Metabolically engineered Saccharomyces cerevisiae for enhanced isoamyl alcohol production.

Higher chain alcohols have gained much attention as next generation transport fuels because of their higher energy density and low moisture absorption capacity compared to ethanol. In the present study, we attempted to engineer Saccharomyces cerevisiae for the synthesis of isoamyl alcohol via de novo leucine biosynthetic pathway coupled with Ehrlich degradation pathway. To achieve high-level production of isoamyl alcohol, two strategies are used in the current study: (1) reconstruction of a chromosome-based leucine biosynthetic pathway under the control of galactose-inducible promoters; (2) overexpression of the mitochondrial 2-isopropylmalate (α-IPM) transporter to boost the transportation of α-IPM from mitochondria to the cytosol. We found engineered yeast cells with a combinatorially assembled leucine biosynthetic pathway coupled with the Ehrlich degradation pathway resulted in high-level production of isoamyl alcohol; however, there was still a significant amount of isobutanol co-formed during the fermentation process. Further introducing an α-IPM transporter not only boosted the isoamyl alcohol biosynthetic pathway activity but also reduced isobutanol to a much lower level. Taken together, our work represents the first study to construct a chromosome-based leucine biosynthetic pathway for isoamyl alcohol production. Furthermore, the utilization of the mitochondrial compartment coupled with the transporter engineering serves as an effective approach to minimize the by-product formation and to improve the isoamyl alcohol production.

Engineering the leucine biosynthetic pathway for isoamyl alcohol overproduction in Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

Isoamyl alcohol can be used not only as a biofuel, but also as a precursor for various chemicals. Saccharomyces cerevisiae inherently produces a small amount of isoamyl alcohol via the leucine degradation pathway, but the yield is very low. In the current study, several strategies were devised to overproduce isoamyl alcohol in budding yeast. The engineered yeast cells with the cytosolic isoamyl alcohol biosynthetic pathway produced significantly higher amounts of isobutanol over isoamyl alcohol, suggesting that the majority of the metabolic flux was diverted to the isobutanol biosynthesis due to the broad substrate specificity of Ehrlich pathway enzymes. To channel the key intermediate 2-ketosiovalerate (KIV) towards α-IPM biosynthesis, we introduced an artificial protein scaffold to pull dihydroxyacid dehydratase and α-IPM synthase into the close proximity, and the resulting strain yielded more than twofold improvement of isoamyl alcohol. The best isoamyl alcohol producer yielded 522.76 ± 38.88 mg/L isoamyl alcohol, together with 540.30 ± 48.26 mg/L isobutanol and 82.56 ± 8.22 mg/L 2-methyl-1-butanol. To our best knowledge, our work represents the first study to bypass the native compartmentalized α-IPM biosynthesis pathway for the isoamyl alcohol overproduction in budding yeast. More importantly, artificial protein scaffold based on the feature of quaternary structure of enzymes would be useful in improving the catalytic efficiency and the product specificity of other enzymatic reactions.

Mitochondrial acetyl-CoA utilization pathway for terpenoid productions.

Acetyl-CoA is a central molecule in the metabolism of the cell, which is also a precursor molecule to a variety of value-added products such as terpenoids and fatty acid derived molecules. Considering subcellular compartmentalization of metabolic pathways allows higher concentrations of enzymes, substrates and intermediates, and bypasses competing pathways, mitochondrion-compartmentalized acetyl-CoA utilization pathways might offer better pathway activities with improved product yields. As a proof-of-concept, we sought to explore a mitochondrial farnesyl pyrophosphate (FPP) biosynthetic pathway for the biosynthesis of amorpha-4,11-diene in budding yeast. In the present study, the eight-gene FPP biosynthetic pathway was successfully expressed inside yeast mitochondria to enable high-level amorpha-4,11-diene production. In addition, we also found the mitochondrial compartment serves as a partial barrier for the translocation of FPP from mitochondria into the cytosol, which would potentially allow minimized loss of FPP to cytosolic competing pathways. To our best knowledge, this is the first report to harness yeast mitochondria for terpenoid productions from the mitochondrial acetyl-CoA pool. We envision subcellular metabolic engineering might also be employed for an efficient production of other bio-products from the mitochondrial acetyl-CoA in other eukaryotic organisms.

Genome-scale metabolic modeling and in silico analysis of lipid accumulating yeast Candida tropicalis for dicarboxylic acid production.

Recently, the bio-production of α,ω-dicarboxylic acids (DCAs) has gained significant attention, which potentially leads to the replacement of the conventional petroleum-based products. In this regard, the lipid accumulating yeast Candida tropicalis, has been recognized as a promising microbial host for DCA biosynthesis: it possess the unique ω-oxidation pathway where the terminal carbon of α-fatty acids is oxidized to form DCAs with varying chain lengths. However, despite such industrial importance, its cellular physiology and lipid accumulation capability remain largely uncharacterized. Thus, it is imperative to better understand the metabolic behavior of this lipogenic yeast, which could be achieved by a systems biological approach. To this end, herein, we reconstructed the genome-scale metabolic model of C. tropicalis, iCT646, accounting for 646 unique genes, 945 metabolic reactions, and 712 metabolites. Initially, the comparative network analysis of iCT646 with other yeasts revealed several distinctive metabolic reactions, mainly within the amino acid and lipid metabolism including the ω-oxidation pathway. Constraints-based flux analysis was, then, employed to predict the in silico growth rates of C. tropicalis which are highly consistent with the cellular phenotype observed in glucose and xylose minimal media chemostat cultures. Subsequently, the lipid accumulation capability of C. tropicalis was explored in comparison with Saccharomyces cerevisiae, indicating that the formation of "citrate pyruvate cycle" is essential to the lipid accumulation in oleaginous yeasts. The in silico flux analysis also highlighted the enhanced ability of pentose phosphate pathway as NADPH source rather than malic enzyme during lipogenesis. Finally, iCT646 was successfully utilized to highlight the key directions of C. tropicalis strain design for the whole cell biotransformation application to produce long-chain DCAs from alkanes. Biotechnol. Bioeng. 2016;113: 1993-2004. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Dynamic control of ERG9 expression for improved amorpha-4,11-diene production in Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

BACKGROUND: To achieve high-level production of non-native isoprenoid products, it requires the metabolic flux to be diverted from the production of sterols to the heterologous metabolic reactions. However, there are limited tools for restricting metabolic flux towards ergosterol synthesis. In the present study, we explored dynamic control of ERG9 expression using different ergosterol-responsive promoters to improve the production of non-native isoprenoids. RESULTS: Several ergosterol-responsive promoters were identified using quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR) analysis in an engineered strain with relatively high mevalonate pathway activity. We found mRNA levels for ERG11, ERG2 and ERG3 expression were significantly lower in the engineered strain over the reference strain BY4742, indicating these genes are transcriptionally down-regulated when ergosterol is in excess. Further replacement of the native ERG9 promoter with these ergosterol-responsive promoters revealed that all engineered strains improved amorpha-4,11-diene by 2~5-fold over the reference strain with ERG9 under its native promoter. The best engineered strain with ERG9 under the control of P ERG1 produced amorpha-4,11-diene to a titer around 350 mg/L after 96 h cultivation in shake-flasks. CONCLUSIONS: We envision dynamic control at the branching step using feedback regulation at transcriptional level could serve as a generalized approach for redirecting the metabolic flux towards product-of-interest.

Combinatorial engineering of mevalonate pathway for improved amorpha-4,11-diene production in budding yeast.

