Purification and biofabrication of 5-aminolevulinic acid for photodynamic therapy against pathogens and cancer cells

5-Aminolevulinic acid (5-ALA) is a non-proteinogenic amino acid which has involved in heme metabolism of organisms, and has been widely applied in agriculture, and medical fields nowadays. 5-ALA is used in the elimination of pathogens or cancer cells by photodynamic therapy (PDT) owing to the photosensitizer reaction which releases the reactive oxygen species (ROS). Currently, biofabrication of 5-ALA is regarded as the most efficient and eco-friendly approach, but the complicated ingredient of medium causes the nuisance process of purification, resulting in low recovery and high producing cost. In this study, hydrogen chloride, sodium acetate, and ammonia were examined to maximize the recovery of 5-ALA from ion-exchange chromatography (IEC), thus a 92% recovery in 1 M ammonia at pH 9.5 was obtained. Afterward, the activated carbon was used for decolorization to further remove the pigments from the eluent. Four organic solvents, i.e., diethyl ether, methanol, ethanol, and acetone were compared to extract and form 5-ALA precipitation. The purified 5-ALA was verified to eliminate 74% of A549 human lung cancer and 83% of A375 melanoma skin cancer cell. Moreover, Proteus hauseri , Aeromonas hydrophila , Bacillus cereus , and Staphylococcus aureus were killed via anti-microbial PDT with 1% 5-ALA and reached 100% killing rate at optimal condition. With the addition of 0.05% 5-ALA during the culture, the growth of microalgae Chlorella sorokiniana was improved to against a common aquatic pathogen, A. hydrophila . The broad application of 5-ALA was demonstrated in this study for the first time. Graphical Abstract