A chemoenzymatic process for preparation of highly purified dehydroepiandrosterone in high space-time yield

Dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) is an important neurosteroid hormone to keep human hormonal balance and reproductive health. However, DHEA was always produced with impurities either by chemical or biological method and required high-cost purification before the medical use. To address this issue, a novel chemoenzymatic process was proposed and implemented to produce DHEA. An acetoxylated derivate of 4-androstene-3,17-dione (4-AD) was generated by chemical reaction and converted into DHEA by an enzyme cascade reaction combining a hydrolysis reaction with a reduction reaction. The hydrolysis reaction was catalyzed by a commercial esterase Z03 while the reduction reaction was catalyzed by E. coli cells co-expressing a 3β-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase SfSDR and a glucose dehydrogenase BtGDH. After the condition optimization, DHEA was synthesized at a 100 mL scale under 100 mM of substrate loading and purified as white powder with the highest space–time yield (4.80 g/L/h) and purity (99 %) in the biosynthesis of DHEA. The successful attempt in this study provides a new approach for green synthesis of highly purified DHEA in the pharmaceutical industry.