Indian J Microbiol. 2011 Jul;51(3):319-25. doi: 10.1007/s12088-011-0157-7. Epub 2011 Jan 30.
The pharmaceutically important compound N-acetylglucosamine (NAG), is used in various therapeutic formulations, skin care products and dietary supplements. Currently, NAG is being produced by an environment-unfriendly chemical process using chitin, a polysaccharide present in abundance in the exoskeleton of crustaceans, as a substrate. In the present study, we report the potential of an eco-friendly biological process for the production of NAG using recombinant bacterial enzymes, chitinase (CHI) and chitobiase (CHB). The treatment of chitin with recombinant CHI alone produced 8% NAG and 72% chitobiose, a homodimer of NAG. However, supplementation of the reaction mixture with another recombinant enzyme, CHB, resulted in approximately six fold increase in NAG production. The product, NAG, was confirmed by HPLC, TLC and ESI-MS studies. Conditions are being optimized for increased production of NAG from chitin.
药用重要化合物 N-乙酰葡萄糖胺(NAG)被广泛应用于各种治疗配方、护肤品和膳食补充剂中。目前,NAG 是通过一种使用甲壳素(一种存在于甲壳类动物外骨骼中的多糖)作为底物的不环保的化学方法生产的。在本研究中,我们报告了使用重组细菌酶(几丁质酶(CHI)和壳二糖酶(CHB))进行环保生物法生产 NAG 的潜力。单独用重组 CHI 处理甲壳素可产生 8%的 NAG 和 72%的壳二糖,即 NAG 的同源二聚体。然而,在反应混合物中添加另一种重组酶 CHB 可使 NAG 的产量增加约六倍。通过 HPLC、TLC 和 ESI-MS 研究证实了产物 NAG。正在优化条件以增加甲壳素中 NAG 的产量。