1
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Zhao M, Hu M, Han R, Ye C, Li X, Wang T, Liu Y, Xue Z, Liu K. Dynamics design of a non-natural transcription factor responding to androst-4-ene-3,17-dione. Synth Syst Biotechnol 2024; 9:436-444. [PMID: 38616975 PMCID: PMC11015099 DOI: 10.1016/j.synbio.2024.04.001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/05/2023] [Revised: 03/03/2024] [Accepted: 04/02/2024] [Indexed: 04/16/2024] Open
Abstract
The production of androst-4-ene-3,17-dione (AD) by the steroidal microbial cell factory requires transcription factors (TFs) to participate in metabolic regulation. However, microbial cell factory lacks effective TFs that can respond to AD in its metabolic pathway. Additionally, finding and obtaining natural TFs that specifically respond to AD is a complex and onerous task. In this study, we devised an artificial TF that responds to AD, termed AdT, based on structure-guided molecular dynamics (MD) simulation. According to MD analysis of the conformational changes of AdT after binding to AD, an LBD in which the N- and C-termini exhibited convergence tendencies was used as a microswitch to guide the assembly of a DNA-binding domain lexA, a linker (GGGGS)2, and a transcription activation domain B42 into an artificial TF. As a proof of design, a AD biosensor was designed and constructed in yeast on the basis of the ligand-binding domain (LBD) of hormone receptor. In addition, the transcription factor activity of AdT was increased by 1.44-fold for its variant F320Y. Overall, we created non-natural TF elements for AD microbial cell factory, and expected that the design TF strategy will be applied to running in parallel to the signaling machinery of the host cell.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | - Rumeng Han
- Anhui Engineering Laboratory for Industrial Microbiology Molecular Breeding, College of Biology and Food Engineering, Anhui Polytechnic University, Wuhu 241000, China
| | - Chao Ye
- Anhui Engineering Laboratory for Industrial Microbiology Molecular Breeding, College of Biology and Food Engineering, Anhui Polytechnic University, Wuhu 241000, China
| | - Xiangfei Li
- Anhui Engineering Laboratory for Industrial Microbiology Molecular Breeding, College of Biology and Food Engineering, Anhui Polytechnic University, Wuhu 241000, China
| | - Tianwen Wang
- Anhui Engineering Laboratory for Industrial Microbiology Molecular Breeding, College of Biology and Food Engineering, Anhui Polytechnic University, Wuhu 241000, China
| | - Yan Liu
- Anhui Engineering Laboratory for Industrial Microbiology Molecular Breeding, College of Biology and Food Engineering, Anhui Polytechnic University, Wuhu 241000, China
| | - Zhenglian Xue
- Anhui Engineering Laboratory for Industrial Microbiology Molecular Breeding, College of Biology and Food Engineering, Anhui Polytechnic University, Wuhu 241000, China
| | - Kun Liu
- Anhui Engineering Laboratory for Industrial Microbiology Molecular Breeding, College of Biology and Food Engineering, Anhui Polytechnic University, Wuhu 241000, China
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2
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Goverde CA, Pacesa M, Goldbach N, Dornfeld LJ, Balbi PEM, Georgeon S, Rosset S, Kapoor S, Choudhury J, Dauparas J, Schellhaas C, Kozlov S, Baker D, Ovchinnikov S, Vecchio AJ, Correia BE. Computational design of soluble and functional membrane protein analogues. Nature 2024; 631:449-458. [PMID: 38898281 PMCID: PMC11236705 DOI: 10.1038/s41586-024-07601-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/09/2023] [Accepted: 05/23/2024] [Indexed: 06/21/2024]
Abstract
De novo design of complex protein folds using solely computational means remains a substantial challenge1. Here we use a robust deep learning pipeline to design complex folds and soluble analogues of integral membrane proteins. Unique membrane topologies, such as those from G-protein-coupled receptors2, are not found in the soluble proteome, and we demonstrate that their structural features can be recapitulated in solution. Biophysical analyses demonstrate the high thermal stability of the designs, and experimental structures show remarkable design accuracy. The soluble analogues were functionalized with native structural motifs, as a proof of concept for bringing membrane protein functions to the soluble proteome, potentially enabling new approaches in drug discovery. In summary, we have designed complex protein topologies and enriched them with functionalities from membrane proteins, with high experimental success rates, leading to a de facto expansion of the functional soluble fold space.
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Affiliation(s)
- Casper A Goverde
- Laboratory of Protein Design and Immunoengineering, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne and Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics, Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Martin Pacesa
- Laboratory of Protein Design and Immunoengineering, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne and Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics, Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Nicolas Goldbach
- Laboratory of Protein Design and Immunoengineering, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne and Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics, Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Lars J Dornfeld
- Laboratory of Protein Design and Immunoengineering, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne and Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics, Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Petra E M Balbi
- Laboratory of Protein Design and Immunoengineering, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne and Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics, Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Sandrine Georgeon
- Laboratory of Protein Design and Immunoengineering, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne and Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics, Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Stéphane Rosset
- Laboratory of Protein Design and Immunoengineering, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne and Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics, Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Srajan Kapoor
- Department of Structural Biology, University at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY, USA
| | - Jagrity Choudhury
- Department of Structural Biology, University at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY, USA
| | - Justas Dauparas
- Department of Biochemistry, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
- Institute for Protein Design, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
| | - Christian Schellhaas
- Laboratory of Protein Design and Immunoengineering, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne and Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics, Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Simon Kozlov
- Department of Biology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA
| | - David Baker
- Department of Biochemistry, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
- Institute for Protein Design, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
- Howard Hughes Medical Institute, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
| | - Sergey Ovchinnikov
- Department of Biology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA
| | - Alex J Vecchio
- Department of Structural Biology, University at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY, USA
| | - Bruno E Correia
- Laboratory of Protein Design and Immunoengineering, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne and Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics, Lausanne, Switzerland.
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3
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Chen JP, Zhou L, Gong JS, Wang NK, Miao FF, Su C, Gao XL, Xu GQ, Shi JS, Xu ZH. Semiautomated design and soluble expression of a chimeric antigen TbpAB01 from Glaesserella parasuis. Biotechnol Bioeng 2024; 121:2163-2174. [PMID: 38595326 DOI: 10.1002/bit.28710] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/18/2023] [Revised: 03/23/2024] [Accepted: 03/27/2024] [Indexed: 04/11/2024]
Abstract
Pathogenic bacterial membrane proteins (MPs) are a class of vaccine and antibiotic development targets with widespread clinical application. However, the inherent hydrophobicity of MPs poses a challenge to fold correctly in living cells. Herein, we present a comprehensive method to improve the soluble form of MP antigen by rationally designing multi-epitope chimeric antigen (ChA) and screening two classes of protein-assisting folding element. The study uses a homologous protein antigen as a functional scaffold to generate a ChA possessing four epitopes from transferrin-binding protein A of Glaesserella parasuis. Our engineered strain, which co-expresses P17 tagged-ChA and endogenous chaperones groEL-ES, yields a 0.346 g/L highly soluble ChA with the property of HPS-positive serum reaction. Moreover, the protein titer of ChA reaches 4.27 g/L with >90% soluble proportion in 5-L bioreactor, which is the highest titer reported so far. The results highlight a timely approach to design and improve the soluble expression of MP antigen in industrially viable applications.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jin-Ping Chen
- Key Laboratory of Carbohydrate Chemistry and Biotechnology, Ministry of Education, School of Life Sciences and Health Engineering, Jiangnan University, Wuxi, People's Republic of China
- Institute of Future Food Technology, JITRI, Yixing, People's Republic of China
| | - Lin Zhou
- Jiangsu Nannong High-Tech Co., Ltd., Jiangyin, People's Republic of China
| | - Jin-Song Gong
- Key Laboratory of Carbohydrate Chemistry and Biotechnology, Ministry of Education, School of Life Sciences and Health Engineering, Jiangnan University, Wuxi, People's Republic of China
- Institute of Future Food Technology, JITRI, Yixing, People's Republic of China
| | - Nan-Kai Wang
- Institute of Future Food Technology, JITRI, Yixing, People's Republic of China
- National Engineering Research Center for Cereal Fermentation and Food Biomanufacturing, School of Biotechnology, Jiangnan University, Wuxi, People's Republic of China
| | - Fen-Fang Miao
- Jiangsu Nannong High-Tech Co., Ltd., Jiangyin, People's Republic of China
| | - Chang Su
- Key Laboratory of Carbohydrate Chemistry and Biotechnology, Ministry of Education, School of Life Sciences and Health Engineering, Jiangnan University, Wuxi, People's Republic of China
- Institute of Future Food Technology, JITRI, Yixing, People's Republic of China
| | - Xin-Le Gao
- Jiangsu Nannong High-Tech Co., Ltd., Jiangyin, People's Republic of China
| | - Guo-Qiang Xu
- Institute of Future Food Technology, JITRI, Yixing, People's Republic of China
- National Engineering Research Center for Cereal Fermentation and Food Biomanufacturing, School of Biotechnology, Jiangnan University, Wuxi, People's Republic of China
| | - Jin-Song Shi
- Key Laboratory of Carbohydrate Chemistry and Biotechnology, Ministry of Education, School of Life Sciences and Health Engineering, Jiangnan University, Wuxi, People's Republic of China
- Institute of Future Food Technology, JITRI, Yixing, People's Republic of China
| | - Zheng-Hong Xu
- Institute of Future Food Technology, JITRI, Yixing, People's Republic of China
- National Engineering Research Center for Cereal Fermentation and Food Biomanufacturing, School of Biotechnology, Jiangnan University, Wuxi, People's Republic of China
- College of Biomass Science and Engineering, Sichuan University, Chengdu, People's Republic of China
