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Review
. 2022 Jul 13;12(7):980.
doi: 10.3390/biom12070980.

Biotechnology, Bioengineering and Applications of Bacillus Nattokinase

Li Yuan  1 , Chen Liangqi  2 , Tang Xiyu  2 , Li Jinyao  1   2
Affiliations
Review

Biotechnology, Bioengineering and Applications of Bacillus Nattokinase

Li Yuan et al. Biomolecules. .

Abstract

Thrombosis has threatened human health in past decades. Bacillus nattokinase is a potential low-cost thrombolytic drug without side-effects and has been introduced into the consumer market as a functional food or dietary supplement. This review firstly summarizes the biodiversity of sources and the fermentation process of nattokinase, and systematically elucidates the structure, catalytic mechanism and enzymatic properties of nattokinase. In view of the problems of low fermentation yield, insufficient activity and stability of nattokinase, this review discusses the heterologous expression of nattokinase in different microbial hosts and summarizes the protein and genetic engineering progress of nattokinase-producing strains. Finally, this review summarizes the clinical applications of nattokinase.

Keywords: Bacillus nattokinase; functional food and clinical application; molecular modification; molecular structure; physiological and biochemical characteristics.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest to this work. We declare that we do not have any commercial or associative interest that represents a conflict of interest in connection with the work submitted.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Multiple sequence alignment of nattokinase (AprN) compared with other serine protease homologs. Red shading and red words represent identical and similar residues, respectively. AprE: Subtilisin E; AprJ: Subtilisin BPN′; Apr: Subtilisin Carlsberg.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Three-dimensional structure of nattokinase. (A) Calcium binding site of nattokinase. (B) Three-dimensional structure of nattokinase. (C) Nattokinase triple catalyst. Nattokinase structure diagram taken from https://www.rcsb.org/structure/4DWW with modifications (accessed on 14 March 2012).
Figure 3
Figure 3
Thrombolytic mechanism of nattokinase.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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