Abstract
L-asparaginase, also known as amidohydrolase, catalyzes the breakdown of asparagine into aspartic acid and ammonia. Due to its ability to inhibit the biosynthesis of protein lymphoblasts, it is used to treat acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). It also has other applications in the food industry by preventing the formation of acrylamide. Different organisms including bacteria, fungi, actinomycetes, and plants produce L-asparaginase. This review highlights different applications of L-asparaginase in the industrial fields, the major sources of L-asparaginase, its immunological reactions and production techniques through the solid state (SSF) and submerged (SmF) fermentation as well as optimization of the production process.
Highlights
Enzymes play an important role in metabolic and biochemical reactions and microorganisms are the primary source [1] because they can be cultured in large quantities in a short span of time [2, 3]
Malignant cells differ from the normal cells, that it can barely synthesize L-asparagine, due to the absence of L-asparagine synthetase, so draining the circulating pools of L-asparagine by L-asparaginase leads to tumor cells destruction, so they could not be able to complete the synthesis of the protein through inhibition of RNA and DNA synthesis with subsequent blastic cell apoptosis [5]
Bacterial L-asparaginase has been categorized into two large groups named type I and type II based on the homology in the sequence, function, and structure, in addition to various asparaginases that are derived from plant origins [31]
Summary
Enzymes play an important role in metabolic and biochemical reactions and microorganisms are the primary source [1] because they can be cultured in large quantities in a short span of time [2, 3]. Proteins that are used as therapeutics have made a great effect in the healthcare area, as they are specific in the disease, highly effective drug, and safe. They have a broad difference of specific utilities as thrombolytics and oncolytic. One of this therapeutic protein is L-asparaginase which has been found to be effective for the treatment of acute lymphoblastic leukemia[4]. L-asparaginase (asparagine amidohydrolase) is a tetramer protein, otherwise called aminohydrolase relates to the amidase group of the enzyme and can break down L-asparagine into aspartic acid and ammonia [8]
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