Photoliases are enzymes that repair the damage caused by ultraviolet (UV) radiation in DNA. This type of damage, if not repaired, can cause mutations that determine the formation of skin cancer.
Currently, such enzymes are used in cosmetic creams, it is an enzyme preparation from the cyanobacterium Anacystis nidulas.
The development that made the team of Faculty of Sciences, and that is part of the thesis of PhD in Biotechnology of the graduate Juan José Marizcurrena, had like objective the production of a fotoliasa of high efficiency to a low cost.
“From a collection of Antarctic bacteria resistant to UV irradiation, we conducted a search of the genes that code for the photolyase enzyme and produced two enzymes by recombinant DNA technology,” said Dr. Susana Castro, professor of the section Biochemistry and Molecular Biology of the Faculty of Sciences.
“At present we are producing photoliases at a very low cost, we purify them with a very simple process, and finally we obtain an enzyme with great repairing activity of the damage”, remarked the researcher.
Patent
For his part, the Minister of National Defense, Jorge Menéndez, said that the discovery of Antarctic bacterial photolyase “will be patented and the terms will be established for a use that has very important potential from the pharmaceutical and cosmetic point of view”.
The Ministry of Defense provides logistical support so that “science carries out its actions and all the scientific institutes of Uruguay have a field of action in Antarctica”.
At present, 15 research projects are carried out, with 40 scientists dependent on the Faculty of Sciences and the Eastern Regional University Center (CURE) of the University of the Republic and other organizations, such as the Clemente Estable Biological Research Institute, of the Ministry of Education and Culture, and the Oceanography, Hydrography and Meteorology Service of the Navy.
Source: lr21.com.uy
