Utilization of Cheese Whey for Production of Azurin by Pseudomonas aeruginosa

Azurin which has attracted much attention as potential anticancer agent in recent years is a bacterial secondary metabolite. This copper-containing redox protein secreted by Pseudomonas aeruginosa has capability of preferentially entering into many human cancer cells and inducing apoptosis. In this study, whey which is the considerable by-product of the casein or cheese manufacture was used as azurin production medium by P. aeruginosa. Also, effects of copper (II) sulphate (CuSO4) and potassium nitrate (KNO3) on the azurin production were determined. At the end of the studies, optimum azurin expression level was reached during the incubation of 18 hours. The best CuSO4 concentration was 2.5 mg/L while the best KNO3 concentration was 45 mg/L according to Western blot analysis. This process can be used to obtain high levels of azurin using P. aeruginosa in whey medium. Also, using whey for azurin production can reduce many processing industrial whey waste management problems.