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Vásquez-Escobar J, Benjumea-Gutiérrez DM, Lopera C, Clement HC, Bolaños DI, Higuita-Castro JL, Corzo GA, Corrales-Garcia LL. Heterologous Expression of an Insecticidal Peptide Obtained from the Transcriptome of the Colombian Spider Phoneutria depilate. Toxins (Basel) 2023; 15:436. [PMID: 37505705 PMCID: PMC10467102 DOI: 10.3390/toxins15070436] [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: 05/21/2023] [Revised: 06/27/2023] [Accepted: 06/27/2023] [Indexed: 07/29/2023] Open
Abstract
Spider venoms are composed, among other substances, of peptide toxins whose selectivity for certain physiological targets has made them powerful tools for applications such as bioinsecticides, analgesics, antiarrhythmics, antibacterials, antifungals and antimalarials, among others. Bioinsecticides are an environmentally friendly alternative to conventional agrochemicals. In this paper, the primary structure of an insecticidal peptide was obtained from the venom gland transcriptome of the ctenid spider Phoneutria depilata (Transcript ID PhdNtxNav24). The peptide contains 53 amino acids, including 10 Cys residues that form 5 disulfide bonds. Using the amino acid sequence of such peptide, a synthetic gene was constructed de novo by overlapping PCRs and cloned into an expression vector. A recombinant peptide, named delta-ctenitoxin (rCtx-4), was obtained. It was expressed, folded, purified and validated using mass spectrometry (7994.61 Da). The insecticidal activity of rCtx-4 was demonstrated through intrathoracic injection in crickets (LD50 1.2 μg/g insect) and it was not toxic to mice. rCtx-4 is a potential bioinsecticide that could have a broad spectrum of applications in agriculture.
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Affiliation(s)
- Julieta Vásquez-Escobar
- Grupo de Toxinología y Alternativas Farmacéuticas y Alimentarias, Facultad de Ciencias Farmacéuticas y Alimentarias, Universidad de Antioquia, Medellin 1226, Colombia; (D.M.B.-G.); (C.L.)
| | - Dora María Benjumea-Gutiérrez
- Grupo de Toxinología y Alternativas Farmacéuticas y Alimentarias, Facultad de Ciencias Farmacéuticas y Alimentarias, Universidad de Antioquia, Medellin 1226, Colombia; (D.M.B.-G.); (C.L.)
| | - Carolina Lopera
- Grupo de Toxinología y Alternativas Farmacéuticas y Alimentarias, Facultad de Ciencias Farmacéuticas y Alimentarias, Universidad de Antioquia, Medellin 1226, Colombia; (D.M.B.-G.); (C.L.)
| | - Herlinda C. Clement
- Departamento de Medicina Molecular y Bioprocesos, Instituto de Biotecnología, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, A.P. 510-3, Cuernavaca 62250, Mexico; (H.C.C.); (D.I.B.); (G.A.C.)
| | - Damaris I. Bolaños
- Departamento de Medicina Molecular y Bioprocesos, Instituto de Biotecnología, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, A.P. 510-3, Cuernavaca 62250, Mexico; (H.C.C.); (D.I.B.); (G.A.C.)
| | - Jorge Luis Higuita-Castro
- PECET—Programa para el Estudio y Control de Enfermedades Tropicales, Facultad de Medicina, Universidad de Antioquia, Medellín 050010, Colombia;
| | - Gerardo A. Corzo
- Departamento de Medicina Molecular y Bioprocesos, Instituto de Biotecnología, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, A.P. 510-3, Cuernavaca 62250, Mexico; (H.C.C.); (D.I.B.); (G.A.C.)
| | - Ligia Luz Corrales-Garcia
- Departamento de Medicina Molecular y Bioprocesos, Instituto de Biotecnología, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, A.P. 510-3, Cuernavaca 62250, Mexico; (H.C.C.); (D.I.B.); (G.A.C.)
