Abstract:
Human’s haemostatic system fails to suppress undesirable blood clots due to insufficient
activation of thrombolytic system, which leads to the obstruction of important arteries carrying
oxygen and nutrients to imperative organs like brain and heart. Therefore, the obstruction of
these important arteries may lead to pulmonary embolism, brain stroke and myocardial
infarction. Streptokinase (EC 3.4.99.22) is a non-enzymatic, single chain, monomeric protein
which comprises of 414 amino acid protein residues of 47 kDa. It is a non-fibrin specific drug
which increases the risk of internal bleeding. Moreover, recombinant streptokinase protein
expression is mostly found in the inclusion bodies. In current study efforts were made to make
streptokinase fibrin-specific and achieve its soluble expression in E. coli. The results showed
that by linking ompA signal sequence the soluble expression of chimeric fibrin specific
streptokinase was achieved at 57 kDa. Through codon optimization, the expression of chimeric
fibrin specific streptokinase has increased. The attachment of finger domain of tissue
plasminogen activator with streptokinase has been a step forward in making streptokinase
fibrin specific. This will help in minimizing the clinical limitations of streptokinase such as
internal bleeding.