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4
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Li M, Tang H, Qing R, Wang Y, Liu J, Wang R, Lyu S, Ma L, Xu P, Zhang S, Tao F. Design of a water-soluble transmembrane receptor kinase with intact molecular function by QTY code. Nat Commun 2024; 15:4293. [PMID: 38858360 PMCID: PMC11164701 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-48513-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/11/2023] [Accepted: 05/03/2024] [Indexed: 06/12/2024] Open
Abstract
Membrane proteins are critical to biological processes and central to life sciences and modern medicine. However, membrane proteins are notoriously challenging to study, mainly owing to difficulties dictated by their highly hydrophobic nature. Previously, we reported QTY code, which is a simple method for designing water-soluble membrane proteins. Here, we apply QTY code to a transmembrane receptor, histidine kinase CpxA, to render it completely water-soluble. The designed CpxAQTY exhibits expected biophysical properties and highly preserved native molecular function, including the activities of (i) autokinase, (ii) phosphotransferase, (iii) phosphatase, and (iv) signaling receptor, involving a water-solubilized transmembrane domain. We probe the principles underlying the balance of structural stability and activity in the water-solubilized transmembrane domain. Computational approaches suggest that an extensive and dynamic hydrogen-bond network introduced by QTY code and its flexibility may play an important role. Our successful functional preservation further substantiates the robustness and comprehensiveness of QTY code.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mengke Li
- State Key Laboratory of Microbial Metabolism, Joint International Research Laboratory of Metabolic and Developmental Sciences, School of Life Sciences and Biotechnology, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, 200240, China
- Laboratory of Molecular Architecture, Media Lab, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, 02139, USA
| | - Hongzhi Tang
- State Key Laboratory of Microbial Metabolism, Joint International Research Laboratory of Metabolic and Developmental Sciences, School of Life Sciences and Biotechnology, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, 200240, China
| | - Rui Qing
- State Key Laboratory of Microbial Metabolism, Joint International Research Laboratory of Metabolic and Developmental Sciences, School of Life Sciences and Biotechnology, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, 200240, China
| | - Yanze Wang
- Department of Chemistry, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, 02139, USA
| | - Jiongqin Liu
- State Key Laboratory of Microbial Metabolism, Joint International Research Laboratory of Metabolic and Developmental Sciences, School of Life Sciences and Biotechnology, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, 200240, China
| | - Rui Wang
- State Key Laboratory of Microbial Metabolism, Joint International Research Laboratory of Metabolic and Developmental Sciences, School of Life Sciences and Biotechnology, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, 200240, China
| | - Shan Lyu
- State Key Laboratory of Microbial Metabolism, Joint International Research Laboratory of Metabolic and Developmental Sciences, School of Life Sciences and Biotechnology, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, 200240, China
| | - Lina Ma
- State Key Laboratory of Microbial Metabolism, Joint International Research Laboratory of Metabolic and Developmental Sciences, School of Life Sciences and Biotechnology, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, 200240, China
| | - Ping Xu
- State Key Laboratory of Microbial Metabolism, Joint International Research Laboratory of Metabolic and Developmental Sciences, School of Life Sciences and Biotechnology, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, 200240, China.
| | - Shuguang Zhang
- Laboratory of Molecular Architecture, Media Lab, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, 02139, USA.
| | - Fei Tao
- State Key Laboratory of Microbial Metabolism, Joint International Research Laboratory of Metabolic and Developmental Sciences, School of Life Sciences and Biotechnology, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, 200240, China.
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5
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Sawhney A, Li J, Liao L. Improving AlphaFold Predicted Contacts for Alpha-Helical Transmembrane Proteins Using Structural Features. Int J Mol Sci 2024; 25:5247. [PMID: 38791287 PMCID: PMC11121315 DOI: 10.3390/ijms25105247] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/12/2024] [Revised: 05/06/2024] [Accepted: 05/09/2024] [Indexed: 05/26/2024] Open
Abstract
Residue contact maps provide a condensed two-dimensional representation of three-dimensional protein structures, serving as a foundational framework in structural modeling but also as an effective tool in their own right in identifying inter-helical binding sites and drawing insights about protein function. Treating contact maps primarily as an intermediate step for 3D structure prediction, contact prediction methods have limited themselves exclusively to sequential features. Now that AlphaFold2 predicts 3D structures with good accuracy in general, we examine (1) how well predicted 3D structures can be directly used for deciding residue contacts, and (2) whether features from 3D structures can be leveraged to further improve residue contact prediction. With a well-known benchmark dataset, we tested predicting inter-helical residue contact based on AlphaFold2's predicted structures, which gave an 83% average precision, already outperforming a sequential features-based state-of-the-art model. We then developed a procedure to extract features from atomic structure in the neighborhood of a residue pair, hypothesizing that these features will be useful in determining if the residue pair is in contact, provided the structure is decently accurate, such as predicted by AlphaFold2. Training on features generated from experimentally determined structures, we leveraged knowledge from known structures to significantly improve residue contact prediction, when testing using the same set of features but derived using AlphaFold2 structures. Our results demonstrate a remarkable improvement over AlphaFold2, achieving over 91.9% average precision for a held-out subset and over 89.5% average precision in cross-validation experiments.
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Affiliation(s)
- Aman Sawhney
- Department of Computer and Information Sciences, University of Delaware, Smith Hall, 18 Amstel Avenue, Newark, DE 19716, USA;
| | - Jiefu Li
- School of Optical-Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Shanghai for Science and Technology, 516 Jun Gong Road, Shanghai 200093, China;
| | - Li Liao
- Department of Computer and Information Sciences, University of Delaware, Smith Hall, 18 Amstel Avenue, Newark, DE 19716, USA;
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6
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Karagöl A, Karagöl T, Smorodina E, Zhang S. Structural bioinformatics studies of glutamate transporters and their AlphaFold2 predicted water-soluble QTY variants and uncovering the natural mutations of L->Q, I->T, F->Y and Q->L, T->I and Y->F. PLoS One 2024; 19:e0289644. [PMID: 38598436 PMCID: PMC11006163 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0289644] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/05/2023] [Accepted: 07/22/2023] [Indexed: 04/12/2024] Open
Abstract
Glutamate transporters play key roles in nervous physiology by modulating excitatory neurotransmitter levels, when malfunctioning, involving in a wide range of neurological and physiological disorders. However, integral transmembrane proteins including the glutamate transporters remain notoriously difficult to study, due to their localization within the cell membrane. Here we present the structural bioinformatics studies of glutamate transporters and their water-soluble variants generated through QTY-code, a protein design strategy based on systematic amino acid substitutions. These include 2 structures determined by X-ray crystallography, cryo-EM, and 6 predicted by AlphaFold2, and their predicted water-soluble QTY variants. In the native structures of glutamate transporters, transmembrane helices contain hydrophobic amino acids such as leucine (L), isoleucine (I), and phenylalanine (F). To design water-soluble variants, these hydrophobic amino acids are systematically replaced by hydrophilic amino acids, namely glutamine (Q), threonine (T) and tyrosine (Y). The QTY variants exhibited water-solubility, with four having identical isoelectric focusing points (pI) and the other four having very similar pI. We present the superposed structures of the native glutamate transporters and their water-soluble QTY variants. The superposed structures displayed remarkable similarity with RMSD 0.528Å-2.456Å, despite significant protein transmembrane sequence differences (41.1%->53.8%). Additionally, we examined the differences of hydrophobicity patches between the native glutamate transporters and their QTY variants. Upon closer inspection, we discovered multiple natural variations of L->Q, I->T, F->Y and Q->L, T->I, Y->F in these transporters. Some of these natural variations were benign and the remaining were reported in specific neurological disorders. We further investigated the characteristics of hydrophobic to hydrophilic substitutions in glutamate transporters, utilizing variant analysis and evolutionary profiling. Our structural bioinformatics studies not only provided insight into the differences between the hydrophobic helices and hydrophilic helices in the glutamate transporters, but they are also expected to stimulate further study of other water-soluble transmembrane proteins.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alper Karagöl
- Istanbul University Istanbul Medical Faculty, Istanbul, Turkey
| | - Taner Karagöl
- Istanbul University Istanbul Medical Faculty, Istanbul, Turkey
| | - Eva Smorodina
- Laboratory for Computational and Systems Immunology, Department of Immunology, University of Oslo, Oslo University Hospital, Oslo, Norway
| | - Shuguang Zhang
- Laboratory of Molecular Architecture, Media Lab, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, United States of America
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7
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Karagöl T, Karagöl A, Zhang S. Structural bioinformatics studies of serotonin, dopamine and norepinephrine transporters and their AlphaFold2 predicted water-soluble QTY variants and uncovering the natural mutations of L->Q, I->T, F->Y and Q->L, T->I and Y->F. PLoS One 2024; 19:e0300340. [PMID: 38517879 PMCID: PMC10959339 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0300340] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/28/2023] [Accepted: 02/26/2024] [Indexed: 03/24/2024] Open
Abstract
