Cloning, expression, and characterization of a novel heparinase I from Bacteroides eggerthii

Immobilized high-performance heparin lyase III for efficient preparation of low molecular weight heparin

Heparin lyase III has garnered widespread attention due to its high specificity and minimal loss of anticoagulant activity during the preparation of low molecular weight heparin (LMWH), a crucial anticoagulant drug in clinical practice. However, low expression levels and complex preparation processes limit its practical application. To address these challenges, high-performance Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron heparin lyase III (Bhep III) variants were engineered and immobilized for LMWH preparation. First, we enhanced enzyme expression by adding a solubility-enhancing tag and optimizing the N-terminal coding sequence, which resulted in a Bhep III activity level of 2.9 × 103 U/L with 8-fold increase. After evolution guided the design of rational mutations, the variant Bhep III K85A/Q95F/S471T generated higher activity (5.4 × 104 U/L in 5-L fermenter), which is, to our knowledge, the highest reported to date in the literature, being 1.7-fold that of the wild type and demonstrating 2-fold increase of the thermal stability. By screening and optimizing the C-terminal self-assembling tag, we successfully immobilized Bhep III, further increasing its thermal stability by 12-fold, and allowing for the multi-batch preparation of LMWH with simple centrifugation. The immobilized heparin lyase III demonstrated sufficient reusability in enzymatic reactions, facilitating efficient industrial-scale production of LMWH.

Cloning, heterologous expression, and molecular characterization of a highly active and stable non-specific endonuclease from Pseudomonas fluorescens

Non-specific endonucleases can be used for the digestion of nucleic acids because they hydrolyze DNA/RNA into 3-5 base pairs (bp) length oligonucleotide fragments without strict selectivity. In this work, a novel non-specific endonuclease from Pseudomonas fluorescens (PfNuc) with high activities for both DNA and RNA was successfully cloned and expressed in Escherichia coli. The production of PfNuc in flask scale could be achieved to 1.73 × 106 U/L and 4.82 × 106 U/L for DNA and RNA by investigation of the culture and induction conditions. The characterization of PfNuc indicated that it was Mg2+-dependent and the catalytic activity was enhanced by 3.74 folds for DNA and 1.06 folds for RNA in the presence of 5 mM Mg2+. The specific activity of PfNuc for DNA was 1.44 × 105 U/mg at pH 8.0 and 40 °C, and 3.93 × 105 U/mg for RNA at pH 8.5 and 45 °C. The Km of the enzyme for both DNA and RNA was close to 43 µM. The Vmax was 6.40 × 105 U/mg and 1.11 × 106 U/mg for DNA and RNA, respectively. There was no observed activity loss when PfNuc was stored at 4 °C and - 20 °C after 28 days or 10 repeated freeze-thaw cycles at - 80 °C. Molecular docking revealed that PfNuc formed 17 and 19 hydrogen bonds with single-stranded RNA and double-stranded DNA, respectively. These results could explain the high activity and stability of PfNuc, suggesting its great potential applications in the industry and clinic.

Heparinase III with High Activity and Stability: Heterologous Expression, Biochemical Characterization, and Application in Depolymerization of Heparin

A novel heparinase III from Pedobacter schmidteae (PsHep-III) with high activity and good stability was successfully cloned, expressed, and characterized. PsHep-III displayed the highest specific activity ever reported of 192.8 U mg-1 using heparin as the substrate. It was stable at 25 °C with a half-life of 323 h in an aqueous solution. PsHep-III was employed for the depolymerization of heparin, and the enzymatic hydrolyzed products were analyzed with gel permeation chromatography and high-performance liquid chromatography. PsHep-III can break glycosidic bonds in heparin like →4]GlcNAc/GlcNAc6S/GlcNS/GlcNS6S/GlcN/GlcN6S(1 → 4)ΔUA/ΔUA2S[1 → and efficiently digest heparin into seven disaccharides including N-acetylated, N-sulfated, and N-unsubstituted modification, with molecular masses of 503, 605, 563, 563, 665, 360, and 563 Da, respectively. These results indicated that PsHep-III with broad substrate specificity could be combined with heparinase I to overcome the low selectivity at the N-acetylated modification binding sites of heparinase I. This work will contribute to the application of PsHep-III for characterizing heparin and producing low-molecular-weight heparin effectively.

Identification and characterization of a novel heparinase PCHepII from marine bacterium Puteibacter caeruleilacunae

Heparin (HP) and heparan sulfate (HS) are multifunctional polysaccharides widely used in clinical therapy. Heparinases (Hepases) are enzymes that specifically catalyse HP and HS degradation, and they are valuable tools for studying the structure and function of these polysaccharides and for preparing low molecular weight heparins. In this study, by searching the NCBI database, a novel enzyme named PCHepII was discovered in the genome of the marine bacterium Puteibacter caeruleilacuae. Heterologously expressed PCHepII in Escherichia coli (BL21) has high expression levels and good solubility, active in sodium phosphate buffer (pH 7.0) at 20°C. PCHepII exhibits an enzyme activity of 254 mU/mg towards HP and shows weak degradation capacity for HS. More importantly, PCHepII prefers to catalyse the high-sulfated regions of HP and HS rather than the low-sulfated regions. Although PCHepII functions primarily as an endolytic Hepase, it mainly generates disaccharide products during the degradation of HP substrates over time. Investigations reveal that PCHepII exhibits a preference for catalysing the degradation of small substrates, especially HP tetrasaccharides. The catalytic sites of PCHepII include the residues His199, Tyr254, and His403, which play crucial roles in the catalytic process. The study and characterization of PCHepII can potentially benefit research and applications involving HP/HS, making it a promising enzyme.

