Synthetic biology using bacteria

A recombinant IFN-P, IFN-pia (Rebif Serono and Avonex Biogen) is produced for commercial use in Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells. A synthetic mutant produced in bacteria has a substitution of serine for cysteine at amino acid 17, yielding IFN-pib Betaseron Berlex). Both IFN-pia and IFN-pib are approved by the FDA for treatment of multiple sclerosis (MS) and have shown comparable biological activity (see Section 7.3). In vivo IFN-a2 and IFN-alb show comparable biological activity as well as similar side effects [54,55]. However, IFN-P is eliminated faster, resulting in no detectable serum peak levels [56]. The clinical consequence of this is not known. Objective responses, whether partial or complete tumor regression, have been documented in patients with carcinoma of the breast, hairy-cell leukemia, and non-small-cell lung cancer [57,58]. 

Chemical transformations carried out by biological reagents such as purified enzyme preparations and by intact organisms such as fungi and bacteria have done much to ease the lot of the synthetic chemist in recent years. Regio- and stereoselective reactions such as C-hydroxylation (1, 2), S-oxidation (3, 4), carbonyl reduction (5, 6) and oxidation (7, 5), N- and O-dealkylation (9), N-oxidation (10), and hydrolytic reactions carried out by biological systems have been widely used in many areas of organic chemistry (11, 12). 

---