Monoamine transporters including transporters for serotonin, dopamine, and norepinephrine play key roles in monoaminergic synaptic signaling, involving in the molecular etiology of a wide range of neurological and physiological disorders. Despite being crucial drug targets, the study of transmembrane proteins remains challenging due to their localization within the cell membrane. To address this, we present the structural bioinformatics studies of 7 monoamine transporters and their water-soluble variants designed using the QTY code, by systematically replacing the hydrophobic amino acids leucine (L), valine (V), isoleucine (I) and phenylalanine (F) with hydrophilic amino acids (glutamine (Q), threonine (T) and tyrosine (Y). The resulting QTY variants, despite significant protein transmembrane sequence differences (44.27%-51.85%), showed similar isoelectric points (pI) and molecular weights. While their hydrophobic surfaces significantly reduced, this change resulted in a minimal structural alteration. Quantitatively, Alphafold2 predicted QTY variant structures displayed remarkable similarity with RMSD 0.492Å-1.619Å. Accompanied by the structural similarities of substituted amino acids in the context of 1.5Å electron density maps, our study revealed multiple QTY and reverse QTY variations in genomic databases. We further analyzed their phenotypical and topological characteristics. By extending evolutionary game theory to the molecular foundations of biology, we provided insights into the evolutionary dynamics of chemically distinct alpha-helices, their usage in different chemotherapeutic applications, and open possibilities of diagnostic medicine. Our study rationalizes that QTY variants of monoamine transporters may not only become distinct tools for medical, structural, and evolutionary research, but these transporters may also emerge as contemporary therapeutic targets, providing a new approach to treatment for several conditions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Taner Karagöl
- Istanbul University Istanbul Medical Faculty, Istanbul, Turkey
| | - Alper Karagöl
- Istanbul University Istanbul Medical Faculty, Istanbul, Turkey
| | - Shuguang Zhang
- Laboratory of Molecular Architecture, Media Lab, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, United States of America
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8
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Goverde CA, Pacesa M, Goldbach N, Dornfeld LJ, Balbi PEM, Georgeon S, Rosset S, Kapoor S, Choudhury J, Dauparas J, Schellhaas C, Kozlov S, Baker D, Ovchinnikov S, Vecchio AJ, Correia BE. Computational design of soluble functional analogues of integral membrane proteins. BIORXIV : THE PREPRINT SERVER FOR BIOLOGY 2024:2023.05.09.540044. [PMID: 38496615 PMCID: PMC10942269 DOI: 10.1101/2023.05.09.540044] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 03/19/2024]
Abstract
De novo design of complex protein folds using solely computational means remains a significant challenge. Here, we use a robust deep learning pipeline to design complex folds and soluble analogues of integral membrane proteins. Unique membrane topologies, such as those from GPCRs, are not found in the soluble proteome and we demonstrate that their structural features can be recapitulated in solution. Biophysical analyses reveal high thermal stability of the designs and experimental structures show remarkable design accuracy. The soluble analogues were functionalized with native structural motifs, standing as a proof-of-concept for bringing membrane protein functions to the soluble proteome, potentially enabling new approaches in drug discovery. In summary, we designed complex protein topologies and enriched them with functionalities from membrane proteins, with high experimental success rates, leading to a de facto expansion of the functional soluble fold space.
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9
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Li M, Wang Y, Tao F, Xu P, Zhang S. QTY code designed antibodies for aggregation prevention: A structural bioinformatic and computational study. Proteins 2024; 92:206-218. [PMID: 37795805 DOI: 10.1002/prot.26603] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/19/2023] [Revised: 09/22/2023] [Accepted: 09/25/2023] [Indexed: 10/06/2023]
Abstract
Therapeutic monoclonal antibodies are the most rapidly growing class of molecular medicine, and they are beneficial to the treatment of a broad spectrum of human diseases. However, the aggregation of antibodies during the process of manufacture, distribution, and storage poses significant challenges, potentially compromising efficacy and inducing adverse immune responses. We previously conceived a QTY (glutamine, threonine, tyrosine) code, a simple tool for enhancing protein water-solubility by systematically pairwise replacing hydrophobic residues L (leucine), V (valine)/I (isoleucine), and F (phenylalanine). The QTY code offers a promising alternative to traditional methods of controlling aggregation in integral transmembrane proteins. In this study, we designed variants of four antibodies applying the QTY code, changing only the β-sheets. Through the structure-based aggregation analysis, we found that these QTY antibody variants demonstrated significantly decreased aggregation propensity compared to their wild-type counter parts. Our results of molecular dynamics simulations showed that the design by QTY code is capable of maintaining the antigen-binding affinity and structural stability. Our structural informatic and computational study suggests that the QTY code offers a significant potential in mitigating antibody aggregation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mengke Li
- Laboratory of Molecular Architecture, Media Lab, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
- Department of Chemistry, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Yanze Wang
- State Key Laboratory of Microbial Metabolism, Joint International Research Laboratory of Metabolic and Developmental Sciences, School of Life Sciences and Biotechnology, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China
| | - Fei Tao
- Department of Chemistry, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Ping Xu
- Department of Chemistry, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Shuguang Zhang
- Laboratory of Molecular Architecture, Media Lab, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
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10
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Sawhney A, Li J, Liao L. Improving AlphaFold predicted contacts in alpha-helical transmembrane proteins structures using structural features. RESEARCH SQUARE 2023:rs.3.rs-3475769. [PMID: 37961476 PMCID: PMC10635369 DOI: 10.21203/rs.3.rs-3475769/v1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/15/2023]
Abstract
Background Residue contacts maps offer a 2-d reduced representation of 3-d protein structures and constitute a structural constraint and scaffold in structural modeling. In addition, contact maps are also an effective tool in identifying interhelical binding sites and drawing insights about protein function. While most works predict contact maps using features derived from sequences, we believe information from known structures can be leveraged for a prediction improvement in unknown structures where decent approximate structures such as ones predicted by AlphaFold2 are available. Results Alphafold2's predicted structures are found to be quite accurate at inter-helical residue contact prediction task, achieving 83% average precision. We adopt an unconventional approach, using features extracted from atomic structures in the neighborhood of a residue pair and use them to predicting residue contact. We trained on features derived from experimentally determined structures and predicted on features derived from AlphaFold2's predicted structures. Our results demonstrate a remarkable improvement over AlphaFold2 achieving over 91.9% average precision for held-out and over 89.5% average precision in cross validation experiments. Conclusion Training on features generated from experimentally determined structures, we were able to leverage knowledge from known structures to significantly improve the contacts predicted using AlphaFold2 structures. We demonstrated that using coordinates directly (instead of the proposed features) does not lead to an improvement in contact prediction performance.
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Affiliation(s)
- Aman Sawhney
- Department of Computer and Information Sciences, University of
Delaware, Smith Hall, 18 Amstel Avenue, Newark, DE, 19716,United States
| | - Jiefu Li
- School of Optical-Electrical and Computer Engineering, University
of Shanghai for Science and Technology, 516 Jun Gong Road, Shanghai 200093, P. R.
China
| | - Li Liao
- Department of Computer and Information Sciences, University of
Delaware, Smith Hall, 18 Amstel Avenue, Newark, DE, 19716,United States
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11
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Ma L, Zhang S, Liang Q, Huang W, Wang H, Pan E, Xu P, Zhang S, Tao F, Tang J, Qing R. CrMP-Sol database: classification, bioinformatic analyses and comparison of cancer-related membrane proteins and their water-soluble variant designs. BMC Bioinformatics 2023; 24:360. [PMID: 37743473 PMCID: PMC10518928 DOI: 10.1186/s12859-023-05477-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/25/2023] [Accepted: 09/12/2023] [Indexed: 09/26/2023] Open
Abstract
Membrane proteins are critical mediators for tumor progression and present enormous therapeutic potentials. Although gene profiling can identify their cancer-specific signatures, systematic correlations between protein functions and tumor-related mechanisms are still unclear. We present here the CrMP-Sol database ( https://bio-gateway.aigene.org.cn/g/CrMP ), which aims to breach the gap between the two. Machine learning was used to extract key functional descriptions for protein visualization in the 3D-space, where spatial distributions provide function-based predictive connections between proteins and cancer types. CrMP-Sol also presents QTY-enabled water-soluble designs to facilitate native membrane protein studies despite natural hydrophobicity. Five examples with varying transmembrane helices in different categories were used to demonstrate the feasibility. Native and redesigned proteins exhibited highly similar characteristics, predicted structures and binding pockets, and slightly different docking poses against known ligands, although task-specific designs are still required for proteins more susceptible to internal hydrogen bond formations. The database can accelerate therapeutic developments and biotechnological applications of cancer-related membrane proteins.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lina Ma
- State Key Laboratory of Microbial Metabolism, School of Life Sciences and Biotechnology, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, 200240, China
| | - Sitao Zhang
- State Key Laboratory of Microbial Metabolism, School of Life Sciences and Biotechnology, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, 200240, China
| | - Qi Liang
- Zhejiang Lab, Research Center for Intelligent Computing Platforms, Hangzhou, 311121, Zhejiang, China
| | - Wenting Huang
- State Key Laboratory of Microbial Metabolism, School of Life Sciences and Biotechnology, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, 200240, China
| | - Hui Wang
- State Key Laboratory of Microbial Metabolism, School of Life Sciences and Biotechnology, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, 200240, China
| | - Emily Pan
- The Lawrenceville School, 2500 Main Street, Lawrenceville, NJ, 08648, USA
| | - Ping Xu
- State Key Laboratory of Microbial Metabolism, School of Life Sciences and Biotechnology, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, 200240, China
| | - Shuguang Zhang
- Media Lab, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA, 02139, USA
| | - Fei Tao
- State Key Laboratory of Microbial Metabolism, School of Life Sciences and Biotechnology, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, 200240, China.
| | - Jin Tang
- Zhejiang Lab, Research Center for Intelligent Computing Platforms, Hangzhou, 311121, Zhejiang, China.
| | - Rui Qing
- State Key Laboratory of Microbial Metabolism, School of Life Sciences and Biotechnology, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, 200240, China.
