Review article
https://doi.org/10.15255/KUI.2019.037
Biocatalysis for the Production of Pharmaceutical Intermediates: Statin Precursors
Anera Švarc
orcid.org/0000-0003-4707-0746
; Faculty of Chemical Engineering and Technology University of Zagreb, Marulićev trg 19 10 000 Zagreb, Croatia
Dino Skendrović
orcid.org/0000-0002-8714-5960
; Faculty of Chemical Engineering and Technology University of Zagreb, Marulićev trg 19 10 000 Zagreb, Croatia
Ana Vrsalović Presečki
orcid.org/0000-0002-0247-4483
; Faculty of Chemical Engineering and Technology University of Zagreb, Marulićev trg 19 10 000 Zagreb, Croatia
Abstract
The application of enzymes in chemical synthesis, due to the recent advances, has a strong impact in multiple industries, especially the pharmaceutical industry. Namely, the use of enzymes shows remarkable advantages over classical chemical catalysis and therefore it is considered a ‘green’ solution. By using novel techniques, it is possible to tailor the enzymes to adapt them for a given process. Today, several pharmaceutical companies are successfully producing valuable precursors for the production of active pharmaceutical ingredients using enzymes, some of them being statin precursors. Statins are hypolipidemics, drugs used for the prevention of cardiovascular diseases and lowering cholesterol concentration in blood. Due to challenges in the chemical synthesis of statin intermediates, the production of statin intermediates using enzyme-catalysed reactions shows some notable advantages. Therefore, research and development laboratories, combined with reaction engineering techniques, have shifted their focus towards applying biochemical catalysis for the production of statin intermediates.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Keywords
enzymes; biocatalysis; green chemistry; precursors; pharmaceutical industry; statins
Hrčak ID:
225483
URI
Publication date:
7.10.2019.
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