Combinatorial genome integration of mevalonate pathway genes was performed with the aim of optimizing the metabolic flux for improved production of terpenoids in budding yeast. In the present study, we developed a novel δ-integration platform to achieve multiple genome integrations through modulating the concentration of antibiotics. By exploiting carotenoid biosynthesis as screening module, we successfully created a library of yeast colonies appeared with various intensities of orange color. As proof-of-concept that carotenoid overproducers could serve to boost the titer of other terpenoids, we further tested engineered strains for the production of amorpha-4,11-diene, an important precursor for antimalarial drug. However, we experienced some limitations of the carotenoid-based screening approach as it was only effective in detecting a small range of pathway activity improvement and further increasing mevalonate pathway activity led to a decreased orange color. By far, we were only able to obtain one mutant strain yielded more than 13-fold amorpha-4,11-diene over parental strains, which was approximately 64 mg/L of caryophyllene equivalents. Further qPCR studies confirmed that erg10, erg13, thmg1 and erg12 involved in mevalonate pathway were overexpressed in this mutant strain. We envision the current δ-integration platform would form the basis of a generalized technique for multiple gene integrations in yeast-a method that would be of significant interest to the metabolic engineering community.

Metabolic reconstruction and flux analysis of industrial Pichia yeasts.

Pichia yeasts have been recognized as important microbial cell factories in the biotechnological industry. Notably, the Pichia pastoris and Pichia stipitis species have attracted much research interest due to their unique cellular physiology and metabolic capability: P. pastoris has the ability to utilize methanol for cell growth and recombinant protein production, while P. stipitis is capable of assimilating xylose to produce ethanol under oxygen-limited conditions. To harness these characteristics for biotechnological applications, it is highly required to characterize their metabolic behavior. Recently, following the genome sequencing of these two Pichia species, genome-scale metabolic networks have been reconstructed to model the yeasts' metabolism from a systems perspective. To date, there are three genome-scale models available for each of P. pastoris and P. stipitis. In this mini-review, we provide an overview of the models, discuss certain limitations of previous studies, and propose potential future works that can be conducted to better understand and engineer Pichia yeasts for industrial applications.

Random mutagenesis of global transcription factor cAMP receptor protein for improved osmotolerance.

The naturally existing microbial hosts can rarely satisfy industrial requirements, thus there has always been an intense effort in strain engineering to meet the needs of these bioprocesses. Here, in this work, we want to prove the concept that engineering global transcription factor cAMP receptor protein (CRP) of Escherichia coli can improve cell phenotypes. CRP is one of the global regulatory proteins that can regulate the transcription of over 400 genes in E. coli. The target phenotype in this study is strain osmotolerance. Amino acid mutations were introduced to CRP by either error-prone PCR or DNA shuffling, and the random mutagenesis libraries were subjected to enrichment selection under NaCl stress. Five CRP mutants (MT1-MT5) were selected from the error-prone PCR libraries with enhanced osmotolerance. DNA shuffling technique was employed to generate mutant MT6 with MT1-MT5 as templates. All of these variants showed much better growth in the presence of NaCl compared to the wild type, and MT6 presented the best tolerance towards NaCl. In the presence of 0.9 M NaCl, the growth rate of MT6 is 0.113 h(-1), while that of WT is 0.077 h(-1). MT6 also exhibited resistance to other osmotic stressors, such as KCl, glucose, and sucrose. DNA microarray analysis showed that genes involved in colanic acid biosynthesis are up-regulated in the absence of salt stress, whereas carbohydrate metabolic genes are differentially expressed under NaCl stress when comparing MT6 to WT. Scanning electron microscopy images confirmed the elongation of both WT and MT6 when exposed to NaCl but the cell surface of MT6 was relatively smooth.

EBV up-regulates cytochrome c through VDAC1 regulations and decreases the release of cytoplasmic Ca2+ in the NPC cell line.

