**Acknowledgement**

This work was supported by funds from University Grants Commission, New Delhi and Indian Council of Medical Research, New Delhi, India.

## **14. References**

	- [12] Paulson JD, Polakoski KL (1977) Isolation of a spermatozoal immobilization factor from *Escherichia coli* filtrates*.* Fertil. steril. 28: 182-185.

**Chapter 13** 

© 2012 Ramachandran et al., licensee InTech. This is an open access chapter distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

© 2012 Ramachandran et al., licensee InTech. This is a paper distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use,

distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

**Purification of** 

http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/51891

**1. Introduction** 

**Azurin from** *Pseudomonas Aeuroginosa*

Sankar Ramachandran, Moganavelli Singh and Mahitosh Mandal

The use of microorganisms and their products as possible therapeutic agents in the control of cancer begins at the latter part of the nineteenth century. The search of new drugs from microbial sources against infectious disease has been augmented when Alexander Fleming (1928) discovered penicillin [1]. The secondary metabolites from microorganisms play a vital role in developing antibiotics and chemotherapeutics [2, 3]. Several researchers have reported various anticancer molecules from different microbial sources [4]. Even though chemotherapy is efficient in enhancing patient survival with primary tumors continue to have deprived prognosis. The rapid advances in the field of antibiotics have inspired new hope that the search among biological systems will disclose a chemical agent which will exert a destructive effect upon neoplastic growth without seriously affecting normal cells. Using live or attenuated pathogenic bacteria or its metabolites in treatment of cancer excretes toxic effects among patients. Azurin, a redox protein recently fascinated biomedical researcher's immense interest as an anti cancer therapeutic agent which enters human breast cancer cells and induces apoptosis without any adverse effects in cancer patients [5]. Azurin, a secondary metabolite derived from bacterial species especially from *P. aeruginosa* function as a donor in terminal electron transfer process [6]. Azurin also termed as blue small copper proteins highly stable in nature. The presence of copper ion in the polypeptide chain contributes to the azurin stability [6-8]. Azurin reported as a potential anticancer protein against breast cancer cell lines, evoked the researchers of novel methods for enhanced synthesis of azurin has initialized. *P. aeruginosa* a common gram negative opportunistic pathogenic bacterium found naturally [9]. They are considered as facultative anaerobic grow in partial or total oxygen depletion cultural conditions. This organism can achieve anaerobic growth with nitrate as a terminal electron acceptor. *P. aeruginosa* secretes a variety of pigments,

Additional information is available at the end of the chapter

including pyocyanin, pyoverdine and pyorubin.