- PECET—Programa para el Estudio y Control de Enfermedades Tropicales, Facultad de Medicina, Universidad de Antioquia, Medellín 050010, Colombia;
- Departamento de Alimentos, Facultad de Ciencias Farmacéuticas y Alimentarias, Universidad de Antioquia, Medellín 1226, Colombia
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Strategies for Optimizing the Production of Proteins and Peptides with Multiple Disulfide Bonds. Antibiotics (Basel) 2020; 9:antibiotics9090541. [PMID: 32858882 PMCID: PMC7558204 DOI: 10.3390/antibiotics9090541] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/05/2020] [Revised: 08/22/2020] [Accepted: 08/25/2020] [Indexed: 02/07/2023] Open
Abstract
Bacteria can produce recombinant proteins quickly and cost effectively. However, their physiological properties limit their use for the production of proteins in their native form, especially polypeptides that are subjected to major post-translational modifications. Proteins that rely on disulfide bridges for their stability are difficult to produce in Escherichia coli. The bacterium offers the least costly, simplest, and fastest method for protein production. However, it is difficult to produce proteins with a very large size. Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Pichia pastoris are the most commonly used yeast species for protein production. At a low expense, yeasts can offer high protein yields, generate proteins with a molecular weight greater than 50 kDa, extract signal sequences, and glycosylate proteins. Both eukaryotic and prokaryotic species maintain reducing conditions in the cytoplasm. Hence, the formation of disulfide bonds is inhibited. These bonds are formed in eukaryotic cells during the export cycle, under the oxidizing conditions of the endoplasmic reticulum. Bacteria do not have an advanced subcellular space, but in the oxidizing periplasm, they exhibit both export systems and enzymatic activities directed at the formation and quality of disulfide bonds. Here, we discuss current techniques used to target eukaryotic and prokaryotic species for the generation of correctly folded proteins with disulfide bonds.
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Zeng X, Li P, Chen B, Huang J, Lai R, Liu J, Rong M. Selective Closed-State Nav1.7 Blocker JZTX-34 Exhibits Analgesic Effects against Pain. Toxins (Basel) 2018; 10:toxins10020064. [PMID: 29393892 PMCID: PMC5848165 DOI: 10.3390/toxins10020064] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/27/2017] [Revised: 01/26/2018] [Accepted: 01/31/2018] [Indexed: 12/11/2022] Open
Abstract
Jingzhaotoxin-34 (JZTX-34) is a selective inhibitor of tetrodotoxin-sensitive (TTX-S) sodium channels. In this study, we found that JZTX-34 selectively acted on Nav1.7 with little effect on other sodium channel subtypes including Nav1.5. If the DIIS3-S4 linker of Nav1.5 is substituted by the correspond linker of Nav1.7, the sensitivity of Nav1.5 to JZTX-34 extremely increases to 1.05 µM. Meanwhile, a mutant D816R in the DIIS3-S4 linker of Nav1.7 decreases binding affinity of Nav1.7 to JZTX-34 about 32-fold. The reverse mutant R800D at the corresponding position in Nav1.5 greatly increased its binding affinity to JZTX-34. This implies that JZTX-34 binds to DIIS3-S4 linker of Nav1.7 and the critical residue of Nav1.7 is D816. Unlike β-scorpion toxin trapping sodium channel in an open state, activity of JZTX-34 requires the sodium channel to be in a resting state. JZTX-34 exhibits an obvious analgesic effect in a rodent pain model. Especially, it shows a longer duration and is more effective than morphine in hot pain models. In a formalin-induced pain model, JZTX-34 at dose of 2 mg/kg is equipotent with morphine (5 mg/kg) in the first phase and several-fold more effective than morphine in second phase. Taken together, our data indicate that JZTX-34 releases pain by selectively binding to the domain II voltage sensor of Nav1.7 in a closed configuration.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xiongzhi Zeng
- The National & Local Joint Engineering Laboratory of Animal Peptide Drug Development, College of Life Sciences, Hunan Normal University, Changsha 410081, Hunan, China.
- The Key Laboratory of Protein Chemistry and Developmental Biology of Ministry of Education, College of Life Sciences, Hunan Normal University, Changsha 410081, Hunan, China.
| | - Pengpeng Li
- Life Sciences College of Nanjing Agricultural University, 210095, Jiangsu, China.
| | - Bo Chen
- The National & Local Joint Engineering Laboratory of Animal Peptide Drug Development, College of Life Sciences, Hunan Normal University, Changsha 410081, Hunan, China.
- The Key Laboratory of Protein Chemistry and Developmental Biology of Ministry of Education, College of Life Sciences, Hunan Normal University, Changsha 410081, Hunan, China.
| | - Juan Huang
- The National & Local Joint Engineering Laboratory of Animal Peptide Drug Development, College of Life Sciences, Hunan Normal University, Changsha 410081, Hunan, China.
