Known as the main source of aromatic compounds in nature, lignin possesses heterogeneous composition which has high potential to be used in many industrial purposes. Lignin has been used as retardants of fire, thermal stabilizer, hydrophobicity agent, carbon fiber, aerogels and antioxidants. This review summarizes several uses of lignin-based components and their potential applications. We focused on the industrial uses of lignin in order to diminish the dependence of petroleum-based materials.

DisBa-01, a recombinant RGD-disintegrin still not isolated from B. alternatus venom exhibits high affinity for α IIb β 3 integrin, contributing for the inhibition of platelet aggregation (Ramos, 2005). DisBa-01 possesses also antithrombotic and antimetatatic activities in vivo (Ramos, 2005). In order to obtain shorter molecules maintaining activities of DisBa-01 two mutants were studied. Molecules called DisBa ∆(1-32) and DisBa ∆(1-36) have 32 and 36 residues unless DisBa-01, respectively, in the N-terminal region. Oligonucleotides were designed, the DNAs were amplified by PCR using pET28a-DisBa-01 vector as the template and PCR products were cloned into expression vector pET32a. Sequence analysis showed that the reading frames were completely correct. The recombinant plasmids were introduced into BL21(DE3) E.coli strain. The recombinant plasmids were induced with IPTG to express the proteins in fusion with thioredoxin. Proteins were expressed in a soluble form and with molecular mass coincident with prediction. Fusion proteins were purified by affinity chromatography in nickel resin and cleaved with enterokinase enzyme. Samples of cleavage were purified by the gel filtration chromatography. Purification and cleavage steps were analyzed by SDS-PAGE and immunoblotting reaction using anti-Echistatin antibody. Test of cell adhesion inhibition, using cells from mice B16F10 melanoma, which are rich in integrin αVβ3, showed that DisBa (∆1-32) and DisBa (∆1-36) are able to inhibit approximately 70% of cell adhesion. Therefore, both DisBa-01 mutant molecules obtained in this work present activities that can be explored in the design of new medicines against cáncer.