projects were highly collaborative, with information and materials flowing both ways. The relatively small amount of funding and short time frame of the awards built an adaptable and flexible process to advance translational science.

Mode of action of heparin lyase on heparin.

Heparinase (heparin lyase, EC 4.2.2.7) prepared from Flavobacterium heparinum was used to digest heparin. The products of digestion were examined with a viscosometric assay at various stages of the reaction to measure their average molecular weight. By comparison with computer simulations of various models, heparinase was shown to act in a random endolytic mode. The relative abundance of intermediates in heparin degradation catalyzed by heparinase immobilized on Sepharose 4B was measured by high pressure liquid chromatography (HPLC) at various time points. The results obtained using HPLC were consistent with a random endolytic mechanism. The heparin digestion products were separated and identified using gel permeation chromatography. The final distributions of heparin degradation products for free and immobilized heparinase were identical. Contaminating sulfatases and glycuronidases which could have subsequently acted on heparin degradation products were not found in significant amounts in the heparinase preparation studied.

Experiments and calculations concerning a thermal enzyme probe.

A simple device capable of measuring almost any reactant in an enzyme-catalyzed reaction is created when an enzyme is immobilized onto one thermal sensor of a differential thermometer. Experiments are described in which two thermistors, one bare and one coated with immobilized enzyme, are immersed in a well-stirred solution. The response of this device to increases in glucose-ATP concentration was observed using hexokinase (ATP:D-hexose 6-phosphotransferase, EC 2.7.1.1), and to increases in glucose concentration using glucose oxidase (beta-D-glucose:oxygen 1-oxidoreductase, EC 1.1.3.4). A simple model is presented whose predictions are in reasonable agreement with the experimental results.

Fermentation monitoring.

Fermentation monitoring continues to be the focus of much research. Over the last year, important strides were made in improving bioprocess monitoring using NADH fluorescence, viscosity, affinity techniques, enzyme and microbial sensors, calorimetry, flow injection analysis and bioluminescence. Better fermentation monitoring is important for improving understanding, operation, development and control of the process. We expect progress in these areas of research to continue. In addition, we highlight some non-conventional approaches.

Large-scale production of pharmaceutical-grade plasmid DNA for gene therapy: problems and bottlenecks.

Gene therapy is a promising process for the prevention, treatment and cure of diseases such as cancer, acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) and cystic fibrosis. One of the methods used to administer therapeutic genes is the direct injection of naked or lipid-coated plasmid DNA, but this requires considerable amounts of plasmid DNA. There are several problems and bottlenecks associated with the design and operation of large-scale processes for the production of pharmaceutical-grade plasmid DNA for gene therapy.

Immobilized mammalian cell cultivation in hollow fiber bioreactors.

Cultivation of animal cells for the production of recombinant proteins is an important method for manufacturing complex proteins requiring posttranslational processing. One of the often considered methods for cultivation is by immobilization of the cells in hollow fiber bioreactors (HFBRs). These systems allow the cells to grow to high densities in a shear protected environment; furthermore the product can be accumulated in high concentration in the case of ultrafiltration HFBRs. Operation and scale-up are constrained by nutrient and product transport with oxygen transfer to growing cells being the most critical parameter. Mathematical models describing HFBRs have proved to be useful in quantitating and understanding the constraints and guiding the scale-up of this approach to animal cell cultivation.

An overview of continuous protein purification processes.

As the sphere of influence of recombinant technology moves away from the laboratory bench, towards product commercialization, development of manufacturing and large scale process technology is becoming a major challenge and determinant for commercial success. The challenge is particularly acute for protein purification process development where protein purification costs tend to dominate overall process economics. The primary objective for process scale purification is to minimize cost for a purified product which meets specifications. Continuous processes may be used to facilitate achievement of the overall objectives. This review critically examines the use of continuous processing for protein purification and recovery operations. The processes have been divided into three general areas: adsorptive and chromatographic, electrophoretic, and extractive. Consideration is given to the operational advantages and limitations of the reviewed processes.

Removal of the anticoagulant activities of the low molecular weight heparin fractions and fragments with flavobacterial heparinase.

