A Group Contribution Analogy as Selection Criteria for Nutrients Fermentation Media in the Production of Tacrolimus, Sirolimus and Ascomycin

Abstract

Tacrolimus, sirolimus, and ascomycin are macrolides related to a decrease in the occurrence and severity of refractory rejection episodes and other diseases, such as the skin and eyes.The determination of optimum initial sources of carbon and nitrogen in the medium is an essential step in optimizing the fermentation process to obtain these drugs. The current research proposes an innovative technique as selection criteria to culture media carbon and nitrogen sources.The concept is an analogy to group contribution from thermodynamics to identify molecular fragments. Tacrolimus, sirolimus and ascomycin molecular structures and fermentation results of these macrolides were analyzed. This approach can enhance the productivity of these important immunosuppressants.