Li Mengli, Qin Jiufu, Xiong Kai, Jiang Bo, Zhang Tao
State Key Laboratory of Food Science and Technology, Jiangnan University, Wuxi, Jiangsu, China.
Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Biosustainability, Technical University of Denmark, Lyngby, Denmark.
Crit Rev Biotechnol. 2022 Aug;42(5):651-667. doi: 10.1080/07388551.2021.1947962. Epub 2021 Oct 6.
As a committed step in the urea cycle, arginase cleaves l-arginine to form l-ornithine and urea. l-Ornithine is essential to: cell proliferation, collagen formation and other physiological functions, while the urea cycle itself converts highly toxic ammonia to urea for excretion. Recently, arginase was exploited as an efficient catalyst for the environmentally friendly synthesis of l-ornithine, an abundant nonprotein amino acid that is widely employed as a food supplement and nutrition product. It was also proposed as an arginine-reducing agent in order to treat arginase deficiency and to be a means of depleting arginine to treat arginine auxotrophic tumors. Targeting arginase inhibitors of the arginase/ornithine pathway offers great promise as a therapy for: cardiovascular, central nervous system diseases and cancers with high arginase expression. In this review, recent advances in the characteristics, structure, catalytic mechanism and preparation of arginase were summarized, with a focus being placed on the biotechnical and medical applications of arginase. In particular, perspectives have been presented on the challenges and opportunities for the environmentally friendly utilization of arginase during l-ornithine production and in therapies.
作为尿素循环中的关键一步，精氨酸酶将L-精氨酸裂解形成L-鸟氨酸和尿素。L-鸟氨酸对细胞增殖、胶原蛋白形成及其他生理功能至关重要，而尿素循环本身则将剧毒的氨转化为尿素以便排出体外。最近，精氨酸酶被用作高效催化剂，用于环境友好地合成L-鸟氨酸，L-鸟氨酸是一种丰富的非蛋白质氨基酸，被广泛用作食品补充剂和营养产品。它还被提议作为一种精氨酸还原剂，用于治疗精氨酸酶缺乏症，并作为消耗精氨酸以治疗精氨酸营养缺陷型肿瘤的一种手段。靶向精氨酸酶/鸟氨酸途径的精氨酸酶抑制剂有望成为治疗心血管疾病、中枢神经系统疾病以及精氨酸酶高表达癌症的有效疗法。在本综述中，总结了精氨酸酶在特性、结构、催化机制及制备方面的最新进展，重点关注精氨酸酶的生物技术和医学应用。特别是，针对在L-鸟氨酸生产及治疗过程中对精氨酸酶进行环境友好利用所面临的挑战和机遇提出了观点。
