According to previous research, polyphosphate may be helpful to cure IBD. And since long-chain polyphosphate is synthesized from inorganic phosphate, we come up with the idea that it may be a solution for the problem of eutrophication simultaneously. Combining these ideas together, we found that PolyP has great potential in many areas. However, producing PolyP by chemical methods is difficult and has many problems, such as it need high temperature and high pressure, it needs high consumer and high cost, it also produces lots of byproducts, and only relatively short chain polyphosphates can be produced. So we want to produce the long-chain phosphate which is synthesized by bacteria to solve these problems.
PART1: Investigation & Consultation
One of our team members noticed that Professor Wenjie Guo from school of life science, Nanjing University, found that long-chain polyphosphate has curative effects for inflammatory bowel diseases. Professor Wenjie Guo is an outstanding scholar in the field of IBD. Therefore, we interviewed Prof. Guo. He suggested that long-chain polyphosphate is promising to be developed as a new IBD therapy. After reviewing previous researches, we learned that after polyp enters the intestine, it enters the intestinal epithelial cells through endocytosis, inducing epithelial cells to express more molecular chaperones, which binds to related proteins, preventing cells from being damaged by oxidative stress, thereby maintaining the integrity of the intestinal mucosa, making it difficult for pathogenic bacteria to colonize. Through this mechanism, it is promising in treating IBD.
However, long-chain polyphosphate is difficult to synthesize due to the length. Chemically synthesized polyphosphates are short chain, unstable in nature, and the production process is not environmentally friendly. Therefore, a method of biosynthesis of long-chain polyphosphates is urgently needed.
Owing to the excellent properties of long-chain polyphosphate which is difficult to produce by means of chemical methods. Method of biosynthesizing it is currently in demand.
Additionally, thanks to the suggestions of Professor Wei Wei, we come with the idea of recycling the inorganic phosphate in lakes suffering from eutrophication to biosynthesize polyphosphate. We interviewed with Doctor Shang Liu from Environmental Protection Technology Co., LTD. Doctor Liu is experienced in water treatment and treating eutrophication. He gave positive feedbacks of our idea owing its creativity and versatility. Besides, he also gave us several useful suggestions about designing the integrated equipment as the carrier of the modified bacteria in the lake.
PART2: Experiment
For seek of high yield of long-polyphosphate gained from biosynthesis, we optimize the experiment protocol and make improvement of the previous part. These improvements lay the foundation of large-scale application in the future.
PART3: New Application
The concept that we put up is brand new and prospective. In our project, we design an innovative cycle for polyphosphate, from production to application. Exploring a new application of polyphosphate and combining it with sustainable development, we apply the method of synthetic biology to a whole new concept. We wish our project can provide the researchers with more ideas and inspirations: using synthetic biology to explore the new potential of traditional chemicals.
PART4: Proposed Implementation
What comes together with the prospectiveness of our project is a little uncertainty. However, not only the early investigations, interviews but also the later modeling and experiments all prove that out project is feasible.
There are few options for the implementation of current project:
1. Pharmaceuticals companies can apply our ideas to develop a new drug curing IBD, which can protect the intestinal epidermis under the inflammatory environment thus making it difficult for the pathogenic bacteria to colonize. Owing to its distinctive mechanism, it may also combine with current drugs to develop a cocktail therapy.
2. Manufacturers focusing on probiotic food can apply our ideas to develop new probiotic food containing long-chain polyphosphate, which may offer a sustainable proactive effect on the intestinal epidermis and stabilize the balance of gut microbiome.
3. Scientists and medical workers interested in intestinal health can learn from our ideas to discover the effect of long-chain polyphosphate on the overall balance of gut microbiome, which may offer new insights into the effect of polyphosphate.
4. Environmental protection technology companies can apply our ideas to find a new solution for eutrophication, which may establish a benevolent cycle of phosphate application.
PART5: Safety Issues & Other Challenges
Since no gene sequences or engineering strains with potential biosafety risks is involved in our project, and we have formed a complete set of safe synthesis methods for polyphosphate under the concept of sustainable development.
The challenge of the project is how to regulate the dose of polyphosphate to offer a sustainable beneficial effect on intestinal health. In that situation, we hope to design probiotics that have the ability to biosynthesize polyphosphate in vivo, but the control of the concentration of polyphosphate is also a challenge. However, this problem can still be solved. We use mathematical models to simulate the concentration of polyphosphate in vivo and design a method to control it by regulating the concentration of magnesium ion, which is crucial for the normal function of polyphosphate kinase 1.
In conclusion, our project has a wide range of application prospects. Pharmaceuticals companies, food manufacturers, scientists, medical workers and environmental protection technology companies can use this idea to develop new products in different fields under the concept of sustainable development, to gain a more comprehensive understanding of its mechanism and make contributions to the improvement of intestinal health in the long run.