Combination of engineering the substrate and Ca2+ binding domains of heparinase I to improve the catalytic activity

Heparinase I (EC 4.2.2.7), is an enzyme that cleaves heparin, showing great potential for eco-friendly production of low molecular weight heparin (LMWH). However, owing to its poor catalytic activity and thermal stability, the industrial application of heparinase I has been severely hindered. To improve the catalytic activity, we proposed to engineer both the substrate and Ca2+ binding domains of heparinase I. Several heparinases I from different organisms were selected for multiple sequence alignment and molecular docking to screen the key residues in the binding domain. Nine single-point mutations were selected to enhance the catalytic activity of heparinase I. Among them, T250D was the most highly active one, whereas mutations around Ca2+ binding domain yielded two active mutants. Mutant D152S/R244K/T250D with significantly increased catalytic activity was obtained by combined mutation. The catalytic efficiency of the mutant was 118,875.8 min-1·µM-1, which was improved 5.26 times. Molecular modeling revealed that the improved activity and stability of the mutants were probably attributed to the formation of new hydrogen bonds. The highly active mutant had great potential applications in industry and the strategy could be used to improve the performance of other enzymes.

Cloning, Expression, and Characterization of a Highly Stable Heparinase I from Bacteroides xylanisolvens

Heparinase I (Hep I), which specifically degrades heparin to oligosaccharide or unsaturated disaccharide, has an important role in the production of low molecular weight heparin (LMWH). However, low productivity and stability of heparinase I hinders its applications. Here, a novel heparinase I (BxHep-I) was cloned from Bacteroides xylanisolvens and overexpressed in soluble form in Escherichia coli. The expression conditions of BxHep-I were optimized for an activity of 7144 U/L. BxHep-I had a specific activity of 57.6 U/mg at the optimal temperature and pH of 30 °C and pH 7.5, with the Km and Vmax of 0.79 mg/mL and 124.58 U/mg, respectively. BxHep-I catalytic activity could be enhanced by Ca2+ and Mg2+, while strongly inhibited by Zn2+ and Co2+. Purified BxHep-I displayed an outstanding thermostability with half-lives of 597 and 158 min at 30 and 37 °C, respectively, which are the highest half-lives ever reported for heparinases I. After storage at 4 °C for one week, BxHep-I retained 73% of its initial activity. Molecular docking revealed that the amino acids Asn25, Gln27, Arg88, Lys116, His156, Arg161, Gln228, Tyr356, Lys358, and Tyr362 form 13 hydrogen bonds with the substrate heparin disaccharides in the substrate binding domain and are mainly involved in the substrate binding of BxHep-I. These results suggest that the BxHep-I with high stability could be a candidate catalyst for the industrial production of LMWH.

Cloning and Expression of Heparinase Gene from a Novel Strain Raoultella NX-TZ-3-15

Heparin is a class of highly sulfated, acidic, linear, and complex polysaccharide that belongs to the heparin/heparan sulfate (HS) glycosaminoglycans family. Enzymatic depolymerization of heparin by heparinases is a promising strategy for the production of ultra-low molecular weight heparins (ULMWHs) as anticoagulants. In the present study, a novel heparinase-producing strain Raoultella NX-TZ-3-15 was isolated and identified from soil samples. Herein, the heparinase gene MBP-H1 was cloned to the pBENT vector to enable expression in Escherichia coli. The optimized conditions made the activity of recombinant heparinase reach the highest level (2140 U/L). The overexpressed MBP-H1 was purified by affinity chromatography and a purity of more than 90% was obtained. The condition for biocatalysis was also optimized and three metal ions Ca²⁺, Co²⁺, and Mg²⁺ were utilized to activate the reaction. In addition, the kinetics regarding the new fusion heparinase was also determined with a V_m value of 11.29 μmol/min and a K_m value of 31.2 μmol/L. In short, due to excellent K_m and V_max, the recombinant enzyme has great potential to be used in the clinic in medicine and industrial production of low or ultra-low molecule weight heparin.

