Abstract
For billions of years, the phenomena of life and biocatalysis have been intertwined. If in the beginning biocatalysis was fundamental for the origin of life, currently it is very important for the cleaner production of pharmaceuticals and fine chemical intermediates. There is no doubt that drugs have brought great benefits to humanity, but currently, the expectations of modern society are focused on drugs with greater safety, less environmental impact, more sustainable practices, and less energy use. This review intends to show how the challenges for the production of some low molecular weight drugs produced by synthetic routes that involve at least one biotechnological step using microorganisms or enzymes were faced. These biotechnological drug production routes are more sustainable than conventional synthetic routes, as they produce a much smaller amount of waste, use moderate reaction conditions, have lower energy consumption, and have lower metal consumption, in addition to being more selective. Additionally, many natural products have structures too complex to be produced exclusively by chemical routes. The large-scale and economical production of these drugs is of great importance for fighting cancer as well as inflammatory, infectious, autoimmune, metabolic, hormonal, cardiovascular, and neurological diseases, among others.
Highlights
Modern organic chemistry is based on solid mechanistic concepts and the diversity of reactions that allow it to carry out the most challenging and difficult tasks, namely, the total synthesis of complex natural products.[1]
It is necessary to be concerned with many other issues when drawing up a synthesis, such as waste, efficiency, sustainability, renewable resources, system perspective, energy, product lifecycle, and waste and supply chain management.[2,3]
Pharmaceutical industrial biotechnology is the area of science that covers all technologies used for the production of biopharmaceuticals or biological medicines by biotechnological routes, including the extraction of living systems; that is, the active principle of the medicine is obtained through the industrial use of microgenetically modified organisms or cells
Summary
Modern organic chemistry is based on solid mechanistic concepts and the diversity of reactions that allow it to carry out the most challenging and difficult tasks, namely, the total synthesis of complex natural products.[1]. The challenge of organic synthesis of a molecule must be faced with tenacity and resilience, and despite being one of the most successful areas of chemistry, it is where the greatest failures related to the production of undesirable chemical waste occur. The current emphasis on chemical reactions has shifted toward a more ecological bias since the principles of green chemistry were established by its creator, Professor Paul Anastas. The creativity within green chemistry, associated with the criteria of environmental. Vol 33, No 7, 2022 sustainability, demonstrated that it is possible to make more environmentally recommendable chemistry. It is necessary to be concerned with many other issues when drawing up a synthesis, such as waste, efficiency, sustainability, renewable resources, system perspective, energy, product lifecycle, and waste and supply chain management.[2,3]
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