HARAMAYA UNIVERSITY

INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
DEPARTMENT OF CHEMICAL ENGINEERING

PROCESS INDUSTRIES- II PROJECT-1

APPLICATION OF BIOTECHNOLOGY IN MEDICINE

GROUP -12 MEMBERS

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Submitted to : Mr. Genetu .T

Submission date : 12/ 4/ 2019

 Application of biotechnology in medicine

ABSTRACT: Today, medical science uses biotechnology to determine the most radical
manifestations of the disease. With the discovery of the complete sequence of the human
genome biotechnologists are going to find genes in different traits and defects. Many genes
that cause the development of diseases have been identified so far including Cancer,
cardiovascular, respiratory, mental disease. Highly selective and effective medications
(tailormade) to cope with disease are provided by detection of individual genes and their
derived proteins. However future of the biotechnology is clear and it will surely see important
strides that will be used for study and product development.

Introduction

Biotechnology is the use of living systems and organisms to make or modify products or
processes for specific use. Biotechnology is applied in different areas, some of these area are
illustrated in figure below.
 Biotech is helping to heal the world by harnessing nature's own toolbox and using our own
genetic makeup to heal and guide lines of research by:

 Reducing rates of infectious disease

 Saving millions of children’s lives

 Changing the odds of serious, life-threatening conditions affecting millions around the world

 Creating more precise tools for disease detection

This short communication summarizes the application, benefits and trends of biotechnology
in the field of medicine. It covers all the areas of medicine which are covered by and
advanced by the application of biotechnology.

Biotechnology in Medicine

Medicine is one of the most instrumental horizons of biotechnology. To start with,

biotechnology provides medicinal plants and these plants, on the basis of their beneficial
properties in the field of medicine, are of huge importance.

In 1928, Alexander Fleming discovered the mold Penicillium. His work led to the
purification of the antibiotic compound formed by the mold by Howard Florey, Ernst Boris
Chain and Norman Heatley - to form what we today know as penicillin. In 1940, penicillin
became available for medicinal use to treat bacterial infections in humans.
The main topics in medical biotechnology are mainly as follows each of which requires a
complete description:
Gene therapy, Recombinant vaccines, DNA vaccines, bioinformatics, Genomics, proteomics,
Biopharmaceuticals, Monoclonal antibodies, and Biomedicines.
 On the other hand, they caused a great revolution in the treatment of malignant diseases,
diabetes and other diseases. More than 150 Biotech medicines made through
biotechnological processes have been introduced throughout the world.

Recombinant vaccines

It can be said that biotechnology techniques used in the production of all types of vaccines.
However, the pinnacle of potentials of modern biotechnology can be observed in the fourth
generation of Recombinant vaccines (and also DNA vaccines).

So far, the vaccine of attenuated or killed microorganisms or their components has been used.
This caused significant side effects in patients. But with the development of Recombinant
DNA techniques, a fourth-generation vaccine produced in which the effective ingredient in
inducing immunity of microorganisms is used such as Hepatitis B vaccine. A recombinant
vaccine production process is very long and complex.

Production process of recombinant vaccines are:-

First, bio technologists should detect the most immunological component of the
microorganisms (Usually proteins or membrane glycoprotein’s) according to long and
complex processes.

Second, after identification the location and sequence of the gene in the genome of the
microorganism, they attempt to replicate the gene and put amplified fragments into
special cloned plasmids. Next, transfer of recombinant plasmid into the host cell for the
production of protein will be performed.

 The first recombinant vaccine licensed to be used for humans was hepatitis B vaccine.
This vaccine was obtained with colonization of hepatitis virus B (HBsAg) surface
antigen gene and its expression in yeast cells. It is indicted that recombinant hepatitis
B vaccines produce protective antibodies. This covers 250 million carriers of hepatitis
B worldwide.

Monoclonal antibodies

The ability to produce unlimited quantities of identical antibody molecules for a specific
antigenic index made a great change in the immunology with great effects in field of research
and clinical medicine.

For production of monoclonal antibodies against certain antigens, first you need a mouse or a
rat, immunized with the antigen. Then B cell is extracted from the animal spleen or lymph
and fused with appropriate cell lines.

Myeloma cell lines are the best choices for fusion with B-cells because the similar cells have
more tendencies for fusion rather than different cells.

Therefore, stable hybrids are created. Today, myeloma groups are used. They do not have the
ability of producing immunoglobulin and they use polyethylene glycol for fusion purposes.
Monoclonal antibodies have numerous applications in the diagnosis and treatment of various
diseases.

