A serum-free medium for colony growth and hyaluronic acid production by Streptococcus zooepidemicus NJUST01

Microbial production of hyaluronic acid: The current advances, engineering strategies and trends

Hyaluronic acid (HA) is a versatile biomolecule with applications in medicine, cosmetics, and pharmaceuticals. While traditionally extracted from animal tissues, HA is now predominantly produced through microbial fermentation. Microbial fermentation using strains such as Streptococcus zooepidemicus, Corynebacterium glutamicum, and Bacillus subtilis offers a more scalable and sustainable alternative to chemical and animal extraction methods. Recent studies reveal promising yields from engineered strains of Corynebacterium glutamicum and Bacillus subtilis, utilizing advanced metabolic and genetic techniques. Recent advancements in genetic and metabolic engineering, as well as synthetic biology, have addressed some challenges related to molecular weight, viscosity, and by-product formation. This review focuses on the microbial production of HA using engineered strains, encompassing producer organisms, metabolic engineering strategies, industrial-scale production, and key factors influencing molecular weight. Furthermore, it addresses the challenges and potential solutions associated with HA production. Additional research is necessary to develop more efficient and robust engineered strains that exhibit resistance to contamination and can utilize low-cost substrates, such as Pseudomonas putida and Halomonas spp. By overcoming these challenges, researchers can advance the industrial production of HA and expand its applications, thereby contributing to the growth of the HA market.

Hyaluronic acid production by Streptococcus zooepidemicus MW26985 using potato peel waste hydrolyzate

In this research, we examined the production of hyaluronic acid (HA) by Streptococcus zooepidemicus strain MW26985 using different substrates and potato peel waste (PPW) as an affordable substrate. First, culture medium components, including carbon and nitrogen sources, were optimized for bacterial HA production. Five different carbon sources (glucose, sucrose, lactose, sago starch, and potato starch, at a concentration of 30 g/L) and three distinct nitrogen sources (peptone, yeast extract, and ammonium sulfate, at a concentration of 10 g/L) were investigated. Glucose, among the carbon sources, and yeast extract, among nitrogen sources, produced the most HA which was determined as 1.41 g/L. Afterward, potato peel sugars were extracted by dilute acid and enzymatic hydrolysis and then employed as a cost-effective carbon source for the growth of S. zooepidemicus. Based on the results, the fermentation process yielded 0.59 g/L HA from potato peel sugars through acid hydrolysis and 0.92 g/L HA from those released by enzymatic hydrolysis. The supplementation of both hydrolyzates with glucose as an additional carbon source enhanced HA production to 0.95 g/L and 1.18 g/L using acidic and enzymatic hydrolyzates, respectively. The cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) turbidimetric method was used to evaluate the concentration of HA in the fermentation broth using the colorimetric method. Also, the peaks observed by Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy confirmed that the exopolysaccharide (EPS) was composed of HA. These observations demonstrate that potato peel residues can be a novel alternative as a carbon source for the economical production of HA by S. zooepidemicus.

Microbial Hyaluronic Acid Production: A Review

Microbial production of hyaluronic acid (HA) is an area of research that has been gaining attention in recent years due to the increasing demand for this biopolymer for several industrial applications. Hyaluronic acid is a linear, non-sulfated glycosaminoglycan that is widely distributed in nature and is mainly composed of repeating units of N-acetylglucosamine and glucuronic acid. It has a wide and unique range of properties such as viscoelasticity, lubrication, and hydration, which makes it an attractive material for several industrial applications such as cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, and medical devices. This review presents and discusses the available fermentation strategies to produce hyaluronic acid.