EBV (Epstein-Barr virus) is considered to be a major factor that causes NPC (nasopharyngeal carcinoma), which is one of the sneakiest cancers frequently occurring in Southeast Asia and Southern China. Apoptosis and pro-apoptotic signals have been studied for decades; however, few have extended the prevailing view of EBV to its impact on NPC in perspective of apoptosis. One of the important proteins named VDAC1 (voltage-dependent anion protein 1) on the mitochondrial outer membrane controls the pro-apoptotic signals in mammalian cells. The impact of EBV infection on VDAC1 and related apoptotic signals remains unclear. In order to study the VDAC1's role in EBV-infected NPC cells, we employ siRNA (small interfering RNA) inhibition to analyse the release of Ca2+ and Cyto c (cytochrome c) signals in the cytoplasm, as they are important pro-apoptotic signals. The results show a decrease of Ca2+ release and up-regulation of Cyto c with EBV infection. After siRNA transfection, the dysregulation of Cyto c is neutralized, which is evidence that the level of Cyto c release in virus-infected NPC cells is the as same as that of non-infected NPC cells. This result indicates that EBV infection changes the cytoplasmic level of Cyto c through regulating VDAC1. In summary, this study reports that EBV changes the release of Ca2+ and Cyto c in the cytoplasm of NPC cells, and that Cyto c changes are mediated by VDAC1 regulation.

Nanotube-supported bioproduction of 4-hydroxy-2-butanone via in situ cofactor regeneration.

Nicotinamide cofactor-dependent oxidoreductases have been widely employed during the bioproduction of varieties of useful compounds. Efficient cofactor regeneration is often required for these biotransformation reactions. Herein, we report the synthesis of an important pharmaceutical intermediate 4-hydroxy-2-butanone (4H2B) via an immobilized in situ cofactor regeneration system composed of NAD(+)-dependent glycerol dehydrogenase (GlyDH) and NAD(+)-regenerating NADH oxidase (nox). Both enzymes were immobilized on functionalized single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) through the specific interaction between the His-tagged enzymes and the modified SWCNTs. GlyDH demonstrated ca. 100% native enzyme activity after immobilization. The GlyDH/nox ratio, pH, and amount of nicotinamide cofactor were examined to establish the optimum reaction conditions for 4H2B production. The nanoparticle-supported cofactor regeneration system become more stable and the yield of 4H2B turned out to be almost twice (37%) that of the free enzyme system after a 12-h reaction. Thus, we believe that this non-covalent specific immobilization procedure can be applied to cofactor regeneration system for bioconversions.

Engineering global transcription factor cyclic AMP receptor protein of Escherichia coli for improved 1-butanol tolerance.

One major challenge in biofuel production, including biobutanol production, is the low tolerance of the microbial host towards increasing biofuel concentration during fermentation. Here, we have demonstrated that Escherichia coli 1-butanol tolerance can be greatly enhanced through random mutagenesis of global transcription factor cyclic AMP receptor protein (CRP). Four mutants (MT1-MT4) with elevated 1-butanol tolerance were isolated from error-prone PCR libraries through an enrichment screening. A DNA shuffling library was then constructed using MT1-MT4 as templates and one mutant (MT5) that exhibited the best tolerance ability among all variants was selected. In the presence of 0.8 % (v/v, 6.5 g/l) 1-butanol, the growth rate of MT5 was found to be 0.28 h(-1) while that of wild type was 0.20 h(-1). When 1-butanol concentration increased to 1.2 % (9.7 g/l), the growth rate of MT5 (0.18 h(-1)) became twice that of the wild type (0.09 h(-1)). Microbial adhesion to hydrocarbon test showed that cell surface of MT5 was less hydrophobic and its cell length became significantly longer in the presence of 1-butanol, as observed by scanning electron microscopy. Quantitative real-time reverse transcription PCR analysis revealed that several CRP regulated, 1-butanol stress response related genes (rpoH, ompF, sodA, manX, male, and marA) demonstrated differential expression in MT5 in the presence or absence of 1-butanol. In conclusion, direct manipulation of the transcript profile through engineering global transcription factor CRP can provide a useful tool in strain engineering.

A comparative proteomic analysis of HepG2 cells incubated by S(-) and R(+) enantiomers of anti-coagulating drug warfarin.

