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Sheng Y, Chen Z, Cherrier MV, Martin L, Bui TTT, Li W, Lynham S, Nicolet Y, Ebrahimi KH. A Versatile Virus-Mimetic Engineering Approach for Concurrent Protein Nanocage Surface-Functionalization and Cargo Encapsulation. SMALL (WEINHEIM AN DER BERGSTRASSE, GERMANY) 2024; 20:e2310913. [PMID: 38726952 DOI: 10.1002/smll.202310913] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/26/2023] [Revised: 04/26/2024] [Indexed: 08/02/2024]
Abstract
Naturally occurring protein nanocages like ferritin are self-assembled from multiple subunits. Because of their unique cage-like structure and biocompatibility, there is a growing interest in their biomedical use. A multipurpose and straightforward engineering approach does not exist for using nanocages to make drug-delivery systems by encapsulating hydrophilic or hydrophobic drugs and developing vaccines by surface functionalization with a protein like an antigen. Here, a versatile engineering approach is described by mimicking the HIV-1 Gap polyprotein precursor. Various PREcursors of nanoCages (PREC) are designed and created by linking two ferritin subunits via a flexible linker peptide containing a protease cleavage site. These precursors can have additional proteins at their N-terminus, and their protease cleavage generates ferritin-like nanocages named protease-induced nanocages (PINCs). It is demonstrated that PINC formation allows concurrent surface decoration with a protein and hydrophilic or hydrophobic drug encapsulation up to fourfold more than the amount achieved using other methods. The PINCs/Drug complex is stable and efficiently kills cancer cells. This work provides insight into the precursors' design rules and the mechanism of PINCs formation. The engineering approach and mechanistic insight described here will facilitate nanocages' applications in drug delivery or as a platform for making multifunctional therapeutics like mosaic vaccines.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yujie Sheng
- Faculty of Life Sciences and Medicine, Institute of Pharmaceutical Science, King's College London, London, SE1 9NH, UK
| | - Zilong Chen
- Faculty of Life Sciences and Medicine, Institute of Pharmaceutical Science, King's College London, London, SE1 9NH, UK
| | - Mickael V Cherrier
- Univ. Grenoble Alpes, CEA, CNRS, IBS, Metalloproteins Unit, Grenoble, CS 10090, France
| | - Lydie Martin
- Univ. Grenoble Alpes, CEA, CNRS, IBS, Metalloproteins Unit, Grenoble, CS 10090, France
| | - Tam T T Bui
- Randall Centre for Cell & Molecular Biophysics, King's College London, London, SE11UL, UK
| | - Wei Li
- Faculty of Life Sciences and Medicine, Institute of Pharmaceutical Science, King's College London, London, SE1 9NH, UK
| | - Steven Lynham
- Proteomics Core Facility, James Black Centre, King's College London, London, SE5 9NU, UK
| | - Yvain Nicolet
- Univ. Grenoble Alpes, CEA, CNRS, IBS, Metalloproteins Unit, Grenoble, CS 10090, France
| | - Kourosh H Ebrahimi
- Faculty of Life Sciences and Medicine, Institute of Pharmaceutical Science, King's College London, London, SE1 9NH, UK
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Gardner MR, Fellinger CH, Kattenhorn LM, Davis-Gardner ME, Weber JA, Alfant B, Zhou AS, Prasad NR, Kondur HR, Newton WA, Weisgrau KL, Rakasz EG, Lifson JD, Gao G, Schultz-Darken N, Farzan M. AAV-delivered eCD4-Ig protects rhesus macaques from high-dose SIVmac239 challenges. Sci Transl Med 2019; 11:eaau5409. [PMID: 31341061 PMCID: PMC6716512 DOI: 10.1126/scitranslmed.aau5409] [Citation(s) in RCA: 26] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/20/2018] [Revised: 02/09/2019] [Accepted: 05/31/2019] [Indexed: 12/17/2022]
Abstract
A number of simian and simian human immunodeficiency viruses (SIV and SHIV, respectively) have been used to assess the efficacy of HIV-1 vaccine strategies. Among these, SIVmac239 is considered among the most stringent because, unlike SHIV models, its full genome has coevolved in its macaque host and its tier 3 envelope glycoprotein (Env) is exceptionally hard to neutralize. Here, we investigated the ability of eCD4-Ig, an antibody-like entry inhibitor that emulates the HIV-1 and SIV receptor and coreceptor, to prevent SIVmac239 infection. We show that rh-eCD4-IgI39N expressed by recombinant adeno-associated virus (AAV) vectors afforded four rhesus macaques complete protection from high-dose SIVmac239 challenges that infected all eight control macaques. However, rh-eCD4-IgI39N-expressing macaques eventually succumbed to serial escalating challenge doses that were 2, 8, 16, and 32 times the challenge doses that infected the control animals. Despite receiving greater challenge doses, these macaques had significantly lower peak and postpeak viral loads than the control group. Virus isolated from three of four macaques showed evidence of strong immune pressure from rh-eCD4-IgI39N, with mutations located in the CD4-binding site, which, in one case, exploited a point-mutation difference between rh-eCD4-IgI39N and rhesus CD4. Other escape pathways associated with clear fitness costs to the virus. Our data report effective protection of rhesus macaques from SIVmac239.