Recently, the development of low molecular weight heparin fractions and fragments (LMHF) as potential antithrombotic agents has gained increased attention. However, the lack of antagonists to neutralize the anticoagulant effects of these drugs may seriously exclude them from possible uses in extracorporeal therapy. This is mainly because of the concern that the high dosage of the drugs employed in extracorporeal therapy could lead to serious bleeding risks. Our earlier work has demonstrated that immobilized heparinase can remove polydisperse heparin both in vitro and in vivo. To examine whether such a system may be used as a novel approach to neutralize the anticoagulant effects of LMHF, different LMHF were tested using heparinase. In vitro data showed that both the APTT and anti-FXa activities of the LMHF including Kabi 2165, PK 10169, Cy 216 and CY 222 were nearly completely eliminated by heparinase in less than 20 min. This study suggests that an immobilized heparinase system may be an useful element for the acceptance of the LMHF for their use in extracorporeal therapy.

Measurement and synthesis of insoluble and soluble dextran by Streptococcus mutans.

Total and insoluble dextransucrase activities of 10 strains of oral streptococci were measured by a modified filter disk assay. Strains that were nonadherent to hard surfaces had only low levels of insoluble dextransucrase activity. A physical rather than metabolic mechanism is suggested to explain the decreased insoluble and increased soluble activities observed when dextran T-10 is added to the media.

Effects of oxygen on recombinant protein expression.

Efforts to increase cell growth and protein yields need to be complemented by the maintenance of the quality of the protein produced. Elevated oxygen pressure or rapid increases in oxygen content can cause oxidative stress within the cells, leading to oxidation of specific proteins and nucleotide sequences. In addition, transient or steady-state anoxic conditions can cause limitations in amino acid production and plasmid stability. Major pathways and mechanisms of oxidative damage to proteins expressed in bacteria are reviewed. Damage to nucleic acids involved in gene expression also is considered. The methodologies for identifying oxidative damage to macromolecules are improving but are not yet adequate for on-line feedback. This limits our ability to integrate information about these phenomena and the cellular responses into a quantitative model. Enough information is available, however, to consider changes in the time profile of dissolved oxygen as a cause for poor process performance.

Studies on the overproduction of indole-containing metabolites by a methanol-utilizing yeast : Hansenula polymorpha.

Production of indole-containing metabolites ("indoles") from methanol has been studied using a mutant ofHansenula polymorpha resistant to 5-fluorotryptophan. Whereas the wild-type culture produces only a small amount of indoles, the mutant is partially deregulated and overproduces indoles. Indoles production was studied in batch and continuous culture and in a washed-cell system. When the pH was above 4.0, indoles production was growth-associated, in both minimal and complex media, and batch or continuous culture. When the pH was below or equal to 4.0, a low phosphate concentration was found to improve production. In a phosphate-deficient washed-cell suspension system, the addition of an amino acid such as methionine at 5 mM increased specific productivity by more than 60%. Addition of cycloheximide at 50 mg/L decreased residual growth and increased maximum productivity of indoles by more than 60%. When the antibiotic was added at 1000 mg/L, growth was completely inhibited and indoles production continued for about 35 h.

Oxygen limitation on L-serine production in a hollow-fiber bioreactor.

Pseudomonas AM1 utilizes glycine and methanol to produce L-serine aerobically. The consumption of methanol in this bioconversion is stoichiometrically in excess of L-serine production. Consequently, the oxygen requirement associated with L-serine production is higher than expected for the conversion from glycine. One method of L-serine production investigated was a technique utilizing a hollow-fiber ultrafiltration cartridge as a bioreactor. Oxygen diffusion limitations appear to impede the consumption of methanol and, consequently, the production of L-serine in such a reactor. Methanol consumption data agree with predictions based on a hollow-fiber diffusion model.

The release of heparinase from the periplasmic space of Flavobacterium heparinum by three-step osmotic shock.

