16.10 Current Status of Biotransformation Technique
Scientists all around the world are exploring the biotransformation process for drug
designing and development. The success of a safe drug designing programme lies in
proper knowledge and combination of pharmacoproperties of molecule/s under
consideration. Thus the drug metabolism research plays the most important role in
its designing programme (Kebamo et al. 2015). Therefore, a lot of interest in the
industrial research lies on the biotransformation of bioactive molecules in the body.
Indeed very recently, the first commercial software was introduced in the market for
automated catabolite and metabolite identification by SCIEX company which offers
the flexibility to quickly identify metabolites, catabolites and enable in-depth metabolism or catabolism studies (Sicurella and Farrell 2017). The biotransformation
information not only helps in designing and development but also in the production
of several drugs such as steroid based pharmaceutical products, anticancer drugs,
regio-, stereo-specific drugs from natural raw materials (Gao et al. 2013; Song 2018).
The knowledge of this process also enables and strengthens the researchers to use
microbes for production of bioactive metabolites, antifungal products, etc. under the
concepts of white biotechnology and green chemistry (Bianchini et al. 2015). Also,
with the help of metabolomics approach, researchers are trying to study the biotransformation biomarkers of metabolomic pathways related to certain diseases to get an
insight for development of the disease.
Development and globalization in the countries around the world have produced
various side effects on the environment in the form of pollutants. Various
conventions have been signed and the governments are funding researches to build
strategies to employ the biological processes for pollution abatement. The countries
are guiding their industries to adopt and integrate methods to treat their effluents by
natural process with environmental, economic, and social acceptability. Thus, biotransformation of environment pollutants like petroleum hydrocarbons, dyecontaminated industrial effluents, heavy metals like mercury and chromium, municipal waste, aquaculture effluents is looked up as vital solution for environment crisis.
Various technologies have been patented which use the microbes like pseudomonas
spp., thermus spp., Archaeoglobus fulgidus, Microbacterium sp., etc. in consortia for
cleaning the environment (Peeples 2014). Researchers are thus continuing to evaluate this process as solution for providing more specific drugs, for disease development, reducing pollution, etc. and it is anticipated that biotransformation will be part
of sustainable solution to a better future.
Acknowledgments We acknowledge all the authors whose articles have been cited in the text.
References
Bai X, Moraes TF, Reithmeier RA (2017) Structural biology of solute carrier (SLC) membrane
transport proteins. Mol Membr Biol 34(1–2):1–32
16 Biotransformation: Basics and Applied Perspectives
355
Scientists all around the world are exploring the biotransformation process for drug
designing and development. The success of a safe drug designing programme lies in
proper knowledge and combination of pharmacoproperties of molecule/s under
consideration. Thus the drug metabolism research plays the most important role in
its designing programme (Kebamo et al. 2015). Therefore, a lot of interest in the
industrial research lies on the biotransformation of bioactive molecules in the body.
Indeed very recently, the first commercial software was introduced in the market for
automated catabolite and metabolite identification by SCIEX company which offers
the flexibility to quickly identify metabolites, catabolites and enable in-depth metabolism or catabolism studies (Sicurella and Farrell 2017). The biotransformation
information not only helps in designing and development but also in the production
of several drugs such as steroid based pharmaceutical products, anticancer drugs,
regio-, stereo-specific drugs from natural raw materials (Gao et al. 2013; Song 2018).
The knowledge of this process also enables and strengthens the researchers to use
microbes for production of bioactive metabolites, antifungal products, etc. under the
concepts of white biotechnology and green chemistry (Bianchini et al. 2015). Also,
with the help of metabolomics approach, researchers are trying to study the biotransformation biomarkers of metabolomic pathways related to certain diseases to get an
insight for development of the disease.
Development and globalization in the countries around the world have produced
various side effects on the environment in the form of pollutants. Various
conventions have been signed and the governments are funding researches to build
strategies to employ the biological processes for pollution abatement. The countries
are guiding their industries to adopt and integrate methods to treat their effluents by
natural process with environmental, economic, and social acceptability. Thus, biotransformation of environment pollutants like petroleum hydrocarbons, dyecontaminated industrial effluents, heavy metals like mercury and chromium, municipal waste, aquaculture effluents is looked up as vital solution for environment crisis.
Various technologies have been patented which use the microbes like pseudomonas
spp., thermus spp., Archaeoglobus fulgidus, Microbacterium sp., etc. in consortia for
cleaning the environment (Peeples 2014). Researchers are thus continuing to evaluate this process as solution for providing more specific drugs, for disease development, reducing pollution, etc. and it is anticipated that biotransformation will be part
of sustainable solution to a better future.
Acknowledgments We acknowledge all the authors whose articles have been cited in the text.
References
Bai X, Moraes TF, Reithmeier RA (2017) Structural biology of solute carrier (SLC) membrane
transport proteins. Mol Membr Biol 34(1–2):1–32
16 Biotransformation: Basics and Applied Perspectives
355