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Affiliation(s)
- Matthew R Gardner
- Department of Immunology and Microbiology, The Scripps Research Institute, Jupiter, FL 33458, USA.
| | - Christoph H Fellinger
- Department of Immunology and Microbiology, The Scripps Research Institute, Jupiter, FL 33458, USA
| | - Lisa M Kattenhorn
- Department of Microbiology and Immunobiology, Harvard Medical School, New England Primate Research Center, Southborough, MA 01772, USA
| | - Meredith E Davis-Gardner
- Department of Immunology and Microbiology, The Scripps Research Institute, Jupiter, FL 33458, USA
| | - Jesse A Weber
- Department of Immunology and Microbiology, The Scripps Research Institute, Jupiter, FL 33458, USA
| | - Barnett Alfant
- Department of Immunology and Microbiology, The Scripps Research Institute, Jupiter, FL 33458, USA
| | - Amber S Zhou
- Department of Immunology and Microbiology, The Scripps Research Institute, Jupiter, FL 33458, USA
| | - Neha R Prasad
- Department of Immunology and Microbiology, The Scripps Research Institute, Jupiter, FL 33458, USA
| | - Hema R Kondur
- Department of Immunology and Microbiology, The Scripps Research Institute, Jupiter, FL 33458, USA
| | - Wendy A Newton
- Wisconsin National Primate Research Center, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI 53715 USA
| | - Kimberly L Weisgrau
- Wisconsin National Primate Research Center, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI 53715 USA
| | - Eva G Rakasz
- Wisconsin National Primate Research Center, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI 53715 USA
| | - Jeffrey D Lifson
- AIDS and Cancer Virus Program, Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research, Frederick, MD 21702, USA
| | - Guangping Gao
- Horae Gene Therapy Center, University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, MA 01605, USA
- Department of Microbiology and Physiological Systems, University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, MA 01655, USA
| | - Nancy Schultz-Darken
- Wisconsin National Primate Research Center, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI 53715 USA
| | - Michael Farzan
- Department of Immunology and Microbiology, The Scripps Research Institute, Jupiter, FL 33458, USA.
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Behrens AJ, Struwe WB, Crispin M. Glycosylation profiling to evaluate glycoprotein immunogens against HIV-1. Expert Rev Proteomics 2017; 14:881-890. [PMID: 28870097 DOI: 10.1080/14789450.2017.1376658] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/26/2022]
Abstract
INTRODUCTION Much of the efforts to develop a vaccine against the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) have focused on the design of recombinant mimics of the viral attachment glycoprotein (Env). The leading immunogens exhibit native-like antigenic properties and are being investigated for their ability to induce broadly neutralizing antibodies (bNAbs). Understanding the relative abundance of glycans at particular glycosylation sites on these immunogens is important as most bNAbs have evolved to recognize or evade the dense coat of glycans that masks much of the protein surface. Understanding the glycan structures on candidate immunogens enables triaging between native-like conformations and immunogens lacking key structural features as steric constraints limit glycan processing. The sensitivity of the processing state of a particular glycan to its structural environment has led to the need for quantitative glycan profiling and site-specific analysis to probe the structural integrity of immunogens. Areas covered: We review analytical methodologies for HIV immunogen evaluation and discuss how these studies have led to a greater understanding of the structural constraints that control the glycosylation state of the HIV attachment and fusion spike. Expert commentary: Total composition and site-specific glycosylation profiling are emerging as standard methods in the evaluation of Env-based immunogen candidates.
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Affiliation(s)
- Anna-Janina Behrens
- a Oxford Glycobiology Institute, Department of Biochemistry , University of Oxford , Oxford , UK
| | - Weston B Struwe
- a Oxford Glycobiology Institute, Department of Biochemistry , University of Oxford , Oxford , UK
| | - Max Crispin
- a Oxford Glycobiology Institute, Department of Biochemistry , University of Oxford , Oxford , UK.,b Department of Immunology and Microbial Science , The Scripps Research Institute , La Jolla , CA , USA.,c Centre for Biological Sciences and Institute for Life Sciences , University of Southampton , Southampton SO17 1BJ , UK
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Abstract
Simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) is a robust pathogen used in non-human primates to model HIV vaccines. SIV encodes a number of potential vaccine targets. By far the largest and most conserved protein target in SIV is its gag-pol protein that bears many epitopes to drive multivalent immune T cell responses. While gag-pol is an attractive antigen, it is only translated after a frame shift between gag and pol with the effect that gag and pol are expressed at an approximate 10/1 ratio. The codon bias of native lentiviral genes are also mismatched with the abundance of tRNAs in mammalian cells resulting in poor expression of unmodified SIV genes. To provide a better SIV gag-pol immunogen for gene-based vaccination, we codon-optimized the full gag-pol sequence from SIVmac239. To increase pol expression, we artificially moved the pol sequence in frame to gag to bypass the need for a translational frame shift for its expression. Finally, we inserted four "self-cleaving" picornavirus sequences into gag p24, protease, reverse transcriptase, and into integrase to fragment the proteins for potentially better immune presentation. We demonstrate that these immunogens are well expressed in vitro and drive similar antibody and T cell responses with or without cleavage sequences.
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Li M. Proteomics in the investigation of HIV-1 interactions with host proteins. Proteomics Clin Appl 2015; 9:221-34. [PMID: 25523935 DOI: 10.1002/prca.201400101] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/31/2014] [Revised: 11/30/2014] [Accepted: 12/16/2014] [Indexed: 01/09/2023]
Abstract
Productive HIV-1 infection depends on host machinery, including a broad array of cellular proteins. Proteomics has played a significant role in the discovery of HIV-1 host proteins. In this review, after a brief survey of the HIV-1 host proteins that were discovered by proteomic analyses, I focus on analyzing the interactions between the virion and host proteins, as well as the technologies and strategies used in those proteomic studies. With the help of proteomics, the identification and characterization of HIV-1 host proteins can be translated into novel antiretroviral therapeutics.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ming Li
- Laboratory of Retrovirology, Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Medicine, Alpert Medical School of Brown University, Providence, RI, USA
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