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12
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Scribani Rossi C, Parisi G, Paiardini A, Rinaldo S. Exploring Innovative Approaches to Isolate a One-Component c-di-GMP Transducer: A Pilot Study. ADVANCES IN EXPERIMENTAL MEDICINE AND BIOLOGY 2023. [PMID: 37608242 DOI: 10.1007/5584_2023_787] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 08/24/2023]
Abstract
Environmental nutrients control bacterial biofilm homeostasis, by regulating the intracellular levels of c-di-GMP. One component transducers can sense different classes of small molecules through a periplasmic domain; the nutrient recognition triggers the subsequent regulation of the downstream cytosolic diguanylate cyclase (GGDEF) or phosphodiesterase (EAL) domains, via transmembrane helix(ces), to finally change c-di-GMP levels.Protein studies on such transducers have been mainly carried out on isolated domains due to the presence of the transmembrane portion. Nevertheless, the cleavage of GGDEF and EAL-containing proteins could be detrimental since both tertiary and quaternary structures could be allosterically controlled; to by-pass this limitation, studies on the corresponding full-length proteins are highly desired.We have in silico selected a GGDEF-EAL transducer from Dyella thiooxydans (ann. A0A160N0B7), whose periplasmic binding domain was predicted to bind to arginine, a nutrient often associated with chronic infections and biofilm. This protein has been used as an in vitro tool for the identification of the best approach for its isolation, including (i) protein engineering to produce a water-soluble version via QTY (Glutamine, Threonine, and Tyrosine) code or (ii) nanodiscs assembly. The results on this "prototype" may represent the proof-of-concept for future isolation of other transmembrane proteins sharing the same architecture, including more complex nutrient-based transducers controlling c-di-GMP levels.
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Affiliation(s)
- Chiara Scribani Rossi
- Laboratory Affiliated to Istituto Pasteur Italia - Fondazione Cenci Bolognetti - Department of Biochemical Sciences "A. Rossi Fanelli", Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy
| | - Giacomo Parisi
- Center for Life Nano & Neuroscience, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, Rome, Italy
| | - Alessandro Paiardini
- Laboratory Affiliated to Istituto Pasteur Italia - Fondazione Cenci Bolognetti - Department of Biochemical Sciences "A. Rossi Fanelli", Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy
| | - Serena Rinaldo
- Laboratory Affiliated to Istituto Pasteur Italia - Fondazione Cenci Bolognetti - Department of Biochemical Sciences "A. Rossi Fanelli", Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy.
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13
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Sajeev-Sheeja A, Smorodina E, Zhang S. Structural bioinformatics studies of bacterial outer membrane beta-barrel transporters and their AlphaFold2 predicted water-soluble QTY variants. PLoS One 2023; 18:e0290360. [PMID: 37607179 PMCID: PMC10443868 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0290360] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/01/2023] [Accepted: 08/04/2023] [Indexed: 08/24/2023] Open
Abstract
Beta-barrel outer membrane proteins (OMP) are integral components of Gram-negative bacteria, eukaryotic mitochondria, and chloroplasts. They play essential roles in various cellular processes including nutrient transport, membrane stability, host-pathogen interactions, antibiotic resistance and more. The advent of AlphaFold2 for accurate protein structure predictions transformed structural bioinformatic studies. We previously used a QTY code to convert hydrophobic alpha-helices to hydrophilic alpha-helices in over 50 membrane proteins with all alpha-helices. The QTY code systematically replaces hydrophobic leucine (L), isoleucine (I), valine (V), and phenylalanine (F) with hydrophilic glutamine (Q), threonine (T), and tyrosine (Y). We here present a structural bioinformatic analysis of five outer membrane beta-barrel proteins with known molecular structures, including a) BamA, b) Omp85 (also called Sam50), c) FecA, d) Tsx, and e) OmpC. We superposed the structures of five native beta-barrel outer membrane proteins and their AlphaFold2-predicted corresponding QTY variant structures. The superposed structures of OMPs and their QTY variants exhibit remarkable structural similarity, as evidenced by residue mean square distance (RMSD) values between 0.206Å to 0.414Å despite the replacement of at least 22% (Transmembrane variation) of the amino acids in the transmembrane regions. We also show that native outer membrane proteins and QTY variants have different hydrophobicity patches. Our study provides important insights into the differences between hydrophobic and hydrophilic beta-barrels and validates the QTY code for studying beta-barrel membrane proteins and perhaps other hydrophobic aggregated proteins. Our findings demonstrate that the QTY code can be used as a simple tool for designing hydrophobic proteins in various biological contexts.
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Affiliation(s)
- Akash Sajeev-Sheeja
- Department of Chemistry, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Srinivasapuram, Yerpedu Mandal, Tirupati Dist, Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh, India
| | - Eva Smorodina
- Department of Immunology, Laboratory for Computational and Systems Immunology, University of Oslo, Oslo University Hospital, Oslo, Norway
| | - Shuguang Zhang
- Laboratory of Molecular Architecture, Media Lab, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, United States of America
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14
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Qing R, Xue M, Zhao J, Wu L, Breitwieser A, Smorodina E, Schubert T, Azzellino G, Jin D, Kong J, Palacios T, Sleytr UB, Zhang S. Scalable biomimetic sensing system with membrane receptor dual-monolayer probe and graphene transistor arrays. SCIENCE ADVANCES 2023; 9:eadf1402. [PMID: 37478177 PMCID: PMC10361598 DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adf1402] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/01/2022] [Accepted: 06/20/2023] [Indexed: 07/23/2023]
Abstract
Affinity-based biosensing can enable point-of-care diagnostics and continuous health monitoring, which commonly follows bottom-up approaches and is inherently constrained by bioprobes' intrinsic properties, batch-to-batch consistency, and stability in biofluids. We present a biomimetic top-down platform to circumvent such difficulties by combining a "dual-monolayer" biorecognition construct with graphene-based field-effect-transistor arrays. The construct adopts redesigned water-soluble membrane receptors as specific sensing units, positioned by two-dimensional crystalline S-layer proteins as dense antifouling linkers guiding their orientations. Hundreds of transistors provide statistical significance from transduced signals. System feasibility was demonstrated with rSbpA-ZZ/CXCR4QTY-Fc combination. Nature-like specific interactions were achieved toward CXCL12 ligand and HIV coat glycoprotein in physiologically relevant concentrations, without notable sensitivity loss in 100% human serum. The construct is regeneratable by acidic buffer, allowing device reuse and functional tuning. The modular and generalizable architecture behaves similarly to natural systems but gives electrical outputs, which enables fabrication of multiplex sensors with tailored receptor panels for designated diagnostic purposes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rui Qing
- State Key Laboratory of Microbial Metabolism, School of Life Sciences and Biotechnology, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China
- MIT Media Lab, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
- The David H. Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
| | - Mantian Xue
- Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA
| | - Jiayuan Zhao
- Research Laboratory of Electronics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
| | - Lidong Wu
- Chinese Academy of Fishery Sciences, Beijing 100141, China
| | - Andreas Breitwieser
- Department of Bionanosciences (DBNS), BOKU-University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna, Austria
| | - Eva Smorodina
- Department of Immunology, University of Oslo and Oslo University Hospital, Oslo, Norway
| | | | - Giovanni Azzellino
- Research Laboratory of Electronics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
| | - David Jin
- Avalon GloboCare Corp., Freehold, NJ 07728, USA
| | - Jing Kong
- Research Laboratory of Electronics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
| | - Tomás Palacios
- Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA
| | - Uwe B. Sleytr
- Department of Bionanosciences (DBNS), BOKU-University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna, Austria
| | - Shuguang Zhang
- MIT Media Lab, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
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15
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Chen JP, Gong JS, Su C, Li H, Xu ZH, Shi JS. Improving the soluble expression of difficult-to-express proteins in prokaryotic expression system via protein engineering and synthetic biology strategies. Metab Eng 2023; 78:99-114. [PMID: 37244368 DOI: 10.1016/j.ymben.2023.05.007] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/09/2023] [Accepted: 05/23/2023] [Indexed: 05/29/2023]
Abstract
Solubility and folding stability are key concerns for difficult-to-express proteins (DEPs) restricted by amino acid sequences and superarchitecture, resolved by the precise distribution of amino acids and molecular interactions as well as the assistance of the expression system. Therefore, an increasing number of tools are available to achieve efficient expression of DEPs, including directed evolution, solubilization partners, chaperones, and affluent expression hosts, among others. Furthermore, genome editing tools, such as transposons and CRISPR Cas9/dCas9, have been developed and expanded to construct engineered expression hosts capable of efficient expression ability of soluble proteins. Accounting for the accumulated knowledge of the pivotal factors in the solubility and folding stability of proteins, this review focuses on advanced technologies and tools of protein engineering, protein quality control systems, and the redesign of expression platforms in prokaryotic expression systems, as well as advances of the cell-free expression technologies for membrane proteins production.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jin-Ping Chen
- Key Laboratory of Carbohydrate Chemistry and Biotechnology, Ministry of Education, School of Life Sciences and Health Engineering, Jiangnan University, Wuxi, 214122, PR China; Yixing Institute of Food and Biotechnology Co., Ltd, Yixing, 214200, PR China
| | - Jin-Song Gong
- Key Laboratory of Carbohydrate Chemistry and Biotechnology, Ministry of Education, School of Life Sciences and Health Engineering, Jiangnan University, Wuxi, 214122, PR China; Yixing Institute of Food and Biotechnology Co., Ltd, Yixing, 214200, PR China.
