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O câncer é um problema de saúde pública, especialmente entre os países em desenvolvimento. Está entre as doenças de maior taxa de mortalidade e é responsável por mais de 12% de todas as causas de óbito no mundo. Uma proteína denominda Amblyomin-X foi obtida a partir de uma biblioteca de cDNA das glândulas salivares do carrapato Amblyomma Cajennense e expressa na bactéria Escherichia coli BL21DE3. Essa proteína é capaz de induzir a morte de células tumorais, além de ter pouca ou nenhuma atividade contra células normais, diminuindo assim os efeitos colaterais nos pacientes em tratamentos contra o câncer. Através deste trabalho foi possível elaborar um protocolo para obtenção de elevadas concentrações celulares e produção da proteína recombinante AmblyominX em biorreatores com capacidade total de 15 L. Uma vez que a proteína é intracelular, foram estudados alguns parâmetros e estratégias de cultivo do microrganismo para obtenção de alta concentração celular, tais como: composição do meio de cultura, identificação dos substratos limitantes e inibitórios e vazão de alimentação da fonte de carbono. Foi definido um meio de cultura adequado para atingir elevadas concentrações celulares na etapa de crescimento da E. coli, visando garantir elevadas concentrações de produto recombinante. Ensaios conduzidos em biorreatores com esse meio resultaram em concentrações celulares e densidade ótica (DO600nm) iguais a 40,0 g/L e 76,6, respectivamente, para a etapa de crescimento celular e 59,8 g/L e 161, respectivamente, no final da etapa de produção da proteína de interesse. Os ensaios conduzidos em reatores mostraram que concentrações de ácido acético acima de 0,4 g/L causam inibição do crescimento celular, portanto, foi elaborada uma estratégia eficaz de alimentação exponencial dos substratos limitantes (fontes de carbono e magnésio) na etapa de crescimento dessa bactéria para atingir elevadas concentrações celulares, mantendo-se a velocidade específica de crescimento (µx) menor que 0,2 h-1, abaixo do valor máximo, com a finalidade de evitar a formação de ácido acético. Este trabalho permitiu também conhecer os parâmetros cinéticos para a produção da proteína Amblyomin-X, tais como, a velocidade específica máxima de crescimento (max), a produtividade celular global (Pxglobal), a produtividade celular máxima (Pxmáx) e o fator de conversão de substrato em célula (Yx/s) na etapa de batelada alimentada, cujos valores foram, respectivamente, de 0,30 h-1, 13,8 g de célula/h, 14,1 g de célula/h e 0,37 g de célula/g de substrato. Para a avaliação da biossíntese da proteína recombinante foram realizadas análises de gel de poliacrilamida por eletroforese e a quantificação foi feita pela análise de Bradford. A concentração de proteína Amblyomin-X no final da etapa de síntese alcançou 8,57 g/L. / Cancer is a public health problem, especially among developing countries. It is among the diseases with the highest mortality rate and accounts for more than 12% of all causes of death in the world. A protein called Amblyomin-X was obtained from a cDNA library of Amblyomma Cajennense tick salivary glands and it was expressed in the bacterium Escherichia coli BL21DE3. This protein is able to induce death of tumor cells, as well as having little or no activity against normal cells, thus reducing the side effects in patients on cancer treatments. In this work it was possible to elaborate a protocol for obtaining high cellular concentrations and production of the recombinant Amblyomin-X protein in bioreactors with a total capacity of 15 L. Since the protein is intracellular, some parameters and strategies of culture of the microorganism for obtaining a high cell concentration, were: composition of the culture medium, identification of limiting and inhibitory substrates and feed rate of the carbon source. A culture medium suitable for achieving high cell concentrations in the growth stage of E. coli was defined in order to guarantee high concentrations of recombinant product. Experiments conducted in bioreactors with this medium resulted in cellular concentrations and optical density (DO600nm) of 40.0 g / L and 76.6, respectively, for the cell growth step and 59.8 g / L and 161, respectively, at the end of the production stage of the protein of interest. Experiments conducted in reactors showed that acetic acid concentrations higher than 0.4 g/L cause inhibition of cell growth, therefore, an effective strategy of exponential feeding of the limiting substrates (carbon and magnesium sources) was elaborated in the growth stage of this bacteria to reach high cellular concentrations, maintaining the specific growth rate (µx) less than 0.2 h-1, below the maximum value, in order to avoid the formation of acetic acid. This work also allowed to know the kinetic parameters for Amblyomin-X protein production, such as the maximum specific growth rate (max), the overall cellular productivity (Pxglobal), the maximum cellular productivity (Pxmax) and the conversion factor of substrate in cell (Yx/s) in the fed batch stage, whose values were respectively 0.30 h-1, 13.8 g cell/h, 14.1 g cell/h and 0.37 g of cell/g of substrate. For the evaluation of recombinant protein biosynthesis, polyacrylamide gel analyzes were performed by electrophoresis and quantification was done by the Bradford analysis. The Amblyomin-X protein concentration at the end of the synthesis step reached 8.57 g/L.

Two computer programs were developed and used to determine the optimum operating parameters of a fedbatch and a continuous two-stage process for fermentation of recombinant bacteria. The study was conducted in three phases: (a) developing two computer programs for simulation and optimization of the above processes, (b) conducting batch culture fermentations to verify the performance of the biokinetic model, and (c) conducting fedbatch and two-stage continuous fermentation experiments to closely examine the simulation and optimization results. The Miao and Kompala (1992) biokinetic model was used for simulation of the bacterial growth and cloned gene expression. The Pattern-Search method, developed by Hooke and Jeeves (1962), was incorporated in the programs to determine the optimum values of the parameters. Extensive studies of the optimization results showed 30-40% higher productivities for the two stage continuous process over the fedbatch process when using the same media in both processes. In addition, increasing the number of stages in the continuous two-stage process resulted in very limited improvement in the productivity of the process (10-12%). The information from the process optimization was then used to design batch, fedbatch nd two stage continuous experiments. Recombinant <i>E. coli </i>(strain BL21DE3) with an inducible gene (sensitive to IPTG, isopropyl-â-D-thiogalactopyranoside) was used throughout the experiments. The experimental results from the fedbatch and two stage continuous processes clearly showed good agreement with the simulation and optimization results $(\cong$15% deviation). The experiments also revealed that the maintenance of plasmid harboring cells over the long-term operation could be an important barrier in achieving the predicted high productivity in the two stage continuous process. Finally, in addition to computer programs for optimization of genetically modified microorganisms, a new computer program with a generic algorithm for optimization of multiple CFSTR fermentation with any kind of biokinetic model was developed. The program was used to optimize multiple CFSTRs with the cybernetic biokinetic model for the first time. Besides finding the optimum residence times for multiple CFSTRs operation, the effect of inaccuracies in different cybernetic model parameters on the overall productivity of the process was investigated. The simulation results illustrated that, a single CFSTR was more sensitive in its operation to inaccuracies in the biokinetic constants as compared to optimized CFSTRs in series (2-8 times more sensitive).