 Two monoclonal antibodies used to treat cancer are :-

 Naked monoclonal antibodies are those without any drug or radioactive material
attached to them.

 Conjugated monoclonal antibodies are those joined to a chemotherapy drug,

radioactive particle, or cancer cell killing agent.

Genetically Engineered Insulin (Humulin)

Insulinis a peptide hormone produced by beta cells in the pancreas of various organisms
includinghuman beings.

It regulates the metabolism of carbohydrates and fats by promoting the absorption

of glucose from the blood to skeletal muscles and fat tissue and by causing fat to be stored
rather than used for energy. Insulin also inhibits the production of glucose by the liver.

Except in the presence of the metabolic disorder diabetes mellitus and metabolic syndrome,
insulin is provided within the body in a constant proportion to remove excess glucose from the
blood, which otherwise would be toxic. When blood glucose levels fall below a certain level,
the body begins to use stored glucose as an energy source through glycogenolysis, which
breaks down the glycogen stored in the liver and muscles into glucose, which can then be
utilized as an energy source. As a central metabolic control mechanism, its status is also used as
a control signal to other body systems (such as amino acid uptake by body cells). In addition, it
has several other anabolic effects throughout the body. When control of insulin levels
fails, diabetes mellitus can result.
Need of Genetically Engineered Insulin:

The original form of the wonder cure for diabetes, these were once the only type of insulin
available, but are now rarely used. Animal insulin was originally made from ground-up animal
pancreas tissue, and then later was extracted from healthyanimals (slaughtered pigs & cows).

The metabolism of cows and pigs was close enough to human metabolism that their animal
insulin also worked well in human bodies. Beef insulin has 3 differences from human; pork
insulin has 1 difference from human. The use of a mixture of beef and pork insulin was also
possible. It has been shown that human insulin is less immunogenic than animal insulin.
Porcine insulin is most similar to human insulin. The usage of animal insulin has so greatly
declined in modern times that they have largely been withdrawn from the market. Newly
diagnosed diabetics are typically given synthesized or Genetically Engineered human
insulin.

Humulin:

Humulin was the first medication produced using modern genetic engineering techniques in
which actual human DNA is inserted into a host cell (E. Coil in this case). Bio
synthetic"human" insulin is now manufactured for widespread clinical use using genetic
engineering techniques using recombinant DNA technology, which the manufacturers claim
reduces the presence of many impurities, although there is no clinical evidence to substantiate
this claim.
Humulin production method is as follows:

1. DNA coding for A and B polypeptide chains of insulin are chemically synthesized a in
the lab. Sixty three nucleotides are sequenced to produce A chain of insulin and ninety
nucleotide long DNA designed to produce B chain of insulin, plus terminator codon is
added at the end of each chain sequence. Anti-codon for methionine is added at the
beginning of the sequence to distinguish Humulin from the other bacterial proteins.

2. Chemically synthesized A and B chain DNA sequence are inserted into one of the
marker gene which are present in the plasmid vector. Genes are inserted into the
plasmid with the help of enzymes known as endonuclease and ligase.

3. The vector plasmids with the insulin gene are then introduced into the E. coli bacterial
cell. These cells are then allowed to replicate by mitosis, along with the bacterial cell
recombinant plasmid also gets replicated producing the human insulin.

4. A and B polypeptide chains of insulin are then extracted and purified from the
fomenters in the lab. High-Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) is used to get
100% pure Humulin from the mixture of proteins.

5. The A and B polypeptide chains of insulin are mixed together and connected with each
other by disulphide bond, forming the Humulin or synthetic human insulin.

Conclusion

Today, advances in molecular biology are not comparable to any other era. Development of
biotechnology and genetic engineering led to the development of other sciences such as
medicine, microbiology, agriculture and livestock. Today, production of DNA vaccines and
recombinant vaccines are important steps towards the prevention of vaccine-preventable
diseases.

In cases where there is a genetic defect in the production of hormones or enzymes, new
bio-pharmaceutical methods are very clear and promising. Future of biotechnology and
pharmaceutical will be very promising. One can hope that many diseases and genetic defects
will be treated.
References

 http://en.wikipedia.org/biotechnology
 http://en.wikipedia.org/insulin
 http://www.genewatch.org/sub-568238
 http://en.wikipedia.org/humulin
 http://www.biotecharticles.com/Others-Article/Human-Insulin-and-Recombinant-DN
A-Technology-70.html
 https://isaaa.org/resources/publications/pocketk/34/default.asp
 http://www.sciencedirect.com/
 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gene_therapy