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Streptokinase (SK) is an efficient thrombolytic agent that dissolves fibrin blood clots with clinical efficiency comparable to the high priced drug, tissue plasminogen activator (tPA). However, being of bacterial origin, its major drawbacks are its potentially high antigenicity, and relatively short circulating half-life (approximately 10-15 min). In the present investigation, an attempt has been made to address both these shortcomings by site-specific pegylation, and to obtain longer lasting thrombolytics, which are consistent with clinical requirements. Therefore, we employed available three-dimensional structural information on SK to carry out site-specific cysteine incorporation at 'optimal' surfaceexposed sites within all the three domains in streptokinase followed by pegylation with 20KDa PEG groups, and screening for biologically active variants. Interestingly, some of these SK PEG-conjugates exhibited considerably subdued immunereactivity along with enhanced in-vitro proteolytic stability profiles and extended circulating in-vivo half-lives (2 to 20-fold compared to that of native unconjugated SK) depending upon location and number of PEG-groups per molecule obtained in homogeneous form. The obtained results are a promising approach for favorably modulating immune-reactivity and half-life by cysteine- specific PEGylation of SK to achieve therapeutic attributes desirable for the treatment of different circulatory disorders, such as ischemic stroke, myocardial infarction and pulmonary embolism.

Two aerobic bacterial consortia namely Con T and Con R were developed by enrichment technique from termite gut and cow dung respectively, using xylan as a sole carbon source. Molecular characterization of Con R based on 16S rRNA sequence analysis showed the presence of Pannonibacter sp. R-3 and Pseudoxanthomas sp. R-5. On the other hand, Con T showed the presence of Pseudoxanthomas sp. T-5, Cellulosimicrobium sp. T-21, and Gordonia sp. T-30. Being the maximum xylanase producer among the five isolates and being a novel xylanase producing bacterial genus, Gordonia sp. T-30 was selected. Xylanase produced by Gordonia sp. T-30 showed optimum activity at 60 °C and pH 9. Xylanase was 95% stable for 120 min at pH 9.0 and 98% stable at 60 °C for 90 min. Xylanase activity was stimulated in the presence of organic solvents such as petroleum ether, acetone, diethyl ether, n-hexane, and benzene. Detergent like cetyltrimethylammonium bromide and presence of NaCl also accelerated the xylanase function. Comparative evaluation was studied between sterilized and non-sterilized solid fermentation to produce xylanase by Gordonia sp. T-30 using various agricultural residues as growth substrate in cost effective manner. Industrially important features endowed by this xylanase make it a very promising candidate for food, feed, and fuel industry.

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