Comparative Economic Analysis Between Endogenous and Recombinant Production of Hyaluronic Acid

Hyaluronic acid (HA) is a biopolymer with a wide range of applications, mainly in the cosmetic and pharmaceutical sectors. Typical industrial-scale production utilizes organisms that generate HA during their developmental cycle, such as Streptococcus equi sub. zooepidemicus. However, a significant disadvantage of using Streptococcus equi sub. zooepidemicus is that it is a zoonotic pathogen, which use at industrial scale can create several risks. This creates opportunities for heterologous, or recombinant, production of HA. At an industrial scale, the recovery and purification of HA follow a series of precipitation and filtration steps. Current recombinant approaches are developing promising alternatives, although their industrial implementation has yet to be adequately assessed. The present study aims to create a theoretical framework to forecast the advantages and disadvantages of endogenous and recombinant strains in production with the same downstream strategy. The analyses included a selection of the best cost-related recombinant and endogenous production strategies, followed by a sensitivity analysis of different production variables in order to identify the three most critical parameters. Then, all variables were analyzed by varying them simultaneously and employing multiple linear regression. Results indicate that, regardless of HA source, production titer, recovery yield and bioreactor scale are the parameters that affect production costs the most. Current results indicate that recombinant production needs to improve current titer at least 2-fold in order to compete with costs of endogenous production. This study serves as a platform to inform decision-making for future developments and improvements in the recombinant production of HA.

Versatile strategies for bioproduction of hyaluronic acid driven by synthetic biology

Owing to its outstanding water-retention ability, viscoelasticity, biocompatibility and non-immunogenicity, Hyaluronic acid (HA), a natural linear polymer alternating linked by d-glucuronic acid and N-acetylglucosamine, has been widely employed in cosmetic, medical and clinical applications. With the development of synthetic biology and bioprocessing optimization, HA production via microbial fermentation is an economical and sustainable alternative over traditional animal extraction methods. Indeed, recently Streptococci and other recombinant systems for HA synthesis has received increasing interests due to its technical advantages. This review summarizes the production of HA by microorganisms and demonstrates its synthesis mechanism, focusing on the current status in various production systems, as well as common synthetic biology strategies include driving more carbon flux into HA biosynthesis and regulating the molecular weight (MW), and finally discusses the major challenges and prospects.

Enzymatic Synthesis of Glycans and Glycoconjugates

Glycoconjugates have great potential to improve human health in a multitude of different ways and fields. Prominent examples are human milk oligosaccharides and glycosaminoglycans. The typical choice for the production of homogeneous glycoconjugates is enzymatic synthesis. Through the availability of expression and purification protocols, recombinant Leloir glycosyltransferases are widely applied as catalysts for the synthesis of a wide range of glycoconjugates. Extensive utilization of these enzymes also depends on the availability of activated sugars as building blocks. Multi-enzyme cascades have proven a versatile technique to synthesize and in situ regenerate nucleotide sugar.In this chapter, the functions and mechanisms of Leloir glycosyltransferases are revisited, and the advantage of prokaryotic sources and production systems is discussed. Moreover, in vivo and in vitro pathways for the synthesis of nucleotide sugar are reviewed. In the second part, recent and prominent examples of the application of Leloir glycosyltransferase are given, i.e., the synthesis of glycosaminoglycans, glycoconjugate vaccines, and human milk oligosaccharides as well as the re-glycosylation of biopharmaceuticals, and the status of automated glycan assembly is revisited.

Hyaluronic acid and Chondroitin sulfate from marine and terrestrial sources: Extraction and purification methods

Hyaluronic acid (HA) and chondroitin sulfate (CS) are valuable bioactive polysaccharides that have been highly used in biomedical and pharmaceutical applications. Extensive research was done to ensure their efficient extraction from marine and terrestrial by-products at a high yield and purity, using specific techniques to isolate and purify them. In general, the cartilage is the most common source for CS, while the vitreous humor is main used source of HA. The developed methods were based in general on tissue hydrolysis, removal of proteins and purification of the target biopolymers. They differ in the extraction conditions, enzymes and/or solvents used and the purification technique. This leads to specific purity, molecular weight and sulfation pattern of the isolated HA and CS. This review focuses on the analysis and comparison of different extraction and purification methods developed to isolate these valuable biopolymers from marine and terrestrial animal by-products.

