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Lactoferrin was first identified from milk in 1939, and was first
extracted from the milk in 1960. After that, it was proved to exist in all
kinds of animal and human body (especially milk), and was proved to be an
effective antimicrobial protein against all kinds of pathogens.
Lactoferrin in milk is now considered as a protection against different
diseases, since cattle have a weak immune system.
The special characteristics of Lactoferrin provide different medical and
nutritional value. LF can eliminate pathogens in an effective way as a
natural antimicrobial protein. It also has an iron transferring function
in blood and is used in curing iron-deficiency anemia and other diseases
related to the scarcity of iron by simply ingesting certain amount of LF.
Recently, it was also proved to be effective in anti-inflammatory,
anti-cancer and anti-parasite treatment.
LF plays an important role in all kinds of domain, but due to the
complexity and fussiness of extracting, the relatively scarcity of
ingredients and the low production rate, the price of LF is relatively
high. In recent years, scientists are trying to use microorganisms to
produce LF using gene editing technology. Escherichia coli (E. coli), a
basic biomaterial, is often the first choice of protein expression due to
its simple technical and cultural operation, and relatively low price,
also, avoiding potential ethical issue. For another reason, the use of E.
coli in producing different domains are highly mature and are ready for
commercial and academic use. For example, insulin, a kind of protein which
are used in curing diabetes, is mostly produced by using edited E. coli.
Our proposition aimed to use E. coli to produce LF. However, the process
could not be executed as we expected since LF, as an antimicrobial
protein, may eliminate the bacteria during the procedure. During our
research, we found out that iron cations can prevent E. coli from being
killed by LF, making the procedure smoothly and effectively. The mechanism
is that LF can remove most of the Fe cations which are necessary to E.
coli, and proceeding the system with exceed Fe cations can provide
necessities. Therefore, we planned to introduce Fe2+ and Fe3+ into the
system, trying to stimulate and motivate the process.
We hypothesized that the iron cations could keep E. coil survive for a
relatively longer time, and therefore be able to produce a larger amount
of LF. These products could be used in curing diseases and saving lives.