A strategy for high-level expression of soluble and functional human interferon alpha as a GST-fusion protein in E. coli

Production and purification of large quantities of the functional N-terminal ectodomain of human VPAC1 receptor

Vasoactive intestinal peptide (VIP) is implicated in many physiological and pathophysiological processes, and its receptors are promising targets for the development of new drugs. The human VPAC1 receptor for VIP and pituitary adenylate cyclase-activating polypeptide is a class II G protein coupled receptor. The N-terminal ectodomain (N-ted) of the VPAC1 receptor is a major VIP binding site. To determinate the high resolution structure of the VPAC1 receptor N-ted, large quantities of purified recombinant N-ted produced are required. The N-ted sequence (31-144), which is fused to thioredoxin protein and 6xHis tag, was expressed into Origami Escherichia coli strain. Purification of recombinant N-ted using Ni-NTA affinity column associated to Nu-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis analysis reveals the presence of one single band of Mw 19,000 corresponding to the purified recombinant N-ted. The purified N-ted was able to recognize VIP and the selective antagonist PG96-269. About 5-10 mg of functional purified protein/liter of bacterial culture is currently produced. This is a crucial step to determine the structure of functional human VPAC1 receptor N-ted by nuclear magnetic resonance.

Enhancement of recombinant human ADAM15 disintegrin domain expression level by releasing the rare codons and amino acids restriction

This study was aimed at increasing the production of the recombinant human ADAM15 disintegrin domain (RADD) in Escherichia coli by releasing the rare codons and restricting amino acid residues. Three different strategies for increasing RADD production were examined: to select the suitable host strain, to optimize the rare codons, and to delete the amino acids residues. The total fusion protein glutathione-S-transferase (GST)-RADD concentration of 298 mg/l and 326 mg/l were achieved by selecting E. coli Rosetta (DE3) as the host strain and by changing GGA to GGC at the GST-RADD cassette, respectively. The RADD concentration was increased by 35.7% by eliminating the "Pro-Glu-Phe" residues at the GST-RADD junction. By combinational utilizing the preferred codon introduction and amino acid sequence optimization in E. coli Rosetta (DE3), the highest RADD concentration of 68 mg/l was achieved. The proposed strategy may provide an alternative approach for other enhanced recombinant protein production by E. coli.

Maltose binding protein facilitates high-level expression and functional purification of the chemokines RANTES and SDF-1alpha from Escherichia coli

The chemokines RANTES (regulated on activation, normal T cell expressed and secreted) and SDF-1alpha (stromal cell-derived factor-1alpha) are important regulators of leukocyte trafficking and homing. Chemokines form insoluble inclusion bodies when expressed in Escherichia coli (E. coli), resulting in low yields of soluble protein. We have developed a novel chemokine expression system that generates a high amount of soluble protein and uses a simple purification scheme. We cloned different types of RANTES and SDF-1alpha fused to either maltose binding protein (MBP) or glutathione-S-transferase (GST) and expressed the fusion proteins in E. coli under various conditions. We found that the yield of soluble chemokine is influenced by the type of fusion partner. Fusion to MBP resulted in a higher yield of total and soluble chemokine compared to GST. Under optimized conditions, the yield of soluble MBP-RANTES and MBP-SDF-1alpha was 2.5- and 4.5-fold higher than that of the corresponding GST-fusion protein, respectively. Recombinant chemokine fusion proteins exhibited specific binding activity to chemokine receptors. These results demonstrate that the use of MBP-fusion proteins may provide an approach to generating high yields of soluble and functional chemokines, such as RANTES and SDF-1alpha.

Toxins from cone snails: properties, applications and biotechnological production

Cone snails are marine predators that use venoms to immobilize their prey. The venoms of these mollusks contain a cocktail of peptides that mainly target different voltage- and ligand-gated ion channels. Typically, conopeptides consist of ten to 30 amino acids but conopeptides with more than 60 amino acids have also been described. Due to their extraordinary pharmacological properties, conopeptides gained increasing interest in recent years. There are several conopeptides used in clinical trials and one peptide has received approval for the treatment of pain. Accordingly, there is an increasing need for the production of these peptides. So far, most individual conopeptides are synthesized using solid phase peptide synthesis. Here, we describe that at least some of these peptides can be obtained using prokaryotic or eukaryotic expression systems. This opens the possibility for biotechnological production of also larger amounts of long chain conopeptides for the use of these peptides in research and medical applications.

Production of biological active murine IFN-gamma by recombinant Lactococcus lactis

IFN-gamma is a cytokine produced primarily by both T lymphocytes and natural killer cells and it is considered to be an attractive therapeutic molecule. In the present study, a DNA sequence encoding the mature murine IFN-gamma (muIFN-gamma) protein was cloned and expressed in the food-grade lactic acid bacterium Lactococcus lactis. The activity of recombinant muIFN-gamma produced by genetically engineered L. lactis was confirmed in an antiviral assay using MoV cells infected with Vesicular Stomatitis Virus. The data provide the first demonstration that a Gram-positive bacterium, L. lactis, is able to produce functional muIFN-gamma. This recombinant strain could lead to the development of a new, well-tolerated vector to deliver active muIFN-gamma at the mucosal level.