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Shekhar S, Khan R, Ferreira DM, Mitsi E, German E, Rørvik GH, Berild D, Schenck K, Kwon K, Petersen F. Antibodies Reactive to Commensal Streptococcus mitis Show Cross-Reactivity With Virulent Streptococcus pneumoniae Serotypes. Front Immunol 2018; 9:747. [PMID: 29713324 PMCID: PMC5911667 DOI: 10.3389/fimmu.2018.00747] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/14/2017] [Accepted: 03/26/2018] [Indexed: 12/05/2022] Open
Abstract
Current vaccines against Streptococcus pneumoniae, a bacterial species that afflicts people by causing a wide spectrum of diseases, do not protect against all pneumococcal serotypes. Thus, alternative vaccines to fight pneumococcal infections that target common proteins are under investigation. One promising strategy is to take advantage of immune cross-reactivity between commensal and pathogenic microbes for cross-protection. In this study, we examined the antibody-mediated cross-reactivity between S. pneumoniae and Streptococcus mitis, a commensal species closely related to S. pneumoniae. Western blot analysis showed that rabbit antisera raised against S. mitis reacted with multiple proteins of virulent S. pneumoniae strains (6B, TIGR4, and D39). Rabbit anti-S. pneumoniae IgG antibodies also showed binding to S. mitis antigens. Incubation of rabbit antisera raised against S. mitis with heterologous or homologous bacterial lysates resulted in marked inhibition of the developments of bands in the Western blots. Furthermore, plasma IgG antibodies from adult human volunteers intranasally inoculated with S. pneumoniae 6B revealed enhanced S. mitis-specific IgG titers compared with the pre-inoculation samples. Using an on-chip protein microarray representing a number of selected membrane and extracellular S. pneumoniae proteins, we identified choline-binding protein D (CbpD), cell division protein (FtsH), and manganese ABC transporter or manganese-binding adhesion lipoprotein (PsaA) as common targets of the rabbit IgG antibodies raised against S. mitis or S. pneumoniae. Cumulatively, these findings provide evidence on the antibody-mediated cross-reactivity of proteins from S. mitis and S. pneumoniae, which may have implications for development of effective and wide-range pneumococcal vaccines.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sudhanshu Shekhar
- Department of Oral Biology, Faculty of Dentistry, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
| | - Rabia Khan
- Department of Oral Biology, Faculty of Dentistry, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
| | - Daniela M Ferreira
- Department of Clinical Sciences, Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, Liverpool, United Kingdom
| | - Elena Mitsi
- Department of Clinical Sciences, Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, Liverpool, United Kingdom
| | - Esther German
- Department of Clinical Sciences, Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, Liverpool, United Kingdom
| | | | - Dag Berild
- Faculty of Medicine, Institute of Clinical Medicine, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
| | - Karl Schenck
- Department of Oral Biology, Faculty of Dentistry, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
| | - Keehwan Kwon
- Infectious Diseases Group, J. Craig Venter Institute, Rockville, MD, United States
| | - Fernanda Petersen
- Department of Oral Biology, Faculty of Dentistry, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
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Biancucci M, Dolores JS, Wong J, Grimshaw S, Anderson WF, Satchell KJF, Kwon K. New ligation independent cloning vectors for expression of recombinant proteins with a self-cleaving CPD/6xHis-tag. BMC Biotechnol 2017; 17:1. [PMID: 28056928 PMCID: PMC5216533 DOI: 10.1186/s12896-016-0323-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/21/2016] [Accepted: 12/09/2016] [Indexed: 12/30/2022] Open
Abstract
Background Recombinant protein purification is a crucial step for biochemistry and structural biology fields. Rapid robust purification methods utilize various peptide or protein tags fused to the target protein for affinity purification using corresponding matrices and to enhance solubility. However, affinity/solubility-tags often need to be removed in order to conduct functional and structural studies, adding complexities to purification protocols. Results In this work, the Vibrio cholerae MARTX toxin Cysteine Protease Domain (CPD) was inserted in a ligation-independent cloning (LIC) vector to create a C-terminal 6xHis-tagged inducible autoprocessing enzyme tag, called “the CPD-tag”. The pCPD and alternative pCPD/ccdB cloning vectors allow for easy insertion of DNA and expression of the target protein fused to the CPD-tag, which is removed at the end of the purification step by addition of the inexpensive small molecule inositol hexakisphosphate to induce CPD autoprocessing. This process is demonstrated using a small bacterial membrane localization domain and for high yield purification of the eukaryotic small GTPase KRas. Subsequently, pCPD was tested with 40 proteins or sub-domains selected from a high throughput crystallization pipeline. Conclusion pCPD vectors are easily used LIC compatible vectors for expression of recombinant proteins with a C-terminal CPD/6xHis-tag. Although intended only as a strategy for rapid tag removal, this pilot study revealed the CPD-tag may also increase expression and solubility of some recombinant proteins. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12896-016-0323-4) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
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Affiliation(s)
- Marco Biancucci
- Department of Microbiology-Immunology, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, 303 E. Chicago Avenue, Ward 6-205, Chicago, IL, 60611, USA
| | - Jazel S Dolores
- Department of Microbiology-Immunology, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, 303 E. Chicago Avenue, Ward 6-205, Chicago, IL, 60611, USA.,Present address: Northwestern Memorial Hospital, Chicago, IL, USA
| | - Jennifer Wong
- Department of Microbiology-Immunology, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, 303 E. Chicago Avenue, Ward 6-205, Chicago, IL, 60611, USA.,Present address: Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, USA
| | - Sarah Grimshaw
- Infectious Diseases Group, J. Craig Venter Institute, 9714 Medical Center Drive, Rockville, MD, 20850, USA.,Center for Structural Genomics of Infectious Diseases, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, Chicago, IL, USA
| | - Wayne F Anderson
- Center for Structural Genomics of Infectious Diseases, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, Chicago, IL, USA.,Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, Chicago, IL, USA
| | - Karla J F Satchell
- Department of Microbiology-Immunology, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, 303 E. Chicago Avenue, Ward 6-205, Chicago, IL, 60611, USA. .,Center for Structural Genomics of Infectious Diseases, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, Chicago, IL, USA.