| | - Chang Su
- Key Laboratory of Carbohydrate Chemistry and Biotechnology, Ministry of Education, School of Life Sciences and Health Engineering, Jiangnan University, Wuxi, 214122, PR China
| | - Heng Li
- Key Laboratory of Carbohydrate Chemistry and Biotechnology, Ministry of Education, School of Life Sciences and Health Engineering, Jiangnan University, Wuxi, 214122, PR China
| | - Zheng-Hong Xu
- National Engineering Research Center for Cereal Fermentation and Food Biomanufacturing, School of Biotechnology, Jiangnan University, Wuxi, 214122, PR China; Jiangsu Provincial Research Center for Bioactive Product Processing Technology, Jiangnan University, Wuxi, 214122, PR China; Yixing Institute of Food and Biotechnology Co., Ltd, Yixing, 214200, PR China
| | - Jin-Song Shi
- Key Laboratory of Carbohydrate Chemistry and Biotechnology, Ministry of Education, School of Life Sciences and Health Engineering, Jiangnan University, Wuxi, 214122, PR China; Yixing Institute of Food and Biotechnology Co., Ltd, Yixing, 214200, PR China
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16
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An T, Feng X, Li C. Prenylation: A Critical Step for Biomanufacturing of Prenylated Aromatic Natural Products. JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURAL AND FOOD CHEMISTRY 2023; 71:2211-2233. [PMID: 36716399 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jafc.2c07287] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/18/2023]
Abstract
Prenylated aromatic natural products (PANPs) have received much attention due to their biomedical benefits for human health. The prenylation of aromatic natural products (ANPs), which is mainly catalyzed by aromatic prenyltransferases (aPTs), contributes significantly to their structural and functional diversity by providing higher lipophilicity and enhanced bioactivity. aPTs are widely distributed in bacteria, fungi, animals, and plants and play a key role in the regiospecific prenylation of ANPs. Recent studies have greatly advanced our understanding of the characteristics and application of aPTs. In this review, we comment on research progress regarding sources, evolutionary relationships, structural features, reaction mechanism, engineering modification, and application of aPTs. Particular emphasis is also placed on recent advances, challenges, and prospects about applications of aPTs in microbial cell factories for producing PANPs. Generally, this review could provide guidance for using aPTs as robust biocatalytic tools to produce various PANPs with high efficiency.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ting An
- Key Laboratory of Medical Molecule Science and Pharmaceutical Engineering, Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, Institute of Biochemical Engineering, Department of Chemical Engineering, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing 100081, China
| | - Xudong Feng
- Key Laboratory of Medical Molecule Science and Pharmaceutical Engineering, Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, Institute of Biochemical Engineering, Department of Chemical Engineering, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing 100081, China
| | - Chun Li
- Key Laboratory of Medical Molecule Science and Pharmaceutical Engineering, Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, Institute of Biochemical Engineering, Department of Chemical Engineering, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing 100081, China
- Department of Chemical Engineering, Key Lab for Industrial Biocatalysis, Ministry of Education, Center for Synthetic and Systems Biology, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China
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17
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Johansen NT, Tidemand FG, Pedersen MC, Arleth L. Travel light: Essential packing for membrane proteins with an active lifestyle. Biochimie 2023; 205:3-26. [PMID: 35963461 DOI: 10.1016/j.biochi.2022.07.014] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/06/2022] [Revised: 06/29/2022] [Accepted: 07/23/2022] [Indexed: 11/02/2022]
Abstract
We review the considerable progress during the recent decade in the endeavours of designing, optimising, and utilising carrier particle systems for structural and functional studies of membrane proteins in near-native environments. New and improved systems are constantly emerging, novel studies push the perceived limits of a given carrier system, and specific carrier systems consolidate and entrench themselves as the system of choice for particular classes of target membrane protein systems. This review covers the most frequently used carrier systems for such studies and emphasises similarities and differences between these systems as well as current trends and future directions for the field. Particular interest is devoted to the biophysical properties and membrane mimicking ability of each system and the manner in which this may impact an embedded membrane protein and an eventual structural or functional study.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nicolai Tidemand Johansen
- Section for Transport Biology, Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Thorvaldsensvej 40, Frederiksberg C, 1871, Denmark.
| | - Frederik Grønbæk Tidemand
- Section for Transport Biology, Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Thorvaldsensvej 40, Frederiksberg C, 1871, Denmark
| | - Martin Cramer Pedersen
- Condensed Matter Physics, Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen, Universitetsparken 5, Copenhagen E, 2100, Denmark
| | - Lise Arleth
- Condensed Matter Physics, Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen, Universitetsparken 5, Copenhagen E, 2100, Denmark
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18
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Atabekova AK, Lazareva EA, Lezzhov AA, Solovieva AD, Golyshev SA, Skulachev BI, Solovyev ID, Savitsky AP, Heinlein M, Morozov SY, Solovyev AG. Interaction between Movement Proteins of Hibiscus green spot virus. Viruses 2022; 14:v14122742. [PMID: 36560746 PMCID: PMC9780815 DOI: 10.3390/v14122742] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/22/2022] [Revised: 12/05/2022] [Accepted: 12/07/2022] [Indexed: 12/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Movement proteins (MPs) of plant viruses enable the translocation of viral genomes from infected to healthy cells through plasmodesmata (PD). The MPs functions involve the increase of the PD permeability and routing of viral genome both to the PD entrance and through the modified PD. Hibiscus green spot virus encodes two MPs, termed BMB1 and BMB2, which act in concert to accomplish virus cell-to-cell transport. BMB1, representing an NTPase/helicase domain-containing RNA-binding protein, localizes to the cytoplasm and the nucleoplasm. BMB2 is a small hydrophobic protein that interacts with the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) membranes and induces local constrictions of the ER tubules. In plant cells, BMB2 localizes to PD-associated membrane bodies (PAMBs) consisting of modified ER tubules and directs BMB1 to PAMBs. Here, we demonstrate that BMB1 and BMB2 interact in vitro and in vivo, and that their specific interaction is essential for BMB2-directed targeting of BMB1 to PAMBs. Using mutagenesis, we show that the interaction involves the C-terminal BMB1 region and the N-terminal region of BMB2.
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Affiliation(s)
- Anastasia K. Atabekova
- A. N. Belozersky Institute of Physico-Chemical Biology, Moscow State University, 119992 Moscow, Russia
- Department of Virology, Biological Faculty, Moscow State University, 119234 Moscow, Russia
| | - Ekaterina A. Lazareva
- Department of Virology, Biological Faculty, Moscow State University, 119234 Moscow, Russia
| | - Alexander A. Lezzhov
- A. N. Belozersky Institute of Physico-Chemical Biology, Moscow State University, 119992 Moscow, Russia
| | - Anna D. Solovieva
- Department of Virology, Biological Faculty, Moscow State University, 119234 Moscow, Russia
| | - Sergei A. Golyshev
- A. N. Belozersky Institute of Physico-Chemical Biology, Moscow State University, 119992 Moscow, Russia
| | - Boris I. Skulachev
- Department of Virology, Biological Faculty, Moscow State University, 119234 Moscow, Russia
| | - Ilya D. Solovyev
- A. N. Bach Institute of Biochemistry, Research Center of Biotechnology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, 119071 Moscow, Russia
| | - Alexander P. Savitsky
- A. N. Bach Institute of Biochemistry, Research Center of Biotechnology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, 119071 Moscow, Russia
| | - Manfred Heinlein
- Institute for Plant Molecular Biology (IBMP-CNRS), University of Strasbourg, 67000 Strasbourg, France
| | - Sergey Y. Morozov
- A. N. Belozersky Institute of Physico-Chemical Biology, Moscow State University, 119992 Moscow, Russia
- Department of Virology, Biological Faculty, Moscow State University, 119234 Moscow, Russia
| | - Andrey G. Solovyev
- A. N. Belozersky Institute of Physico-Chemical Biology, Moscow State University, 119992 Moscow, Russia
- Department of Virology, Biological Faculty, Moscow State University, 119234 Moscow, Russia
- All-Russia Research Institute of Agricultural Biotechnology, 127550 Moscow, Russia
- Correspondence: ; Tel.: +7-(495)-939-3198
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19
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Smorodina E, Diankin I, Tao F, Qing R, Yang S, Zhang S. Structural informatic study of determined and AlphaFold2 predicted molecular structures of 13 human solute carrier transporters and their water-soluble QTY variants. Sci Rep 2022; 12:20103. [PMID: 36418372 PMCID: PMC9684436 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-022-23764-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/29/2022] [Accepted: 11/04/2022] [Indexed: 11/24/2022] Open
Abstract
Solute carrier transporters are integral membrane proteins, and are important for diverse cellular nutrient transports, metabolism, energy demand, and other vital biological activities. They have recently been implicated in pancreatic cancer and other cancer metastasis, angiogenesis, programmed cell death and proliferation, cell metabolism and chemo-sensitivity. Here we report the study of 13 human solute carrier membrane transporters using the highly accurate AlphaFold2 predictions of 3D protein structures. In the native structures, there are hydrophobic amino acids leucine (L), isoleucine (I), valine (V) and phenylalanine (F) in the transmembrane alpha-helices. These hydrophobic amino acids L, I, V, F are systematically replaced by hydrophilic amino acids glutamine (Q), threonine (T) and tyrosine (Y), thus the QTY code. Therefore, these QTY variant transporters become water-soluble without requiring detergents. We present the superposed structures of these native solute carrier transporters and their water-soluble QTY variants. The superposed structures show remarkable similarity with RMSD ~ 1 Å-< 3 Å despite > 46% protein sequence substitutions in transmembrane alpha-helices. We also show the differences of surface hydrophobicity between the native solute carrier transporters and their QTY variants. Our study may further stimulate designs of water-soluble transmembrane proteins and other aggregated proteins for drug discovery and biotechnological applications.