A Highly Active Chondroitin Sulfate Lyase ABC for Enzymatic Depolymerization of Chondroitin Sulfate

Enzymatic preparation of low-molecular-weight chondroitin sulfate (LMWCS) has received increasing attention. In this work, a chondroitin sulfate lyase ABC (Chon-ABC) was successfully cloned, expressed, and characterized. The K_m and V_max of the Chon-ABC were 0.54 mM and 541.3 U mg⁻¹, respectively. The maximal activity was assayed as 500.4 U mg⁻¹ at 37 °C in pH 8.0 phosphate buffer saline. The half-lives of the Chon-ABC were 133 d and 127 min at 4 °C and 37 °C, respectively. Enzymatic preparation of LMWCS was performed at room temperature for 30 min. The changes between the substrate and product were analyzed with mass spectrometry (MS), high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), gel permeation chromatography (GPC), and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR). Overall, the Chon-ABC from Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron is competitive in large-scale enzymatic preparation of LMWCS for its high activity, stability, and substrate specificity.

A Novel Chondroitin AC Lyase With Broad Substrate Specificity From Pedobacter rhizosphaerae: Cloning, Expression, and Characterization

Chondroitin AC lyase (ChSaseAC) is one of the essential polysaccharides lyases in low molecular chondroitin sulfate production. In this work, a novel PrChSaseAC from Pedobacter rhizosphaerae was successfully cloned, expressed in Escherichia coli. After optimizing the induction, the recombinant PrChSaseAC could be expressed efficiently at 0.1 mM IPTG, 25°C, and 12 h induction. Then, it was purified with Ni-NTA affinity chromatography. The characterization of the purified PrChSaseAC showed that it had high specific activity and good storage stability, which would favor the production of low molecular weight chondroitin sulfate. It also displayed activity toward chondroitin sulfate C and hyaluronic acid. PrChSaseAC had the highest activity at pH 7.5, 37°C, 10 mM Ca²⁺, and 5 mg/ml of chondroitin sulfate A. Molecular docking of substrate and enzyme showed the interactions between the enzyme and substrate; it revealed that the enzyme showed high activity to CS-A and hyaluronic acid, but lower activity to CS-C attributed to the structure of the binding pocket. The high stability and specific activity of the enzyme will benefit the industrial production or clinical treatment.

Characterization of a novel multidomain CE15-GH8 enzyme encoded by a polysaccharide utilization locus in the human gut bacterium Bacteroides eggerthii

Bacteroidetes are efficient degraders of complex carbohydrates, much thanks to their use of polysaccharide utilization loci (PULs). An integral part of PULs are highly specialized carbohydrate-active enzymes, sometimes composed of multiple linked domains with discrete functions—multicatalytic enzymes. We present the biochemical characterization of a multicatalytic enzyme from a large PUL encoded by the gut bacterium Bacteroides eggerthii. The enzyme, BeCE15A-Rex8A, has a rare and novel architecture, with an N-terminal carbohydrate esterase family 15 (CE15) domain and a C-terminal glycoside hydrolase family 8 (GH8) domain. The CE15 domain was identified as a glucuronoyl esterase (GE), though with relatively poor activity on GE model substrates, attributed to key amino acid substitutions in the active site compared to previously studied GEs. The GH8 domain was shown to be a reducing-end xylose-releasing exo-oligoxylanase (Rex), based on having activity on xylooligosaccharides but not on longer xylan chains. The full-length BeCE15A-Rex8A enzyme and the Rex domain were capable of boosting the activity of a commercially available GH11 xylanase on corn cob biomass. Our research adds to the understanding of multicatalytic enzyme architectures and showcases the potential of discovering novel and atypical carbohydrate-active enzymes from mining PULs.

A highly active heparinase I from Bacteroides cellulosilyticus: Cloning, high level expression, and molecular characterization

As one of the most extensively studied glycosaminoglycan lyases, heparinase I has been used in producing low or ultra-low molecular weight heparin. Its' important applications are to neutralize the heparin in human blood and analyze heparin structure in the clinic. However, the low productivity and activity of the enzyme have greatly hindered its applications. In this study, a novel Hep-I from Bacteroides cellulosilyticus (BcHep-I) was successfully cloned and heterologously expressed in E. coli BL21 (DE3) as a soluble protein. The molecular mass and isoelectric point (pI) of the enzyme are 44.42 kDa and 9.02, respectively. And the characterization of BcHep-I after purified with Ni-NTA affinity chromatography suggested that it is a mesophilic enzyme. BcHep-I can be activated by 1 mM Ca2+, Mg2+, and Mn2+, while severely inhibited by Zn2+, Co2+, and EDTA. The specific activity of the enzyme was 738.3 U·mg-1 which is the highest activity ever reported. The Km and Vmax were calculated as 0.17 mg·mL-1 and 740.58 U·mg-1, respectively. Besides, the half-life of 300 min at 30°C showed BcHep-I has practical applications. Homology modeling and substrate docking revealed that Gln15, Lys74, Arg76, Lys104, Arg149, Gln208, Tyr336, Tyr342, and Lys338 were mainly involved in the substrate binding of Hep-I, and 11 hydrogen bonds were formed between heparin and the enzyme. These results indicated that BcHep-I with high activity has great potential applications in the industrial production of heparin, especially in the clinic to neutralize heparin.