BIOCHEMICAL OXIDATION OF STEROID

• Main Authors: SLIJKHUIS HERMAN, SMAAL ERIC BASTIAAN, SELTEN GERARDUS CORNELIS MARIA
• Format: Patent
• Language: English
• Published: 09.11.1999
• Edition: 6
• Subjects: BEER; BIOCHEMISTRY; CHEMISTRY; COMPOSITIONS THEREOF; CULTURE MEDIA; ENZYMOLOGY; FERMENTATION OR ENZYME-USING PROCESSES TO SYNTHESISE A DESIREDCHEMICAL COMPOUND OR COMPOSITION OR TO SEPARATE OPTICAL ISOMERSFROM A RACEMIC MIXTURE; HUMAN NECESSITIES; HYGIENE; MEDICAL OR VETERINARY SCIENCE; METALLURGY; MICROBIOLOGY; MICROORGANISMS OR ENZYMES; MUTATION OR GENETIC ENGINEERING; ORGANIC CHEMISTRY; PREPARATIONS FOR MEDICAL, DENTAL, OR TOILET PURPOSES; PROCESSES USING MICROORGANISMS; PROPAGATING, PRESERVING OR MAINTAINING MICROORGANISMS; SPECIFIC THERAPEUTIC ACTIVITY OF CHEMICAL COMPOUNDS ORMEDICINAL PREPARATIONS; SPIRITS; STEROIDS; VINEGAR; WINE

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To economically obtain a steroid useful as a medicine or the like by incubating a sterol compound in the presence of protein(s) produced by a specific process under such conditions as to enable a steroid to be oxidized and the resulting oxidation product to be accumulated in the culture fluid. SOLUTION: This steroid is obtained by incubating a sterol compound in the presence of protein(s) under such conditions as to enable a steroid to be oxidized and the resulting oxidation product to be accumulated in the culture fluid, followed by recovering the oxidation product. The above reaction is an in vitro selective biochemical oxidation, and the above-mentioned protein(s) is produced by the following procedure: a bovine adrenocortical cDNA library is screened with a probe consisting of a partial sequence of bovine cytochrome P450 steroid 21-hydroxylase (P450 C21) gene, the P450 C21 gene thus obtained is integrated into a vector and expressed in host cells. By using the above protein(s) in the aforementioned process, hydrocortisone or the like useful as a medicine can be economically obtained by several stage oxidation of a sterol compound.