PRODUCTION OPTIMIZATION, PARTIAL PURIFICATION, AND THROMBOLYTIC ACTIVITY EVALUATION OF PROTEASE OF Bacillus cereus HSFI-10

Cardiovascular disease is the primary cause of mortality in the world due to the formation of blood clots or thrombi in blood vessels. Bacterial proteases commonly function as thrombus dissolver agents in the pharmaceutical industry. Bacterial isolate HSFI-10 (Holothuria scabra Fermented Intestine-10) previously isolated from Rusip fermented sea cucumber had demonstrated thrombolytic activity. This study aimed to produce crude protease of HSFI-10 strain at an optimized incubation time and determine the thrombolytic activity of crude and dialysate proteases on A, B, AB, and O blood types. Isolate HSFI-10 was first molecularly identified and found to be Bacillus cereus with a homology level of 99.80% with Bacillus cereus strain ST06. The optimum crude enzyme was obtained after 48-h incubation with an activity of 222.52 U/mL, which increased to 438.84 U/mL after ammonium sulfate precipitation and dialysis. Clot lysis activity of crude enzymes was measured based on the gravimetry method on blood in the ABO system, showing results that ranged from 68.99% to 69.76%, while the dialysate ranged from 81.16% to 82.52%. In conclusion, partial purification of bacterial protease could increase both its specific and thrombolytic activities on human blood in the ABO system, with only 1% activity variability between A, B, AB, and O blood types.