| | - Keehwan Kwon
- Infectious Diseases Group, J. Craig Venter Institute, 9714 Medical Center Drive, Rockville, MD, 20850, USA. .,Center for Structural Genomics of Infectious Diseases, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, Chicago, IL, USA.
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Abstract
The expression and screening of the solubility of recombinant proteins is an important step in the high-throughput (HT) production of target proteins. For many applications, E. coli remains the most widely used expression system due to the relative ease of adapting it to HT pipelines. Herein is described a platform using a 96-well format for efficient expression and solubility screening of target proteins.
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Affiliation(s)
- Keehwan Kwon
- J. Craig Venter Institute, 9704 Medical Center Drive, Rockville, MD, 20850, USA,
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Fang J, Chen L, Cheng B, Fan J. Engineering soluble tobacco etch virus protease accompanies the loss of stability. Protein Expr Purif 2013; 92:29-35. [PMID: 24012464 DOI: 10.1016/j.pep.2013.08.015] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/09/2013] [Revised: 08/20/2013] [Accepted: 08/22/2013] [Indexed: 10/26/2022]
Abstract
Tobacco etch virus protease (TEVp) is a widely used tool enzyme in biological studies. To improve the solubility of recombinant TEVp, three variants, including the double mutant (L56V/S135G), the triple mutant (T17S/N68D/I77V), and the quintuple mutant (T17S/L56V/N68D/I77V/S135G), have been developed, however, with little information on functional stability. Here we investigated the solubility and stability of the three TEVp mutants under different temperature and denaturants, and in Escherichiacoli with different cultural conditions. The quintuple mutant showed the highest solubility and thermostablity, and the double mutant was most resistant to the denaturants. The double mutant folded best in E. coli cells at 37°C with or without the co-expressed molecular chaperones GroEL, GroES and GrpE. The least soluble wild type TEVp displayed better tolerance to denaturants than the triple and the quintuple mutants. All results demonstrated that TEVp is not engineered to embody the most desirable solubility and stability by the current mutations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jie Fang
- Key Laboratory of Crop Biology of Anhui Province, Anhui Agricultural University, Hefei 230036, China
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N Peterson S, Kwon K. The HaloTag: Improving Soluble Expression and Applications in Protein Functional Analysis. CURRENT CHEMICAL GENOMICS 2012; 6:8-17. [PMID: 23115610 PMCID: PMC3480702 DOI: 10.2174/1875397301206010008] [Citation(s) in RCA: 28] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/17/2011] [Revised: 07/13/2012] [Accepted: 07/18/2012] [Indexed: 12/22/2022]
Abstract
Technological and methodological advances have been critical for the rapidly evolving field of proteomics. The development of fusion tag systems is essential for purification and analysis of recombinant proteins. The HaloTag is a 34 KDa monomeric protein derived from a bacterial haloalkane dehalogenase. The majority of fusion tags in use today utilize a reversible binding interaction with a specific ligand. The HaloTag system is unique in that it forms a covalent linkage to its chloroalkane ligand. This linkage permits attachment of the HaloTag to a variety of functional reporters, which can be used to label and immobilize recombinant proteins. The success rate for HaloTag expression of soluble proteins is very high and comparable to maltose binding protein (MBP) tag. Furthermore, cleavage of the HaloTag does not result in protein insolubility that often is observed with the MBP tag. In the present report, we describe applications of the HaloTag system in our ongoing investigation of protein-protein interactions of the Y. pestis Type 3 secretion system on a custom protein microarray. We also describe the utilization of affinity purification/mass spectroscopy (AP/MS) to evaluate the utility of the Halo Tag system to characterize DNA binding activity and protein specificity.