- The Key Laboratory of Protein Chemistry and Developmental Biology of Ministry of Education, College of Life Sciences, Hunan Normal University, Changsha 410081, Hunan, China.
| | - Ren Lai
- Life Sciences College of Nanjing Agricultural University, 210095, Jiangsu, China.
- Key Laboratory of Animal Models and Human Disease Mechanisms of Chinese Academy of Sciences & Yunnan Province, Kunming Institute of Zoology, Kunming 650223, Yunnan, China.
| | - Jingze Liu
- Key Laboratory of Animal Physiology, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology of Hebei Province, College of Life Science, Hebei Normal University, Shijiazhuang 050024, Hebei, China.
| | - Mingqiang Rong
- The National & Local Joint Engineering Laboratory of Animal Peptide Drug Development, College of Life Sciences, Hunan Normal University, Changsha 410081, Hunan, China.
- The Key Laboratory of Protein Chemistry and Developmental Biology of Ministry of Education, College of Life Sciences, Hunan Normal University, Changsha 410081, Hunan, China.
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Toxin Fused with SUMO Tag: A New Expression Vector Strategy to Obtain Recombinant Venom Toxins with Easy Tag Removal inside the Bacteria. Toxins (Basel) 2017; 9:toxins9030082. [PMID: 28264436 PMCID: PMC5371837 DOI: 10.3390/toxins9030082] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/11/2017] [Revised: 02/16/2017] [Accepted: 02/22/2017] [Indexed: 01/19/2023] Open
Abstract
Many animal toxins may target the same molecules that need to be controlled in certain pathologies; therefore, some toxins have led to the formulation of drugs that are presently used, and many other drugs are still under development. Nevertheless, collecting sufficient toxins from the original source might be a limiting factor in studying their biological activities. Thus, molecular biology techniques have been applied in order to obtain large amounts of recombinant toxins into Escherichia coli. However, most animal toxins are difficult to express in this system, which results in insoluble, misfolded, or unstable proteins. To solve these issues, toxins have been fused with tags that may improve protein expression, solubility, and stability. Among these tags, the SUMO (small ubiquitin-related modifier) has been shown to be very efficient and can be removed by the Ulp1 protease. However, removing SUMO is a labor- and time-consuming process. To enhance this system, here we show the construction of a bicistronic vector that allows the expression of any protein fused to both the SUMO and Ulp1 protease. In this way, after expression, Ulp1 is able to cleave SUMO and leave the protein interest-free and ready for purification. This strategy was validated through the expression of a new phospholipase D from the spider Loxosceles gaucho and a disintegrin from the Bothrops insularis snake. Both recombinant toxins showed good yield and preserved biological activities, indicating that the bicistronic vector may be a viable method to produce proteins that are difficult to express.
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Wu H, Chen B, Jiang H, Wu L, Zhu LY, Meng E, Zhang DY. Heterologous expression and purification of neurotoxic Hainantoxin-III in E. coli. Prep Biochem Biotechnol 2017; 47:158-162. [PMID: 27249514 DOI: 10.1080/10826068.2016.1188313] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/21/2022]
Abstract
In the present study, we used Escherichia coli to produce recombinant Hainantoxin-III (rHNTX-III), a 33-amino acid peptic toxin from the tarantula spider Haplopelma hainanum. The toxin has three pairs of disulfide bonds. A pET-HS-HNTX-III vector was constructed and transformed into the E. coli strain SHuffleTM. rHNTX-III was expressed using auto-induction medium. After using a Ni-NTA column, the expressed fusion protein was digested using SUMO protease (ULP1) to remove the HIS-SUMO tag, and then RP-HPLC and ultrafiltration were used for further purification. Then the rHNTX-III was identified by MALDI-TOF/TOF mass spectrometry. The purified rHNTX-III was further analyzed using a whole-cell patch-clamp assay. It was shown that the rHNTX-III was able to block currents generated by human Nav1.7 (hNav1.7) at an IC50 of 225 nM and also have high selectivity for different voltage-gated sodium channels. Therefore, it has very similar activity to the natural one.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hui Wu