Heparinase was released from the periplasmic space of Flavobacterium heparinum by three-step osmotic shock procedure. The procedure involves resuspending exponentially growing cells consecutively into (1) 40% sucrose, (2) 10 mM sodium phosphate, 2 mM magnesium chloride, pH 7, and (3) 10 mM sodium phosphate, 300 mM sodium chloride, 2 mM magnesium chloride, pH 7. Typically, 50-75% of the total heparinase activity is recovered by this procedure with an observed 7-15-fold increase in purity. The majority of heparinase activity is released in the final step of the procedure allowing for resolution from cytoplasmic and nonspecific periplasmic material. F. heparinum cells can be stored in 40% sucrose at 4 degrees C for up to one week without significant losses in recovery yields.

Large scale preparation and characterization of mucopolysaccharase contamination free heparinase.

By a combination of hydroxylapatite chromatography and negative adsorption on QAE-Sephadex at pH 8.3, heparinase (E.C.4.2.2.7) can be successfully isolated from all the other mucopolysaccharase contaminants present in Flavobacterium heparinum. Hydroxylapatite isolates heparinase primarily from chondroitinases, hyaluronidase, and most glycuronidases. QAE-Sephadex chromatography at pH 8.3 further separates heparinase from heparitinases, sulfatases, and the remaining glycuronidases. The heparinase preparation thus obtained contains no statistically significant levels of other contaminating mucopolysaccharases except for heparitinases that are present at an apparent maximum level of 3.4%. Owing to the presence of a crossreaction of heparinase on heparitin sulfate at conditions employed for the assay of heparitinase, the heparitinase level of 3.4% could be misleading because of the action of heparinase on heparitin sulfate. Characterization of this heparinase preparation shows that the enzyme has an optimum salt concentration of 0.08M NaCl, an optimum pH of 6.5, an activation energy of 5 kcal/mol, and a Km of 7.95 X 10(-6) M. These parameters are almost identical to those displayed by a homogeneous heparinase preparation. The method described here is suitable for scale-up purposes using batch chromatographic procedures.

Polysaccharide lyases.

Polysaccharide lyases (or eliminases) are a class of enzymes (EC 4.2.2.-) that act to cleave certain activated glycosidic linkages present in acidic polysaccharides. These enzymes act through an eliminase mechanism, rather than through hydrolysis, resulting in unsaturated oligosaccharide products. Acidic polysaccharides are ubiquitous and so are the lyases that degrade them. This review article examines lyases that act on acidic polysaccharides of plant, animal, and microbial origin. These lyases are predominantly of microbial origin and come from a wide variety of both pathogenic and nonpathogenic bacteria and fungi. The lyases discussed include alginate lyase (EC 4.2.2.3), pectin lyase (EC 4.2.2.10), pectate lyase (EC 4.2.2.2), oligogalacturonide lyase (EC 4.2.2.6), exopolygalacturonate lyase (EC 4.2.2.9), chondroitin lyases (EC 4.2.2.4 and EC 4.2.2.5), hyaluronate lyase (EC 4.2.2.1), heparin lyase (EC 4.2.2.7), heparan lyase (EC 4.2.2.8), and other unclassified lyases. This review examines the sources, regulation, purification, and properties of these polysaccharide lyases.

An immobilized microbial heparinase for blood deheparinization.

A new medical application of an immobilized microbial enzyme is described. Extracorporeal devices require systemic heparin administration to prevent thrombus formation; however, the use of heparin often leads to serious hemorrhagic complications. Heparinase isolated from Flavobacterium has been immobilized and used in a fluidized bed reactor to eliminate heparin from blood passing through an extracorporeal circuit both in vitro and in vivo. This paper discusses the stepwise development of this heparinase reactor including: (1) improvements in the fermentation resulting in an inexpensive large-scale source of heparinase without the addition of the previously required inducer, heparin; (2) the use of batch processes to adapt previous purification schemes to large-scale heparinase production and the subsequent purification of heparinase to a single SDS-PAGE banding protein; (3) the immobilization of heparinase with a 91% activity recovery and good stability, (4) the design and successful testing of a fluidized bed reactor containing immobilized heparinase in the removal of clinically used quantities of heparin from both human blood in vitro and canine blood in vivo; and (5) the initiation of animal studies focusing on the toxicology of heparinase-derived heparin degradation products and the short and long term effects of exposure to these products and to heparinase.