Cyanobacterial Cell Factories; Insight into Their Pharmaceutical and Nutraceutical Properties

Increasing demands for healthier humans and nutritional food have compelled researchers to explore nonconventional sources with better properties to meet the market requirements. Compared to synthetic molecules, biologically derived bioactive compounds are more sustainable, reliable, and safe to use. Cyanobacteria are promising pharmaceutical and nutraceutical cell factories with the tendency to produce bioactive secondary metabolites such as peptides, fatty acids, antioxidant enzymes, dietary pigments, alkaloids, polyketides, polysaccharides, and phenols. These metabolites have antitumor, antimicrobial, antifungal, anticancer, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, antiproliferative, and immunosuppressive properties. The market for cyanobacterial therapeutics/nutraceuticals is emerging at an exponential rate with an expected share of $6.09 billion by the year 2026. The first part of this chapter provides insights into the cyanobacterial market along with an overview of the cyanobacterial portfolio for secondary metabolite biosynthesis that showed the suitability of cyanobacteria as the “organism of choice” for pharmaceuticals and nutraceuticals. To meet commercial requirements, the bioactive potential of cyanobacteria has to be explored in detail for which techniques like adaptive evolutions, genetic source/pathway identification by omics, and genetic engineering have been discussed in the last section. The focus has been on the research gaps and possible opportunities to improve the pharmaceutical and nutraceutical potential of cyanobacteria.