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Affiliation(s)
- Eva Smorodina
- grid.55325.340000 0004 0389 8485Laboratory for Computational and Systems Immunology, Department of Immunology, University of Oslo, Oslo University Hospital, Oslo, Norway
| | - Igor Diankin
- grid.78780.300000 0004 0613 1044Department of Computer Science, American University of Armenia, Yerevan, Armenia
| | - Fei Tao
- grid.16821.3c0000 0004 0368 8293Laboratory of Food Microbial Technology, State Key Laboratory of Microbial Metabolism, School of Life Sciences and Biotechnology, Shanghai Jiaotong University, Shanghai, 200240 China
| | - Rui Qing
- grid.16821.3c0000 0004 0368 8293Laboratory of Food Microbial Technology, State Key Laboratory of Microbial Metabolism, School of Life Sciences and Biotechnology, Shanghai Jiaotong University, Shanghai, 200240 China
| | - Steve Yang
- PT Metiska Farma, Daerah Khusus Ibukota, Jakarta, 12220 Indonesia
| | - Shuguang Zhang
- grid.116068.80000 0001 2341 2786Laboratory of Molecular Architecture, Media Lab, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02139 USA
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20
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Qing R, Hao S, Smorodina E, Jin D, Zalevsky A, Zhang S. Protein Design: From the Aspect of Water Solubility and Stability. Chem Rev 2022; 122:14085-14179. [PMID: 35921495 PMCID: PMC9523718 DOI: 10.1021/acs.chemrev.1c00757] [Citation(s) in RCA: 28] [Impact Index Per Article: 14.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/31/2021] [Indexed: 12/13/2022]
Abstract
Water solubility and structural stability are key merits for proteins defined by the primary sequence and 3D-conformation. Their manipulation represents important aspects of the protein design field that relies on the accurate placement of amino acids and molecular interactions, guided by underlying physiochemical principles. Emulated designer proteins with well-defined properties both fuel the knowledge-base for more precise computational design models and are used in various biomedical and nanotechnological applications. The continuous developments in protein science, increasing computing power, new algorithms, and characterization techniques provide sophisticated toolkits for solubility design beyond guess work. In this review, we summarize recent advances in the protein design field with respect to water solubility and structural stability. After introducing fundamental design rules, we discuss the transmembrane protein solubilization and de novo transmembrane protein design. Traditional strategies to enhance protein solubility and structural stability are introduced. The designs of stable protein complexes and high-order assemblies are covered. Computational methodologies behind these endeavors, including structure prediction programs, machine learning algorithms, and specialty software dedicated to the evaluation of protein solubility and aggregation, are discussed. The findings and opportunities for Cryo-EM are presented. This review provides an overview of significant progress and prospects in accurate protein design for solubility and stability.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rui Qing
- State
Key Laboratory of Microbial Metabolism, School of Life Sciences and
Biotechnology, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China
- Media
Lab, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, United States
- The
David H. Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, United States
| | - Shilei Hao
- Media
Lab, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, United States
- Key
Laboratory of Biorheological Science and Technology, Ministry of Education, College of Bioengineering, Chongqing University, Chongqing 400030, China
| | - Eva Smorodina
- Department
of Immunology, University of Oslo and Oslo
University Hospital, Oslo 0424, Norway
| | - David Jin
- Avalon GloboCare
Corp., Freehold, New Jersey 07728, United States
| | - Arthur Zalevsky
- Laboratory
of Bioinformatics Approaches in Combinatorial Chemistry and Biology, Shemyakin−Ovchinnikov Institute of Bioorganic
Chemistry RAS, Moscow 117997, Russia
| | - Shuguang Zhang
- Media
Lab, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, United States
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21
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Wang Y, Xu Y, Zhang Z, He Y, Hou Z, Zhao Z, Deng J, Qing R, Wang B, Hao S. Rational Design of High-Performance Keratin-Based Hemostatic Agents. Adv Healthc Mater 2022; 11:e2200290. [PMID: 35613419 DOI: 10.1002/adhm.202200290] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/05/2022] [Revised: 05/17/2022] [Indexed: 12/17/2022]
Abstract
Keratins are considered ideal candidates as hemostatic agents, but the development lags far behind their potentials due to the poorly understood hemostatic mechanism and structure-function relations, owing to the composition complexity in protein extracts. Here, it is shown that by using a recombinant synthesis approach, individual types of keratins can be expressed and used for mechanism investigation and further high-performance keratin hemostatic agent design. In the comparative evaluation of full-length, rod-domain, and helical segment keratins, the α-helical contents in the sequences are identified to be directly proportional to keratins' hemostatic activities, and Tyr, Phe, and Gln residues at the N-termini of α-helices in keratins are crucial in fibrinopeptide release and fibrin polymerization. A feasible route to significantly enhance the hemostatic efficiency of helical keratins by mutating Cys to Ser in the sequences for enhanced water wettability through soluble expression is then further presented. These results provide a rational strategy to design high-efficiency keratin hemostatic agents with superior performance over clinically used gelatin sponge in multiple animal models.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yumei Wang
- Key Laboratory of Biorheological Science and Technology Ministry of Education College of Bioengineering Chongqing University Chongqing 400030 China
- Department of Nuclear Medicine Chongqing University Cancer Hospital Chongqing 400044 China
| | - Yingqian Xu
- Key Laboratory of Biorheological Science and Technology Ministry of Education College of Bioengineering Chongqing University Chongqing 400030 China
| | - Zhi Zhang
- Key Laboratory of Biorheological Science and Technology Ministry of Education College of Bioengineering Chongqing University Chongqing 400030 China
| | - Ye He
- Key Laboratory of Biorheological Science and Technology Ministry of Education College of Bioengineering Chongqing University Chongqing 400030 China
| | - Zongkun Hou
- Key Laboratory of Biorheological Science and Technology Ministry of Education College of Bioengineering Chongqing University Chongqing 400030 China
| | - Zhibin Zhao
- Key Laboratory of Biorheological Science and Technology Ministry of Education College of Bioengineering Chongqing University Chongqing 400030 China
| | - Jia Deng
- College of Environment and Resources Chongqing Technology and Business University Chongqing 400067 China
| | - Rui Qing
- School of Life Sciences and Biotechnology Shanghai Jiao Tong University Shanghai 200240 China
| | - Bochu Wang
- Key Laboratory of Biorheological Science and Technology Ministry of Education College of Bioengineering Chongqing University Chongqing 400030 China
| | - Shilei Hao
- Key Laboratory of Biorheological Science and Technology Ministry of Education College of Bioengineering Chongqing University Chongqing 400030 China
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22
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Abstract
Membrane proteins, particularly those that are α-helical, such as transporters and G-protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs), have significant biological relevance. However, their expression and purification pose difficulties because of their poor water solubilities, which impedes progress in this field. The QTY method, a code-based protein-engineering approach, was recently developed to produce soluble transmembrane proteins. Here, we describe a comprehensive Web server built for QTY design and its relevance for in silico analyses. Typically, the simple design model is expected to require only 2 to 4 min of computer time, and the library design model requires 2 to 5 h, depending on the target protein size and the number of transmembrane helices. Detailed protocols for using the server with both the simple design and library design modules are provided. Methods for experiments following the QTY design are also included to facilitate the implementation of this approach. The design pipeline was further evaluated using microbial transmembrane proteins and structural alignment between the designed proteins and their origins by employing AlphaFold2. The results reveal that mutants generated by the developed pipeline were highly identical to their origins in terms of three-dimensional (3D) structures. In summary, the utilization of our Web server and associated protocols will enable QTY-based protein engineering to be implemented in a convenient, fast, accurate, and rational manner. The Protein Solubilizing Server (PSS) is publicly available at http://pss.sjtu.edu.cn. IMPORTANCE Water-soluble expression and purification are of considerable importance for protein identification and characterization. However, there has been a lack of an effective method for water-soluble expression of membrane proteins, which has severely hampered their studies. Here, an enabling comprehensive Web server, PSS, was developed for designing water-soluble mutants of α-helical membrane proteins, based on QTY design, a code-based protein-engineering approach. With microbial transmembrane proteins and GPCRs as examples, we systematically evaluated the server and demonstrated its successful performance. PSS is readily available for worldwide users as a Web-based tool, rendering QTY-based protein engineering convenient, efficient, accurate, and rational.
