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Recent advances in combinatorial biosynthesis for drug discovery
Authors Sun H, Liu Z, Zhao H, Ang EL
Received 12 October 2014
Accepted for publication 29 November 2014
Published 12 February 2015 Volume 2015:9 Pages 823—833
DOI https://doi.org/10.2147/DDDT.S63023
Checked for plagiarism Yes
Review by Single anonymous peer review
Peer reviewer comments 4
Editor who approved publication: Professor Shu-Feng Zhou
Huihua Sun,1,* Zihe Liu,1,* Huimin Zhao,1,2 Ee Lui Ang1
1Metabolic Engineering Research Laboratory, Institute of Chemical and Engineering Sciences, Agency for Science, Technology and Research, Singapore; 2Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, USA
*These authors contributed equally to this work
Abstract: Because of extraordinary structural diversity and broad biological activities, natural products have played a significant role in drug discovery. These therapeutically important secondary metabolites are assembled and modified by dedicated biosynthetic pathways in their host living organisms. Traditionally, chemists have attempted to synthesize natural product analogs that are important sources of new drugs. However, the extraordinary structural complexity of natural products sometimes makes it challenging for traditional chemical synthesis, which usually involves multiple steps, harsh conditions, toxic organic solvents, and byproduct wastes. In contrast, combinatorial biosynthesis exploits substrate promiscuity and employs engineered enzymes and pathways to produce novel “unnatural” natural products, substantially expanding the structural diversity of natural products with potential pharmaceutical value. Thus, combinatorial biosynthesis provides an environmentally friendly way to produce natural product analogs. Efficient expression of the combinatorial biosynthetic pathway in genetically tractable heterologous hosts can increase the titer of the compound, eventually resulting in less expensive drugs. In this review, we will discuss three major strategies for combinatorial biosynthesis: 1) precursor-directed biosynthesis; 2) enzyme-level modification, which includes swapping of the entire domains, modules and subunits, site-specific mutagenesis, and directed evolution; 3) pathway-level recombination. Recent examples of combinatorial biosynthesis employing these strategies will also be highlighted in this review.
Keywords: combinatorial biosynthesis, drug discovery, natural products, polyketide synthases, nonribosomal peptide synthetases, biosynthetic pathways
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