Streptomyces as a host for the secretion of heterologous proteins for the production of biopharmaceuticals

The commercial production of therapeutic or diagnostic proteins in recombinant microorganisms is of considerable interest. Several microbial protein production systems have been developed. So far, Escherichia coli have been the commonly employed host. However, proteins expressed in this host remain intracellular and often precipitate as inclusion bodies, which may seriously complicate downstreamprocessing. Faced with this problem, several genera of Gram-positive bacteria are being tested as host for the production of heterologous proteins due to their ability to efficiently secrete proteins in the culture medium. Among them is the genus Streptomyces since several of its species are known to secrete high amounts of proteins. Due to the absence of an extensive restriction-modification system, limited protease activity and the availability of suitable vector systems, Streptomyces lividans is the host of choice for the secretory production of heterologous proteins. The presented results show, that S. lividans can act as an interesting host to produce a number of proteins useful in several disease areas important in the worldwide pharmaceutical sales: i.e. oncology, immunology, cardiovascular diseases and infectious diseases.