A bacterial cell factory converting glucose into scyllo-inositol, a therapeutic agent for Alzheimer's disease.

ABSTRACT: A rare stereoisomer of inositol, scyllo-inositol, is a therapeutic agent that has shown potential efficacy in preventing Alzheimer's disease. Mycobacterium tuberculosis ino1 encoding myo-inositol-1-phosphate (MI1P) synthase (MI1PS) was introduced into Bacillus subtilis to convert glucose-6-phosphate (G6P) into MI1P. We found that inactivation of pbuE elevated intracellular concentrations of NAD⁺·NADH as an essential cofactor of MI1PS and was required to activate MI1PS. MI1P thus produced was dephosphorylated into myo-inositol by an intrinsic inositol monophosphatase, YktC, which was subsequently isomerized into scyllo-inositol via a previously established artificial pathway involving two inositol dehydrogenases, IolG and IolW. In addition, both glcP and glcK were overexpressed to feed more G6P and accelerate scyllo-inositol production. Consequently, a B. subtilis cell factory was demonstrated to produce 2?g?L^-1 scyllo-inositol from 20?g?L^-1 glucose. This cell factory provides an inexpensive way to produce scyllo-inositol, which will help us to challenge the growing problem of Alzheimer's disease in our aging society.

SUBMITTER: Michon C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7052218 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature