Cyanobacteria – the enemy of bathers helps in the fight against cancer
During the hot summer days people bathing in many reservoirs and ponds are more and more often facing the danger of cyanobacteria. What from an everyday perspective appear to be unpleasant microorganisms are however not only the enemy of bathers but also a source of valuable substances which can be used, for example, in medicines for preventing malignant tumours or in the area of cosmetics as part of sun tan preparations. Some types can even be used as a source of nutrition, according to the Internet portal www.gate2biotech.com
“From cyanobacteria, the evil slime that yearly infests ponds and swimming pools, experts have managed to extract a whole range of substances which serve practically in the prevention of many unpleasant civilisation illnesses and contribute to a balanced lifestyle“ says Ing. Vítěslav Březina, who has been intensively studying these problems since the sixties. “For example, from just one strain of cyanobacteria we have isolated over twenty antibacterial substances and four anti-carcenogenic substances“.
Particularly worthy of attention are the carotenoids which occur in these microorganisms. These have a wide application thanks to their ability to trap free oxygen radicals. These compounds, harmful to the human organism, occur as a byproduct of cell metabolism and can seriously harm the cell apparatus, which can lead to accidental division of dominance and the eventual occurrence of malignant tumours. The advantage of carotenoids obtained from cyanobacteria is their incomparably higher effectiveness than synthetically produced vitamins and substances whose absorption is lower than with natural substances. “The fact that carotenoids contribute to human health is unmistakeable and scientifically proven. It is necessary to point out, however, that they don’t directly cure but that their strength is in their preventative effect“ explains Březina.
These cyanobacteria produce a wide variety of useful substances, such as oligosaccharides, organic acids, carotenoids, hormones, enzymes or even antibiotics. This opens a range of possibilities for their use in innumerable applications. Cultivation and use of cyanobacteria for biotechnology is becoming an attractive and prospective branch, both for further possible research and for use in the industrial sphere.
The Czech Republic has advantageous conditions for developing the use of cyanobacteria thanks to the existence of a unique collection of cyanobacteria strains at the Botanical Institute of the Czech Academy of Science in Třeboň. Thanks to a long tradition in the research of cyanobacteria new technology has been develooped enabling the isolation of biologically active substances used in medicine and the food industry. One example of such technology is the photobioreactor which produces high quality raw materials for further use. In South Moravia they are considering setting up a photobioreactor which would be run by B.P. Medical, a company founded by Ing. Březina. Thanks to the high innovation potential of his project it has found a home in the Brno Technological Incubator VUT
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