Gene switch for l-glucose-induced biopharmaceutical production in mammalian cells

Transport-controlled growth decoupling for self-induced protein expression with a glycerol-repressible genetic circuit

Decoupling cell formation from recombinant protein synthesis is a potent strategy to intensify bioprocesses. Escherichia coli strains with mutations in the glucose uptake components lack catabolite repression, display low growth rate, no overflow metabolism, and high recombinant protein yields. Fast growth rates were promoted by the simultaneous consumption of glucose and glycerol, and this was followed by a phase of slow growth, when only glucose remained in the medium. A glycerol-repressible genetic circuit was designed to autonomously induce recombinant protein expression. The engineered strain bearing the genetic circuit was cultured in 3.9 g L-1 glycerol + 18 g L-1 glucose in microbioreactors with online oxygen transfer rate monitoring. The growth was fast during the simultaneous consumption of both carbon sources (C-sources), while expression of the recombinant protein was low. When glycerol was depleted, the growth rate decreased, and the specific fluorescence reached values 17% higher than those obtained with a strong constitutive promoter. Despite the relatively high amount of C-source used, no oxygen limitation was observed. The proposed approach eliminates the need for the substrate feeding or inducers addition and is set as a simple batch culture while mimicking fed-batch performance.

Small-Molecule Regulators for Gene Switches to Program Mammalian Cell Behaviour

Synthetic or natural small molecules have been extensively employed as trigger signals or inducers to regulate engineered gene circuits introduced into living cells in order to obtain desired outputs in a controlled and predictable manner. Here, we provide an overview of small molecules used to drive synthetic-biology-based gene circuits in mammalian cells, together with examples of applications at different levels of control, including regulation of DNA manipulation, RNA synthesis and editing, and protein synthesis, maturation, and trafficking. We also discuss the therapeutic potential of these small-molecule-responsive gene circuits, focusing on the advantages and disadvantages of using small molecules as triggers, the mechanisms involved, and the requirements for selecting suitable molecules, including efficiency, specificity, orthogonality, and safety. Finally, we explore potential future directions for translation of these devices to clinical medicine.

Combinatorial protein dimerization enables precise multi-input synthetic computations

Bacterial transcription factors (TFs) with helix-turn-helix (HTH) DNA-binding domains have been widely explored to build orthogonal transcriptional regulation systems in mammalian cells. Here we capitalize on the modular structure of these proteins to build a framework for multi-input logic gates relying on serial combinations of inducible protein-protein interactions. We found that for some TFs, their HTH domain alone is sufficient for DNA binding. By fusing the HTH domain to TFs, we established dimerization dependent rather than DNA-binding-dependent activation. This enabled us to convert gene switches from OFF-type into more widely applicable ON-type systems and to create mammalian gene switches responsive to new inducers. By combining both OFF and ON modes of action, we built a compact, high-performance bandpass filter. Furthermore, we were able to show cytosolic and extracellular dimerization. Cascading up to five pairwise fusion proteins yielded robust multi-input AND logic gates. Combinations of different pairwise fusion proteins afforded a variety of 4-input 1-output AND and OR logic gate configurations.

Chiral Detection of Glucose: An Amino Acid-Assisted Surface-Enhanced Raman Scattering Strategy Showing Opposite Enantiomeric Effects on SERS Signals

It is of considerable concern to establish chiral detection methods for revealing enantioselective interactions among chiral molecules. Surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) spectroscopy is sensitive to molecular interaction due to bond variations. However, its application in chiral detection is underexplored. Inspired by the chiral selectivity toward glucose and amino acids in life, we herein propose a SERS strategy based on molecular interactions for the discrimination of d- and l-glucose (Glu) using chiral phenylalanine (Phe) decorated on gold nanoparticles as a chirality selector and Raman reporter. Interestingly, the SERS signal of l-Phe is enhanced by d-Glu but suppressed by l-Glu. In contrast, the SERS signal of d-Phe is increased by l-Glu but decreased by d-Glu. According to the above-observed intensity change (ΔI) of the SERS signal of Phe induced by Glu, it is easy to determine the chiral configurations (judged by the positive or negative sign of ΔI), enantiomeric excess (ee) values, and concentrations (estimated by the magnitude of ΔI) of Glu. Taking advantage of the high SERS enhancement and opposite enantiomeric effects on SERS signals, the proposed strategy enables enantiomeric discrimination at a low Glu concentration (10^-6 mol/L) and is further exerted for the noninvasive detection of d-/l-Glu in saliva samples. In contrast, the common chiroptical analysis tool of circular dichroism (CD) spectroscopy failed to directly detect Glu enantiomers.