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Affiliation(s)
- Scott N Peterson
- J. Craig Venter Institute, 9704 Medical Center Drive, Rockville, Maryland 20850, USA
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Kwon K, Hasseman J, Latham S, Grose C, Do Y, Fleischmann RD, Pieper R, Peterson SN. Recombinant expression and functional analysis of proteases from Streptococcus pneumoniae, Bacillus anthracis, and Yersinia pestis. BMC BIOCHEMISTRY 2011; 12:17. [PMID: 21545736 PMCID: PMC3113736 DOI: 10.1186/1471-2091-12-17] [Citation(s) in RCA: 20] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/18/2010] [Accepted: 05/05/2011] [Indexed: 12/17/2022]
Abstract
Background Uncharacterized proteases naturally expressed by bacterial pathogens represents important topic in infectious disease research, because these enzymes may have critical roles in pathogenicity and cell physiology. It has been observed that cloning, expression and purification of proteases often fail due to their catalytic functions which, in turn, cause toxicity in the E. coli heterologous host. Results In order to address this problem systematically, a modified pipeline of our high-throughput protein expression and purification platform was developed. This included the use of a specific E. coli strain, BL21(DE3) pLysS to tightly control the expression of recombinant proteins and various expression vectors encoding fusion proteins to enhance recombinant protein solubility. Proteases fused to large fusion protein domains, maltosebinding protein (MBP), SP-MBP which contains signal peptide at the N-terminus of MBP, disulfide oxidoreductase (DsbA) and Glutathione S-transferase (GST) improved expression and solubility of proteases. Overall, 86.1% of selected protease genes including hypothetical proteins were expressed and purified using a combination of five different expression vectors. To detect novel proteolytic activities, zymography and fluorescence-based assays were performed and the protease activities of more than 46% of purified proteases and 40% of hypothetical proteins that were predicted to be proteases were confirmed. Conclusions Multiple expression vectors, employing distinct fusion tags in a high throughput pipeline increased overall success rates in expression, solubility and purification of proteases. The combinatorial functional analysis of the purified proteases using fluorescence assays and zymography confirmed their function.
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Affiliation(s)
- Keehwan Kwon
- Pathogen Functional Genomics Resource Center, J, Craig Venter Institute, Rockville, Maryland 20850, USA.
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High quality protein microarray using in situ protein purification. BMC Biotechnol 2009; 9:72. [PMID: 19698181 PMCID: PMC2746808 DOI: 10.1186/1472-6750-9-72] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/01/2009] [Accepted: 08/23/2009] [Indexed: 11/10/2022] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND In the postgenomic era, high throughput protein expression and protein microarray technologies have progressed markedly permitting screening of therapeutic reagents and discovery of novel protein functions. Hexa-histidine is one of the most commonly used fusion tags for protein expression due to its small size and convenient purification via immobilized metal ion affinity chromatography (IMAC). This purification process has been adapted to the protein microarray format, but the quality of in situ His-tagged protein purification on slides has not been systematically evaluated. We established methods to determine the level of purification of such proteins on metal chelate-modified slide surfaces. Optimized in situ purification of His-tagged recombinant proteins has the potential to become the new gold standard for cost-effective generation of high-quality and high-density protein microarrays. RESULTS Two slide surfaces were examined, chelated Cu2+ slides suspended on a polyethylene glycol (PEG) coating and chelated Ni2+ slides immobilized on a support without PEG coating. Using PEG-coated chelated Cu2+ slides, consistently higher purities of recombinant proteins were measured. An optimized wash buffer (PBST) composed of 10 mM phosphate buffer, 2.7 mM KCl, 140 mM NaCl and 0.05% Tween 20, pH 7.4, further improved protein purity levels. Using Escherichia coli cell lysates expressing 90 recombinant Streptococcus pneumoniae proteins, 73 proteins were successfully immobilized, and 66 proteins were in situ purified with greater than 90% purity. We identified several antigens among the in situ-purified proteins via assays with anti-S. pneumoniae rabbit antibodies and a human patient antiserum, as a demonstration project of large scale microarray-based immunoproteomics profiling. The methodology is compatible with higher throughput formats of in vivo protein expression, eliminates the need for resin-based purification and circumvents protein solubility and denaturation problems caused by buffer exchange steps and freeze-thaw cycles, which are associated with resin-based purification, intermittent protein storage and deposition on microarrays. CONCLUSION An optimized platform for in situ protein purification on microarray slides using His-tagged recombinant proteins is a desirable tool for the screening of novel protein functions and protein-protein interactions. In the context of immunoproteomics, such protein microarrays are complimentary to approaches using non-recombinant methods to discover and characterize bacterial antigens.
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Pandya U, Sinha M, Luxon BA, Watson DA, Niesel DW. Global transcription profiling and virulence potential of Streptococcus pneumoniae after serial passage. Gene 2009; 443:22-31. [DOI: 10.1016/j.gene.2009.04.014] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/22/2009] [Revised: 04/06/2009] [Accepted: 04/14/2009] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
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