Warfarin is a commonly prescribed oral anti-coagulant with narrow therapeutic index. It interferes with vitamin K cycle to achieve anti-coagulating effects. Warfarin has two enantiomers, S(-) and R(+) and undergoes stereoselective metabolism, with the S(-) enantiomer being more effective. We reported that the intracellular protein profile in HepG2 cells incubated with S(-) and R(+) warfarin, using iTRAQ-coupled 2-D LC-MS/MS. In samples incubated with S(-) and R(+) warfarin alone, the multi-task protein Protein SET showed significant elevation in cells incubated with S(-) warfarin but not in those incubated with R(+) warfarin. In cells incubated with individual enantiomers of warfarin in the presence of vitamin K, protein disulfide isomerase A3 which is known as a glucose-regulated protein, in cells incubated with S(-) warfarin was found to be down-regulated compared to those incubated with R(+) warfarin. In addition, Protein DJ-1 and 14-3-3 Proteinsigma were down-regulated in cells incubated with either S(-) or R(+) warfarin regardless of the presence of vitamin K. Our results indicated that Protein DJ-1 may act as an enzyme for expression of essential enzymes in vitamin K cycle. Taken together, our findings provided molecular evidence on a comprehensive protein profile on warfarin-cell interaction, which may shed new lights on future improvement of warfarin therapy.

Engineering of glycerol dehydrogenase for improved activity towards 1, 3-butanediol.

The objective of this study was to use protein engineering techniques to enhance the catalytic activity of glycerol dehydrogenase (GlyDH) on racemic 1, 3-butanediol (1, 3-BDO) for the bioproduction of the important pharmaceutical intermediate 4-hydroxy-2-butanone. Three GlyDH genes (gldA) from Escherichia coli K-12, Salmonella enterica, and Klebsiella pneumoniae MGH78578 were shuffled to generate a random mutagenesis library. The nitroblue tetrazolium/phenazine methosulfate high throughput screening protocol was used to select four chimeric enzymes with up to a 2.6-fold improved activity towards 1, 3-BDO. A rational design method was also employed to further improve the enzyme activity after DNA shuffling. Based on the homology model of GlyDH (Escherichia coli), Asp121 was predicted to influence 1, 3-BDO binding and replaced with Ala by site-directed mutagenesis. Combination of the mutations from both DNA shuffling and rational design produced the best mutant with a V (max) value of 126.6 U/mg, a 26-fold activity increase compared with that of the wild type GlyDH from E. coli.

Comparative proteomics analysis of vascular smooth muscle cells incubated with S- and R-enantiomers of atenolol using iTRAQ-coupled two-dimensional LC-MS/MS.

Atenolol is a beta(1)-selective drug, which exerts greater blocking activity on beta(1)-adrenoreceptors than on beta(2)-adrenoreceptors, with the S-enantiomer being more active than R-enantiomer. The aim of this study was to investigate the proteins with differential protein expression levels in the proteome of vascular smooth muscle cells (A7r5) incubated separately with individual enantiomers of atenolol using an iTRAQ-coupled two-dimensional LC-MS/MS approach. Our results indicated that some calcium-binding proteins such as calmodulin, protein S100-A11, protein S100-A4, and annexin A6 were down-regulated and showed relatively lower protein levels in cells incubated with the S-enantiomer of atenolol than those incubated with the R-enantiomer, whereas metabolic enzymes such as aspartate aminotransferase, glutathione S-transferase P, NADH-cytochrome b(5) reductase, and alpha-N-acetylgalactosaminidase precursor were up-regulated and displayed higher protein levels in cells incubated with the S-enantiomer relative to those incubated with the R-enantiomer. The involvement of NADH-cytochrome b(5) reductase in the intracellular anabolic activity was validated by NAD+/NADH assay with a higher ratio of NAD+/NADH correlating with a higher proportion of NAD+. The down-regulation of the calcium-binding proteins was possibly involved in the lower intracellular Ca2+ concentration in A7r5 cells incubated with the S-enantiomer of atenolol. Ca2+ signals transduced by calcium-binding proteins acted on cytoskeletal proteins such as nestin and beta-tropomyosin, which can play a complex role in phenotypic modulation and regulation of the cytoskeletal modeling. Our preliminary results thus provide molecular evidence on the metabolic effect and possible link of calcium-binding proteins with treatment of hypertension associated with atenolol.

