DEVELOPMENT OF A STABILIZED BIOCATALYST FOR THE ECO-COMPATIBLE PRODUCTION OF ANTIVIRAL COMPOUNDS

ZUBELDIA I.; FLORES A.; RIVERO C.; DENHAM S. S.

Mar del Plata

Congreso; XVIII Congreso de la Sociedad Argentina de Microbiología General; 2023

Sociedad Argentina de Microbiología General, SAMIGE

Ribavirin is a purine nucleoside analogue used as an antiviral compound that has shown a broad-spectrum activity against a variety of DNA and RNA viruses such as Hepatitis C virus, Influenza, and recently proved to be useful in SARS-Cov2. These kinds of compounds are obtained by chemical methods but the use of biocatalysis emerged as an alternative clean technology with high catalytic efficiency, inherent selectivity and simple downstream processing. In this work, an immobilized biocatalyst based on Xanthomonas species for the synthesis of Ribavirin was developed. Reaction parameters such as microorganism load, substrate ratio, buffer, and temperature of reaction were optimized, reaching conversion yields greater than 80% in short times of reaction. Moreover, different types of entrapment techniques were evaluated allowing to obtain a highly stabilized biocatalyst, which was able to produce ribavirin by an eco-friendly bioprocess.