Engineering aspects of microbial exopolysaccharide production

Although the ability to secrete exopolysaccharides (EPS) is widespread among microorganisms, only a few bacterial (e.g. xanthan, levan, dextran) and fungal (e.g. pullulan) EPS have reached full commercialization. During the last years, other microbial EPS producers have been the subject of extensive research, including endophytes, extremophiles, microalgae and Cyanobacteria, as well as mixed microbial consortia. Those studies have demonstrated the great potential of such microbial systems to generate biopolymers with novel chemical structures and distinctive functional properties. In this work, an overview of the bioprocesses developed for EPS production by the wide diversity of reported microbial producers is presented, including their development and scale-up. Bottlenecks that currently hinder microbial EPS development are identified, along with future prospects for further advancement.

Enhanced hyluronic acid production in Streptococcus zooepidemicus by over expressing HasA and molecular weight control with Niscin and glucose

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Performing these improvement on a wild type Streptococcus zooepidemicus which is already capable of high yield HA production would circumvent the common obstacles lies ahead of industrial level fermentative HA production. Having an improved strain and optimized culture media would pave the way for industrial grade HA production with high quality and quantity.

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HasA gene was amplified and introduced into the wild type Streptococcus zooepidemicus, under the control of Nisin promoter. The HasA over-expression increased the HA production. In order to compensate for molecular weight loss, the glucose concentration was increased to an optimum amount of 90 g/L.

Hyaluronic acid (HA) is a high molecular weight linear polysaccharide, endowed with unique physiological and biological properties. Given its unique properties, HA have unprecedented applications in the fields of medicine and cosmetics. The ever growing demand for HA production is the driving force behind the need for finding and developing novel and amenable sources of the HA producers. Microbial fermentation of Streptococcus zooepidemicus deemed as one the most expeditious and pervasive methods of HA production. Herein, a wild type Streptococcus zooepidemicus, intrinsically expressing high levels of HA, was selected and optimized for HA production. HasA gene was amplified and introduced into the wild type Streptococcus zooepidemicus, under the control of Nisin promoter. The HasA over-expression increased the HA production, while the molecular weight was decreased. In order to compensate for molecular weight loss, the glucose concentration was increased to an optimum amount of 90 g/L. It is hypostatizes that excess glucose would rectify the distribution of the monomers and each HasA molecule would be provided with sufficient amount of substrates to lengthen the HA molecules. Arriving at an improved strain and optimized cultivating condition would pave the way for industrial grade HA production with high quality and quantity.

Cashew apple juice as microbial cultivation medium for non-immunogenic hyaluronic acid production

In this work, natural cashew apple juice was used as cultivation medium as an alternative to substitute brain heart infusion medium. The effect of aeration and juice supplementation with yeast extract on the production of hyaluronic acid in batch fermentation was also investigated. Similar levels of cell mass were obtained in inoculum using cashew apple juice supplemented with yeast extract or the conventional brain heart infusion medium. Fermentation in Erlenmeyer flasks produced low biomass and hyaluronic acid concentrations. The hyaluronic acid concentration and viscosity increased from 0.15 g/L and 3.87 cP (no aeration or medium supplementation) to 1.76 g/L and 107 cP, when aeration (2 vvm) and 60 g/L of yeast extract were used. The results suggest the production of low-molecular weight hyaluronic acid oligomers instead of the high molecular weight polymer.

