Biosynthesis of actarit using engineered Escherichia coli

Actarit is widely regarded as a safe and effective drug for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis. There is no report on the bioproductin of actarit so far. In this study, we demonstrated for the first time the development of an artificial actarit biosynthetic pathway in Escherichia coli. First, 4-aminophenylacetic acid is selected as precursor substrates for the production of actarit. Second, an N-acetyltransferase that can efficiently catalyse the esterification of acetyl-CoA and 4-aminophenylacetic acid to form actarit was discovered. Subsequently, an engineered E. coli that allows production of actarit from simple carbon sources was established. Finally, we further increased the production of actarit to 206 ± 16.9 mg/L by overexpression of shikimate dehydrogenase ydiB and shikimate kinase aroK.