Development of whole cell biocatalyst for the synthesis of the precursor of fluoxetine.

• Main Author: Teoh, Lawrence Yi Hearn.
• Other Authors: School of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2013
• Subjects: DRNTU::Engineering::Bioengineering
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/53686
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

This report reviews the synthesis of the precursor of fluoxetine using a whole cell biocatalyst. The usage of whole cell biocatalysts is due to its properties where it is known to be environmental friendly and also acts as a good synthetic tool especially in the development of this drug fluoxetine. Chirality of the drug fluoxetine was also reviewed, where it was found that different enantiomers of fluoxetine would exhibits different properties and behavior, and thus each enantiomer are able to be used as treatment for specific diseases respectively. The synthesis of the precursor of fluoxetine starts from a compound named 3-oxo-3-phenylpropanenitrile, where it would be asymmetrically reduced to 3-hydroxy-3-phenylpropanenitrile through the help of a whole cell biocatalyst that contains the overexpressed gene YOL151w and YGL039w. Next would then be the transesterification process to produce S-alcohol and an acetate compound, which are the precursors of fluoxetine respectively. This process involves cloning a gene from Pseudomonas Cepacia lipase, where it would then be directly expressed in the host organism E. coli. It has to be noted that this particular method was not done before and merely acts as a proposal in this review. Also, it is a hope that the method suggested in this review could be tested out in laboratory in future.