Chondroitin sulfate, hyaluronic acid and chitin/chitosan production using marine waste sources: characteristics, applications and eco-friendly processes: a review

In the last decade, an increasing number of glycosaminoglycans (GAGs), chitin and chitosan applications have been reported. Their commercial demands have been extended to different markets, such as cosmetics, medicine, biotechnology, food and textiles. Marine wastes from fisheries and aquaculture are susceptible sources for polymers but optimized processes for their recovery and production must be developed to satisfy such necessities. In the present work, we have reviewed different alternatives reported in the literature to produce and purify chondroitin sulfate (CS), hyaluronic acid (HA) and chitin/chitosan (CH/CHs) with the aim of proposing environmentally friendly processes by combination of various microbial, chemical, enzymatic and membranes strategies and technologies.

Production Methods for Hyaluronan

Hyaluronan is a polysaccharide with multiple functions in the human body being involved in creating flexible and protective layers in tissues and in many signalling pathways during embryonic development, wound healing, inflammation, and cancer. Hyaluronan is an important component of active pharmaceutical ingredients for treatment of, for example, arthritis and osteoarthritis, and its commercial value far exceeds that of other microbial extracellular polysaccharides. Traditionally hyaluronan is extracted from animal waste which is a well-established process now. However, biotechnological synthesis of biopolymers provides a wealth of new possibilities. Therefore, genetic/metabolic engineering has been applied in the area of tailor-made hyaluronan synthesis. Another approach is the controlled artificial (in vitro) synthesis of hyaluronan by enzymes. Advantage of using microbial and enzymatic synthesis for hyaluronan production is the simpler downstream processing and a reduced risk of viral contamination. In this paper an overview of the different methods used to produce hyaluronan is presented. Emphasis is on the advancements made in the field of the synthesis of bioengineered hyaluronan.

Microbial production of hyaluronic acid: current state, challenges, and perspectives

Hyaluronic acid (HA) is a natural and linear polymer composed of repeating disaccharide units of β-1, 3-N-acetyl glucosamine and β-1, 4-glucuronic acid with a molecular weight up to 6 million Daltons. With excellent viscoelasticity, high moisture retention capacity, and high biocompatibility, HA finds a wide-range of applications in medicine, cosmetics, and nutraceuticals.

Traditionally HA was extracted from rooster combs, and now it is mainly produced via streptococcal fermentation. Recently the production of HA via recombinant systems has received increasing interest due to the avoidance of potential toxins. This work summarizes the research history and current commercial market of HA, and then deeply analyzes the current state of microbial production of HA by Streptococcus zooepidemicus and recombinant systems, and finally discusses the challenges facing microbial HA production and proposes several research outlines to meet the challenges.

Hyaluronic acid production by Streptococcus zooepidemicus in marine by-products media from mussel processing wastewaters and tuna peptone viscera

BACKGROUND

Hyaluronic acid is one of the biopolymers most commonly used by the pharmaceutical industry. Thus, there is an increasing number of recent works that deal with the production of microbial hyaluronic acid. Different properties and characteristics of the fermentation process have been extensively optimised; however, new carbon and protein sources obtained from by-products or cheap substrates have not yet been studied.

RESULTS

Mussel processing wastewater (MPW) was used as a sugar source and tuna peptone (TP) from viscera residue as a protein substrate for the production of hyaluronic acid (HA), biomass and lactic acid (LA) by Streptococcus zooepidemicus in batch fermentation. Commercial medium formulated with glucose and tryptone was used as the control. The parametric estimations obtained from logistic equations and maintenance energy model utilized for modelling experimental data were compared in commercial and low-cost media. Complete residual media achieved high production (3.67, 2.46 and 30.83 g l(-1) of biomass, HA and LA respectively) and a high molecular weight of HA (approximately 2500 kDa). A simple economic analysis highlighted the potential viability of this marine media for reducing the production costs by more than 50%.

CONCLUSIONS

The experimental data and mathematical descriptions reported in this article demonstrate the potential of media formulated with MPW and TP to be used as substrates for HA production by S. zooepidemicus. Furthermore, the proposed equations accurately simulated the experimental profiles and generated a set of interesting parameters that can be used to compare the different bacterial cultures. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first work in which a culture media formed by marine by-products has been successfully used for microbial HA production.