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Comparing Native Crystal Structures and AlphaFold2 Predicted Water-Soluble G Protein-Coupled Receptor QTY Variants. Life (Basel) 2021; 11:life11121285. [PMID: 34947816 PMCID: PMC8704054 DOI: 10.3390/life11121285] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/01/2021] [Revised: 11/21/2021] [Accepted: 11/22/2021] [Indexed: 11/17/2022] Open
Abstract
Accurate predictions of 3-dimensional protein structures by AlphaFold2 is a game-changer for biology, especially for structural biology. Here we present the studies of several native chemokine receptors including CCR5, CCR9, CXCR2 and CXCR4 determined by X-ray crystallography, and their water-soluble QTY counter parts predicted by AlphaFold2. In the native structures, there are hydrophobic amino acids leucine (L), isoleucine (I), valine (V) and phenylalanine (F) in the transmembrane helices. These hydrophobic amino acids are systematically replaced by hydrophilic amino acids glutamine (Q), threonine (T), and tyrosine (Y). Thus, the QTY variants become water-soluble. We also present the superimposed structures of native CCR10, CXCR5, CXCR7 and an olfactory receptor OR1D2 and their water-soluble QTY variants. Since the CryoEM structural determinations for the QTY variants of CCR10QTY and OR1D2QTY are in progress, it will be of interest to compare them when the structures become available. The superimposed structures show remarkable similarity within RMSD 1Å–2Å despite significant sequence differences (~26%–~33%). We also show the differences of hydrophobicity patches between the native GPCR and their QTY variants. Our study provides insight into the subtle differences between the hydrophobic helices and hydrophilic helices, and may further stimulate designs of water-soluble membrane proteins and other aggregated proteins.
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Root-Bernstein R, Churchill B. Co-Evolution of Opioid and Adrenergic Ligands and Receptors: Shared, Complementary Modules Explain Evolution of Functional Interactions and Suggest Novel Engineering Possibilities. Life (Basel) 2021; 11:life11111217. [PMID: 34833093 PMCID: PMC8623292 DOI: 10.3390/life11111217] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/08/2021] [Revised: 10/29/2021] [Accepted: 11/03/2021] [Indexed: 12/14/2022] Open
Abstract
Cross-talk between opioid and adrenergic receptors is well-characterized and involves second messenger systems, the formation of receptor heterodimers, and the presence of extracellular allosteric binding regions for the complementary ligand; however, the evolutionary origins of these interactions have not been investigated. We propose that opioid and adrenergic ligands and receptors co-evolved from a common set of modular precursors so that they share binding functions. We demonstrate the plausibility of this hypothesis through a review of experimental evidence for molecularly complementary modules and report unexpected homologies between the two receptor types. Briefly, opioids form homodimers also bind adrenergic compounds; opioids bind to conserved extracellular regions of adrenergic receptors while adrenergic compounds bind to conserved extracellular regions of opioid receptors; opioid-like modules appear in both sets of receptors within key ligand-binding regions. Transmembrane regions associated with homodimerization of each class of receptors are also highly conserved across receptor types and implicated in heterodimerization. This conservation of multiple functional modules suggests opioid–adrenergic ligand and receptor co-evolution and provides mechanisms for explaining the evolution of their crosstalk. These modules also suggest the structure of a primordial receptor, providing clues for engineering receptor functions.
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Enhancing the Cell-Free Expression of Native Membrane Proteins by In Silico Optimization of the Coding Sequence-An Experimental Study of the Human Voltage-Dependent Anion Channel. MEMBRANES 2021; 11:membranes11100741. [PMID: 34677509 PMCID: PMC8540592 DOI: 10.3390/membranes11100741] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/06/2021] [Revised: 09/12/2021] [Accepted: 09/13/2021] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
Abstract
Membrane proteins are involved in many aspects of cellular biology; for example, they regulate how cells interact with their environment, so such proteins are important drug targets. The rapid advancement in the field of immune effector cell therapy has been expanding the horizons of synthetic membrane receptors in the areas of cell-based immunotherapy and cellular medicine. However, the investigation of membrane proteins, which are key constituents of cells, is hampered by the difficulty and complexity of their in vitro synthesis, which is of unpredictable yield. Cell-free synthesis is herein employed to unravel the impact of the expression construct on gene transcription and translation, without the complex regulatory mechanisms of cellular systems. Through the systematic design of plasmids in the immediacy of the start of the target gene, it was possible to identify translation initiation and the conformation of mRNA as the main factors governing the cell-free expression efficiency of the human voltage-dependent anion channel (VDAC), which is a relevant membrane protein in drug-based therapy. A simple translation initiation model was developed to quantitatively assess the expression potential for the designed constructs. A scoring function that quantifies the feasibility of the formation of the translation initiation complex through the ribosome–mRNA hybridization energy and the accessibility of the mRNA segment binding to the ribosome is proposed. The scoring function enables one to optimize plasmid sequences and semi-quantitatively predict protein expression efficiencies. This scoring function is publicly available as webservice XenoExpressO at University of Vienna, Austria.
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Hung CL, Kuo YH, Lee SW, Chiang YW. Protein Stability Depends Critically on the Surface Hydrogen-Bonding Network: A Case Study of Bid Protein. J Phys Chem B 2021; 125:8373-8382. [PMID: 34314184 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpcb.1c03245] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
Abstract
Understanding how proteins retain structural stability is not only of fundamental importance in biophysics but also critical to industrial production of antibodies and vaccines. Protein stability is known to depend mainly on two effects: internal hydrophobicity and H-bonding between the protein surface and solvent. A challenging task is to identify their individual contributions to a protein. Here, we investigate the structural stability of the apoptotic Bid protein in solutions containing various concentrations of guanidinium hydrochloride and urea using a combination of recently developed methods including the QTY (glutamine, threonine, and tyrosine) code and electron spin resonance-based peak-height analysis. We show that when the internal hydrophobicity of Bid is broken down using the QTY code, the surface H-bonding alone is sufficient to retain the structural stability intact. When the surface H-bonding is disrupted, Bid becomes sensitive to the temperature-dependent internal hydrophobicity such that it exhibits a reversible cold unfolding above water's freezing point. Using the combined approach, we show that the free-energy contributions of the two effects can be more reliably obtained. The surface H bonds are more important than the other effect in determining the structural stability of Bid protein.
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Affiliation(s)
- Chien-Lun Hung
- Department of Chemistry, National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu 30013, Taiwan
| | - Yun-Hsuan Kuo
- Department of Chemistry, Graduate School of Science, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo 113-0033, Japan
| | - Su Wei Lee
- Department of Chemistry, National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu 30013, Taiwan
| | - Yun-Wei Chiang
- Department of Chemistry, National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu 30013, Taiwan
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27
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Principles and Methods in Computational Membrane Protein Design. J Mol Biol 2021; 433:167154. [PMID: 34271008 DOI: 10.1016/j.jmb.2021.167154] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/02/2021] [Revised: 07/03/2021] [Accepted: 07/06/2021] [Indexed: 01/13/2023]
Abstract
After decades of progress in computational protein design, the design of proteins folding and functioning in lipid membranes appears today as the next frontier. Some notable successes in the de novo design of simplified model membrane protein systems have helped articulate fundamental principles of protein folding, architecture and interaction in the hydrophobic lipid environment. These principles are reviewed here, together with the computational methods and approaches that were used to identify them. We provide an overview of the methodological innovations in the generation of new protein structures and functions and in the development of membrane-specific energy functions. We highlight the opportunities offered by new machine learning approaches applied to protein design, and by new experimental characterization techniques applied to membrane proteins. Although membrane protein design is in its infancy, it appears more reachable than previously thought.
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The G protein coupled receptor CXCR4 designed by the QTY code becomes more hydrophilic and retains cell signaling activity. Sci Rep 2020; 10:21371. [PMID: 33288780 PMCID: PMC7721705 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-020-77659-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/26/2019] [Accepted: 11/13/2020] [Indexed: 02/07/2023] Open
Abstract
G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) are vital for diverse biological functions, including vision, smell, and aging. They are involved in a wide range of diseases, and are among the most important targets of medicinal drugs. Tools that facilitate GPCR studies or GPCR-based technologies or therapies are thus critical to develop. Here we report using our QTY (glutamine, threonine, tyrosine) code to systematically replace 29 membrane-facing leucine, isoleucine, valine, and phenylalanine residues in the transmembrane α-helices of the GPCR CXCR4. This variant, CXCR4QTY29, became more hydrophilic, while retaining the ability to bind its ligand CXCL12. When transfected into HEK293 cells, it inserted into the cell membrane, and initiated cellular signaling. This QTY code has the potential to improve GPCR and membrane protein studies by making it possible to design functional hydrophilic receptors. This tool can be applied to diverse α-helical membrane proteins, and may aid in the development of other applications, including clinical therapies.