- a Research Center of Biological Information , College of Science, National University of Defense Technology , Changsha , China
| | - Bo Chen
- b Key Laboratory of Protein Chemistry and Developmental Biology of the Ministry of Education , College of Life Sciences, Hunan Normal University , Changsha , China
| | - Hui Jiang
- c Beijing Institute of Pharmaceutical Chemistry , Beijing , China
| | - Lei Wu
- a Research Center of Biological Information , College of Science, National University of Defense Technology , Changsha , China
| | - Ling-Yun Zhu
- a Research Center of Biological Information , College of Science, National University of Defense Technology , Changsha , China
| | - Er Meng
- a Research Center of Biological Information , College of Science, National University of Defense Technology , Changsha , China
| | - Dong-Yi Zhang
- a Research Center of Biological Information , College of Science, National University of Defense Technology , Changsha , China
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Matsubara FH, Meissner GO, Herzig V, Justa HC, Dias BCL, Trevisan-Silva D, Gremski LH, Gremski W, Senff-Ribeiro A, Chaim OM, King GF, Veiga SS. Insecticidal activity of a recombinant knottin peptide from Loxosceles intermedia venom and recognition of these peptides as a conserved family in the genus. INSECT MOLECULAR BIOLOGY 2017; 26:25-34. [PMID: 27743460 DOI: 10.1111/imb.12268] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/06/2023]
Abstract
Loxosceles intermedia venom comprises a complex mixture of proteins, glycoproteins and low molecular mass peptides that act synergistically to immobilize envenomed prey. Analysis of a venom-gland transcriptome from L. intermedia revealed that knottins, also known as inhibitor cystine knot peptides, are the most abundant class of toxins expressed in this species. Knottin peptides contain a particular arrangement of intramolecular disulphide bonds, and these peptides typically act upon ion channels or receptors in the insect nervous system, triggering paralysis or other lethal effects. Herein, we focused on a knottin peptide with 53 amino acid residues from L. intermedia venom. The recombinant peptide, named U2 -sicaritoxin-Li1b (Li1b), was obtained by expression in the periplasm of Escherichia coli. The recombinant peptide induced irreversible flaccid paralysis in sheep blowflies. We screened for knottin-encoding sequences in total RNA extracts from two other Loxosceles species, Loxosceles gaucho and Loxosceles laeta, which revealed that knottin peptides constitute a conserved family of toxins in the Loxosceles genus. The insecticidal activity of U2 -SCTX-Li1b, together with the large number of knottin peptides encoded in Loxosceles venom glands, suggests that studies of these venoms might facilitate future biotechnological applications of these toxins.
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Affiliation(s)
- F H Matsubara
- Department of Cell Biology, Federal University of Parana, Jardim das Américas, Curitiba, Paraná, Brazil
| | - G O Meissner
- Department of Cell Biology, Federal University of Parana, Jardim das Américas, Curitiba, Paraná, Brazil
- Institute for Molecular Bioscience, The University of Queensland, St. Lucia, QLD, Australia
| | - V Herzig
- Institute for Molecular Bioscience, The University of Queensland, St. Lucia, QLD, Australia
| | - H C Justa
- Department of Cell Biology, Federal University of Parana, Jardim das Américas, Curitiba, Paraná, Brazil
| | - B C L Dias
- Department of Cell Biology, Federal University of Parana, Jardim das Américas, Curitiba, Paraná, Brazil
| | - D Trevisan-Silva
- Department of Cell Biology, Federal University of Parana, Jardim das Américas, Curitiba, Paraná, Brazil
| | - L H Gremski
- Department of Cell Biology, Federal University of Parana, Jardim das Américas, Curitiba, Paraná, Brazil
| | - W Gremski
- Health and Biological Science Institute, Catholic University of Parana, Prado Velho, Curitiba, Paraná, Brazil
| | - A Senff-Ribeiro
- Department of Cell Biology, Federal University of Parana, Jardim das Américas, Curitiba, Paraná, Brazil
| | - O M Chaim
- Department of Cell Biology, Federal University of Parana, Jardim das Américas, Curitiba, Paraná, Brazil
| | - G F King
- Institute for Molecular Bioscience, The University of Queensland, St. Lucia, QLD, Australia
| | - S S Veiga
- Department of Cell Biology, Federal University of Parana, Jardim das Américas, Curitiba, Paraná, Brazil
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