Protein profile in hepatitis B virus replicating rat primary hepatocytes and HepG2 cells by iTRAQ-coupled 2-D LC-MS/MS analysis: Insights on liver angiogenesis.

Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection and in particular Hepatitis B Virus X Protein have been shown to modulate angiogenesis. However, a comprehensive and coordinated mechanism in the HBV-induced angiogenesis remains to be established. In this study, transient transfection of replicative HBV genome was carried out in rat primary hepatocytes (RPHs) as well as HepG2 cells. Angiogenesis was assessed by tube formation assay. 2-D LC-MS/MS analysis was used to detect differentially expressed proteins in cells, supporting HBV replication compared with those transfected with the empty vector. A cell-based HBV replication was established in both RPHs and HepG2 cells. HBV replication-induced angiogenesis was indicated by tube formation of endothelial cells cultured in condition medium from RPHs or HepG2 cells supporting HBV replication. Enzymes associated with angiogenesis, namely fumarate hydratase and tryptophanyl-tRNA synthetase, were identified by 2-D LC-MS/MS analysis in HBV replicating RPHs and HepG2 cells. Our results indicated that the application of quantitative proteomics based on iTRAQ can be an effective approach to evaluate the effects of HBV replication on liver angiogenesis. The angiogenesis-associated proteins identified in our study may eventually lead to novel anti-angiogenic hepatocellular carcinoma cancer therapy based on tumor vascular targeting or be the markers for hepatocellular carcinoma diagnosis.

Protein profile in neuroblastoma cells incubated with S- and R-enantiomers of ibuprofen by iTRAQ-coupled 2-D LC-MS/MS analysis: possible action of induced proteins on Alzheimer's disease.

Ibuprofen is a member of the proprionic acid group of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAID), with the S-enantiomer being more active than the R-enantiomer. It has been shown to display protective effects against neuroinflammation, which is linked to the pathogenesis of several neurodegenerative disorders, including Alzheimer's disease (AD). While its prophylactic effect on AD has been suggested, a comprehensive understanding of its mechanism of action remains unclear. Using iTRAQ-coupled 2-D LC-MS/MS analysis, we report here the first study of protein profiles of neuroblastoma cells incubated separately with the two enantiomers of ibuprofen. Three types of cellular proteins, including metabolic enzymes, signaling molecules and cytoskeletal proteins, displayed changes. The changes in the level of a number of enzymes involved in fatty acid synthesis and antioxidant activity in cells incubated with the S-enantiomer were further supported by the real-time PCR analysis as well as the reduced level of reactive oxygen species in cells incubated with the S-enantiomer of ibuprofen. Our findings, therefore, provide the possible mechanism of ibuprofen-induced proteins on AD, and the beneficial effects of ibuprofen in reducing the development of AD.

Production of bioactive human beta-defensin 5 and 6 in Escherichia coli by soluble fusion expression.

This work reports the first successful recombinant expression and purification of human beta-defensin 5 (HBD5) and human beta-defensin 6 (HBD6) in Escherichia coli. HBD5 and HBD6 are cationic antimicrobial peptides with three conserved cysteine disulfide bonds. Two codon-optimized sequences coding the HBD5 gene (sHBD5) and HBD6 gene (sHBD6), respectively, were synthesized, and each gene fused with thioredoxin A (TrxA) to construct the expression vectors. The plasmids were transformed into E. coli BL21 (DE3) strains and cultured in MBL medium, which gave high volumetric productivity of HBD5 and HBD6 fusion proteins of up to 1.49 g L(-1) and 1.57 g L(-1), respectively. Soluble HBD5 and HBD6 fusion proteins account for 95.2% and 97.6% of the total fusion proteins, respectively. After cell disruption, the soluble fusion proteins were recovered by affinity chromatography and cleaved by enterokinase. Pure HBD5 and HBD6 were recovered using cationic exchange chromatography. The overall recoveries of HBD5 and HBD6 were 38% and 35%, respectively. Importantly, both HBD5 and HBD6 products showed antimicrobial activity against E. coli but not Staphylococcus aureus. Antimicrobial activity against E. coli of both HBD5 and HBD6 were suppressed by NaCl.