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29
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Zhang S. Self-assembling peptides: From a discovery in a yeast protein to diverse uses and beyond. Protein Sci 2020; 29:2281-2303. [PMID: 32939884 PMCID: PMC7586918 DOI: 10.1002/pro.3951] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/02/2020] [Revised: 09/11/2020] [Accepted: 09/15/2020] [Indexed: 12/11/2022]
Abstract
Well-defined nanofiber scaffold hydrogels made of self-assembling peptides have found their way into various 3D tissue culture and clinical products. I reflect initial puzzlement of the unexpected discovery, gradual understanding of how these peptides undergo self-assembly, to eventually translating designer biological scaffolds into commercial products. Peptides are ubiquitous in nature and useful in many fields. They are found as hormones, pheromones, antibacterial, and antifungal agents in innate immunity systems, toxins, as well anti-inset pesticides. However, the concept of peptides as materials was not recognized until 1990 when a self-assembling peptide as a repeating segment in a yeast protein was serendipitously discovered. The peptide materials have bona fide materials properties and are made from simple amino acids with well-ordered nanostructures under physiological conditions. Some current applications include: (a) Real 3D tissue cell cultures of diverse tissue cells and various stem cells; (b) reparative and regenerative medicine as well as tissue engineering; (c) 3D tissue printing; (d) sustained releases of small molecules, growth factors and monoclonal antibodies; and (e) accelerated wound healing of skin and diabetic ulcers as well as instant hemostasis in surgery. Self-assembling peptide nanobiotechnology will likely continue to expand in many directions in the coming years. I will also briefly introduce my current research using a simple QTY code for membrane protein design. I am greatly honored and humbled to be invited to contribute an Award Winner Recollection of the 2020 Emil Thomas Kaiser Award from the Protein Society.
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Affiliation(s)
- Shuguang Zhang
- Laboratory of Molecular ArchitectureMedia Lab, Massachusetts Institute of Technology77 Massachusetts Avenue E15‐391CambridgeMassachusetts02139‐4306USA
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30
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Qing R, Tao F, Chatterjee P, Yang G, Han Q, Chung H, Ni J, Suter BP, Kubicek J, Maertens B, Schubert T, Blackburn C, Zhang S. Non-full-length Water-Soluble CXCR4 QTY and CCR5 QTY Chemokine Receptors: Implication for Overlooked Truncated but Functional Membrane Receptors. iScience 2020; 23:101670. [PMID: 33376963 PMCID: PMC7756140 DOI: 10.1016/j.isci.2020.101670] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/14/2020] [Revised: 08/12/2020] [Accepted: 10/08/2020] [Indexed: 01/06/2023] Open
Abstract
It was posited that functionalities of GPCRs require full-length sequences that are negated by residue deletions. Here we report that significantly truncated nfCCR5QTY and nfCXCR4QTY still bind native ligands. Receptor-ligand interactions were discovered from yeast 2-hybrid screening and confirmed by mating selection. Two nfCCR5QTY (SZ218a, SZ190b) and two nfCXCR4QTY (SZ158a, SZ146a) were expressed in E. coli. Synthesized receptors exhibited α-helical structures and bound respective ligands with reduced affinities. SZ190b and SZ158a were reconverted into non-QTY forms and expressed in HEK293T cells. Reconverted receptors localized on cell membranes and functioned as negative regulators for ligand-induced signaling when co-expressed with full-length receptors. CCR5-SZ190b individually can perform signaling at a reduced level with higher ligand concentration. Our findings provide insight into essential structural components for CCR5 and CXCR4 functionality, while raising the possibility that non-full-length receptors may be resulted from alternative splicing and that pseudo-genes in genomes may be present and functional in living organisms. Y2H screening reveals ligand interaction from truncated CXCR4 and CCR5 in QTY form Truncated CCR5QTY and CXCR4QTY can be produced in E. coli and bind native ligands Reconverted receptors localize on membranes and regulate cell signaling in HEK293 Our finding indicates potential presence and function for truncated receptors
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Affiliation(s)
- Rui Qing
- Media Lab, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
| | - Fei Tao
- Laboratory of Food Microbial Technology, State Key Laboratory of Microbial Metabolism, School of Life Sciences and Biotechnology, Shanghai Jiaotong University, Shanghai 200240, China
| | - Pranam Chatterjee
- Media Lab, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.,The Center for Bits and Atoms, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
| | - Gaojie Yang
- Media Lab, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
| | - Qiuyi Han
- Media Lab, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
| | - Haeyoon Chung
- Media Lab, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
| | - Jun Ni
- Laboratory of Food Microbial Technology, State Key Laboratory of Microbial Metabolism, School of Life Sciences and Biotechnology, Shanghai Jiaotong University, Shanghai 200240, China
| | - Bernhard P Suter
- Next Interactions, Inc., 2600 Hilltop Drive, Building B, C332, Richmond, CA 94806, USA
| | - Jan Kubicek
- Cube Biotech, GmbH, Creative Campus, Alfred-Nobel Strasse 10, 40789 Monheim, Germany
| | - Barbara Maertens
- Cube Biotech, GmbH, Creative Campus, Alfred-Nobel Strasse 10, 40789 Monheim, Germany
| | | | - Camron Blackburn
- The Center for Bits and Atoms, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
| | - Shuguang Zhang
- Media Lab, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
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Cytokine Storm in COVID-19 Patients, Its Impact on Organs and Potential Treatment by QTY Code-Designed Detergent-Free Chemokine Receptors. Mediators Inflamm 2020; 2020:8198963. [PMID: 33029105 PMCID: PMC7512100 DOI: 10.1155/2020/8198963] [Citation(s) in RCA: 32] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/06/2020] [Accepted: 09/09/2020] [Indexed: 01/08/2023] Open
Abstract
The novel coronavirus is not only causing respiratory problems, but it may also damage the heart, kidneys, liver, and other organs; in Wuhan, 14 to 30% of COVID-19 patients have lost their kidney function and now require either dialysis or kidney transplants. The novel coronavirus gains entry into humans by targeting the ACE2 receptor that found on lung cells, which destroy human lungs through cytokine storms, and this leads to hyperinflammation, forcing the immune cells to destroy healthy cells. This is why some COVID-19 patients need intensive care. The inflammatory chemicals released during COVID-19 infection cause the liver to produce proteins that defend the body from infections. However, these proteins can cause blood clotting, which can clog blood vessels in the heart and other organs; as a result, the organs are deprived of oxygen and nutrients which could ultimately lead to multiorgan failure and consequent progression to acute lung injury, acute respiratory distress syndrome, and often death. However, there are novel protein modification tools called the QTY code, which are similar in their structure to antibodies, which could provide a solution to excess cytokines. These synthetic proteins can be injected into the body to bind the excess cytokines created by the cytokine storm; this will eventually remove the excessive cytokines and inhibit the severe symptoms caused by the COVID-19 infection. In this review, we will focus on cytokine storm in COVID-19 patients, their impact on the body organs, and the potential treatment by QTY code-designed detergent-free chemokine receptors.
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Abstract
Cytokine release syndrome (CRS), or ‘cytokine storm’, is the leading side effect during chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-T therapy that is potentially life-threatening. It also plays a critical role in viral infections such as Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19). Therefore, efficient removal of excessive cytokines is essential for treatment. We previously reported a novel protein modification tool called the QTY code, through which hydrophobic amino acids Leu, Ile, Val and Phe are replaced by Gln (Q), Thr (T) and Tyr (Y). Thus, the functional detergent-free equivalents of membrane proteins can be designed. Here, we report the application of the QTY code on six variants of cytokine receptors, including interleukin receptors IL4Rα and IL10Rα, chemokine receptors CCR9 and CXCR2, as well as interferon receptors IFNγR1 and IFNλR1. QTY-variant cytokine receptors exhibit physiological properties similar to those of native receptors without the presence of hydrophobic segments. The receptors were fused to the Fc region of immunoglobulin G (IgG) protein to form an antibody-like structure. These QTY code-designed Fc-fusion receptors were expressed in Escherichia coli and purified. The resulting water-soluble fusion receptors bind to their respective ligands with Kd values affinity similar to isolated native receptors. Our cytokine receptor–Fc-fusion proteins potentially serve as an antibody-like decoy to dampen the excessive cytokine levels associated with CRS and COVID-19 infection.
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34
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QTY code designed thermostable and water-soluble chimeric chemokine receptors with tunable ligand affinity. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2019; 116:25668-25676. [PMID: 31776256 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1909026116] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Chemokine receptors are of great interest as they play a critical role in many immunological and pathological processes. The ability to study chemokine receptors in aqueous solution without detergent would be significant because natural receptors require detergents to become soluble. We previously reported using the QTY code to design detergent-free chemokine receptors. We here report the design of 2 detergent-free chimeric chemokine receptors that were experimentally unattainable in detergent solution. We designed chimeric receptors by switching the N terminus and 3 extracellular (EC) loops between different receptors. Specifically, we replaced the N terminus and 3 EC loops of CCR5QTY with the N terminus and 3 EC loops of CXCR4. The ligand for CXCR4; namely CXCL12, binds to the chimeric receptor CCR5QTY (7TM)-CXCR4 (N terminus+3 EC loops), but with lower affinity compared to CXCR4; the CCL5 ligand of CCR5 binds the chimeric receptor with ∼20× lower affinity. The chimeric design helps to elucidate the mechanism of native receptor-ligand interaction. We also show that all detergent-free QTY-designed chemokine receptors, expressed in Escherichia coli, bind to their respective chemokines with affinities in the nanomolar (nM) range, similar to the affinities of native receptors and SF9-produced QTY variants. These QTY-designed receptors exhibit remarkable thermostability in the presence of arginine and retain ligand-binding activity after heat treatment at 60 °C for 4 h and 24 h, and at 100 °C for 10 min. Our design approach enables affordable scale-up production of detergent-free QTY variant chemokine receptors with tunable functionality for various uses.
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