Proteases are the most important group of enzymes utilized commercially in various arenas of industries, such as food, detergent, leather, dairy, pharmaceutical, diagnostics, and waste management, accounting for nearly 20% of the world enzyme market. Microorganisms of specially Bacillus genera serve as a vast repository of diverse set of industrially important enzymes and utilized for the large-scale enzyme production using a fermentation technology. Approximately 30%-40% of the cost of industrial enzymes originates from the cost of the growth medium. This study is attempted to produce protease from Bacillus subtilis (ATCC 6633) after optimization of various process parameters with the aid of solid-state fermentation using a cheap nutrient source such as wheat bran. B. subtilis (ATCC 6633) produces proteases of molecular weight 36 and 20 kDa, respectively, in the fermented medium as evident from SDS zymogram. Alkaline protease activity has been detected with optimum temperature at 50 °C and is insensitive to ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid. This thermostable alkaline protease exhibits dual pH optimum at 7 and 10 with moderate pH stability at alkaline pH range. It preserves its activity in the presence of detergent such as SDS, Tween 20, and Triton X-100 and may be considered as an effective additive to detergent formulation with some industrial importance.

Demand for microbial amylase production persists because of its immense importance in wide spectrum industries. The present work has been initiated with a goal of optimization of solid state fermentation condition for amylase using agroindustrial waste and microbial strain like B. amyloliquefaciens (MTCC 1270). In an aim to improve the productivity of amylase, fermentation has been carried out in the presence of calcium (Ca+2), Nitrate (NO3 −), and chloride ions (Cl−) as well as in the presence of D-inositol and mannitol. Amylase needs calcium ion for the preservation of its structure, activity and stability that proves beneficial also for amylase production using solid state fermentation. The inclusion of ions and sugars in the SSF media is promising which can be explained by the protection offered by them against thermal decay of amylase at various incubation periods at 37°C.

Combating Type-2 diabetes mellitus is a pivotal challenge in front of the present world. Several lines of therapy are in practice for resisting this deadly disease which often culminates with cardiovascular complexities, neuropathy and retinopathy. Among various therapies, administration of alpha glucosidase inhibitors is common and widely practiced. Sulfonylurea category of anti diabetic drug often suffers from cross reactivity with sulfamethoxazole (SMX), a common drug in use to treat a handful of microbial infections. However the specific cellular target generating postprandial hypoglycemia on SMX administration is till date unraveled. The present work has been initiated to elucidate the effects of a group of sulfonamide drugs inclusive of SMX for their amylase inhibitory role. SMX inhibits porcine pancreatic amylase (PPA) in a noncompetitive mode with an average IC50 value 0.94 mM respectively. Interaction of SMX with PPA is manifested with gradual quenching of tryptophan fluorescence with concomitant shift in lambda max value (λmax). Binding is governed by entropy driven factor (24.8 cal mol(-1) K(-1)) with unfavorable contribution from enthalpy change. SMX interferes with the activity of acarbose in a synergistic mode to reduce the effective dose of acarbose as evident from the in vitro PPA inhibition study. In summary, loss of PPA activity in presence of SMX is indicative of structural changes of PPA which is further augmented in the presence of acarbose as explained in the schematic model and docking study.