A method was established for the production of 1.2-fold and 4.2-fold increased amounts of the antiviral and central nervous system-active lantipeptides, labyrinthopeptins A1 and A2, respectively, isolated from the actinobacterium Actinomadura namibiensis, to enable production in gram scale. We then performed in vivo characterization of this promising compound class. The labyrinthopeptins A1 and A2 have similar chemical structures and physical properties but differ drastically in their bioactivities. Therefore, large quantities of highly pure material are required for pharmacological studies. An effective methodology was established for the first time for their production in bioreactors, their separation involving gel permeation chromatography on LH20 material, followed by reversed phase-high performance liquid chromatography. With an optimized methodology, 580 mg of labyrinthopeptin A1 and 510 mg of labyrinthopeptin A2 were quantitatively isolated with recovery rates of 72.5% and 42.3% from 7.5 L of culture broth, respectively. However, the fermentation that had already resulted in maximum yields of over 100 mg/L of both target molecules after 300 h in a 10-L scale bioreactor, still requires further optimisation.
Keywords: anti-viral agents; bioprocess; central nervous system; lantibiotics; optimization production; reversed phase-high performance liquid chromatography; scale-up.