Influence of the roughness, topography, and physicochemical properties of chemically modified surfaces on the heterogeneous nucleation of protein crystals.

In this study, the influence of some factors on the heterogeneous nucleation of hen egg-white lysozyme (E.C. 3.2.1.17) on a series of chemically modified surfaces has been investigated. Microbatch crystallization experiments were conducted on the microscope glass slides that were treated with poly-L-glutamic acid (PLG), poly(2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate) (P2HEMA), poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA), poly(4-vinyl pyridine) (P4VP), and (3-aminopropyl)triethoxysilane (APTES). An optical microscope with a heating/cooling stage was employed to measure the induction time of heterogeneous nucleation. The surface topography and roughness were characterized by atomic force microscopy. Contact angles for crystallization solution on the investigated surfaces were measured by a contact angle meter. From the theoretical analysis, the energetic barrier to heterogeneous nucleation was found to increase at higher contact angles and to decrease at higher roughness. Experimentally, a qualitative increase of the induction time of the heterogeneous nucleation on P2HEMA, APTES, and PMMA surfaces with the contact angle was observed. Such surfaces as P2HEMA, PLG, and APTES, which were of higher roughness, were shown to promote the heterogeneous nucleation. In addition, the surface with specific topography is expected to increase the possibility of the formation of a critical nucleus. Finally, the P4VP surface appeared to suppress the heterogeneous nucleation as a result of the electrostatic interaction between the lysozyme and P4VP molecules.

Application of direct crystallization for racemic compound propranolol hydrochloride.

The application of direct crystallization integrating with chromatography to the resolution of a racemic compound propranolol hydrochloride was studied and the crystallization progression was clearly illustrated in terms of the diagram of solubility and metastable zone widths with different enantiomeric compositions. The solubility and metastable zone widths of propranolol hydrochloride in the mixture of methanol and isopropanol were determined using an in situ Lasentec Focused Beam Reflectance Measurement (FBRM) probe. The direct crystallizations were carried out in an automatic lab reactor (Mettler Toledo LabMax) system. The optical purity of final product crystals was examined using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), HPLC and PXRD. The crystal size distribution and morphology were analyzed using Malvern Mastersizer and Jeol SEM. It was found that optically pure crystal product could be obtained within certain safe supersaturation limit and there was no evidence of polymorph or solvate/hydrate transformation during the crystallization process. There was no selectivity of crystal growth or nucleation between the pure enantiomer and its racemate when the solution reaches the temperature lower than saturation temperature of the racemate. Hence, the critical supersaturation control of a solution was essential to obtain pure enantiomers from a partially resolved racemate.

Characterization and selective crystallization of famotidine polymorphs.

Famotidine crystallizes in two different polymorphic forms: the metastable polymorph B and the stable polymorph A. In this work, solid characterization for both polymorphs has been conducted in detail. The solubility, metastable zone width and interfacial energy of both polymorphs in different solvents have been measured. The influence of solvent, cooling rate, initial concentration and the temperature of nucleation on polymorphism has been investigated. Results show that the nature of polymorph that crystallizes from solution depends on the initial concentration of the solution, solvent, cooling rate, and the temperature of nucleation. Polymorph B preferentially crystallizes only at high concentrations. When acetonitrile or methanol is used as solvent, cooling rate can affect the polymorph of product only at high concentrations. While water is used as solvent, cooling rate has no effect on the polymorph of product, and nucleation temperature is found to be the predominant controlling factor. The effect of crystallization conditions on the polymorph of famotidine can be mainly attributed to the conformational polymorphism. Finally the "polymorphic window" for famotidine crystallized from aqueous solution has been described.