Duckweed as an Alternative Production System for Aprotinin

Aprotinin is a natural serine protease inhibitor used in medical procedures to lower inflammatory response and reduce blood loss associated with cardiac and liver surgery. This compound is also significant in preventing degradation of protein products in research and manufacturing processes and has been administered as a treatment for acute pancreatitis. Aprotinin was first identified in bovine lungs, but can also be obtained from recombinant yeasts.  

Although aprotinin-producing transgenic maize has been previously developed, an alternative production system for aprotinin was conducted in Spirodela a member of the duckweed family, using genetic modification. Twenty five Spirodela lines were generated producing up to 3.7% water soluble aprotinin, an amount comparable to industrial production. Aprotinin-produced in transgenic Spirodela can be collected continuously by passing the growth medium through an immuno-affinity column, reducing time and cost of extraction. Alternatively aprotinin can be concentrated from the growth medium after harvest of the plants, and then purified. The aprotinin molecules obtained from the growth medium have amino acid sequence and splicing patterns similar to the original, which is a plus for industrial production. Studies are now being made regarding the kinetics of the protein’s release in the growth medium and the use of other signal peptides to further increase the yield.    

Subscribers can access the full paper published by the journal Transgenic Research at http://www.springerlink.com/content/6531187h6lwj4352/fulltext.html