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Gupta LK, Molla J, Prabhu AA. Story of Pore-Forming Proteins from Deadly Disease-Causing Agents to Modern Applications with Evolutionary Significance. Mol Biotechnol 2024; 66:1327-1356. [PMID: 37294530 DOI: 10.1007/s12033-023-00776-1] [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: 01/03/2023] [Accepted: 05/21/2023] [Indexed: 06/10/2023]
Abstract
Animal venoms are a complex mixture of highly specialized toxic molecules. Among them, pore-forming proteins (PFPs) or toxins (PFTs) are one of the major disease-causing toxic elements. The ability of the PFPs in defense and toxicity through pore formation on the host cell surface makes them unique among the toxin proteins. These features made them attractive for academic and research purposes for years in the areas of microbiology as well as structural biology. All the PFPs share a common mechanism of action for the attack of host cells and pore formation in which the selected pore-forming motifs of the host cell membrane-bound protein molecules drive to the lipid bilayer of the cell membrane and eventually produces water-filled pores. But surprisingly their sequence similarity is very poor. Their existence can be seen both in a soluble state and also in transmembrane complexes in the cell membrane. PFPs are prevalent toxic factors that are predominately produced by all kingdoms of life such as virulence bacteria, nematodes, fungi, protozoan parasites, frogs, plants, and also from higher organisms. Nowadays, multiple approaches to applications of PFPs have been conducted by researchers both in basic as well as applied biological research. Although PFPs are very devastating for human health nowadays researchers have been successful in making these toxic proteins into therapeutics through the preparation of immunotoxins. We have discussed the structural, and functional mechanism of action, evolutionary significance through dendrogram, domain organization, and practical applications for various approaches. This review aims to emphasize the PFTs to summarize toxic proteins together for basic knowledge as well as to highlight the current challenges, and literature gap along with the perspective of promising biotechnological applications for their future research.
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Affiliation(s)
- Laxmi Kumari Gupta
- Bioprocess Development Laboratory, Department of Biotechnology, National Institute of Technology Warangal, Warangal, Telangana, 506004, India
| | - Johiruddin Molla
- Ghatal Rabindra Satabarsiki Mahavidyalaya Ghatal, Paschim Medinipur, Ghatal, West Bengal, 721212, India
| | - Ashish A Prabhu
- Bioprocess Development Laboratory, Department of Biotechnology, National Institute of Technology Warangal, Warangal, Telangana, 506004, India.
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Zou J, Jing H, Zhang X, Liu Y, Zhao Z, Duan L, Yuan Y, Chen Z, Gou Q, Xiong Q, Li S, Yang F, Zeng H, Zou Q, Zhang J. α-Hemolysin-Aided Oligomerization of the Spike Protein RBD Resulted in Improved Immunogenicity and Neutralization Against SARS-CoV-2 Variants. Front Immunol 2021; 12:757691. [PMID: 34630436 PMCID: PMC8497984 DOI: 10.3389/fimmu.2021.757691] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/12/2021] [Accepted: 09/10/2021] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
The increase in confirmed COVID-19 cases and SARS-CoV-2 variants calls for the development of safe and broad cross-protective vaccines. The RBD of the spike protein was considered to be a safe and effective candidate antigen. However, the low immunogenicity limited its application in vaccine development. Herein, we designed and obtained an RBD heptamer (mHla-RBD) based on a carrier protein-aided assembly strategy. The molecular weight of mHla-RBD is up to 450 kDa, approximately 10 times higher than that of the RBD monomer. When formulated with alum adjuvant, mHla-RBD immunization significantly increased the immunogenicity of RBD, as indicated by increased titers of RBD-specific antibodies, neutralizing antibodies, Th2 cellular immune response, and pseudovirus neutralization activity, when compared to RBD monomer. Furthermore, we confirmed that RBD-specific antibodies predominantly target conformational epitopes, which was approximately 200 times that targeting linear epitopes. Finally, a pseudovirus neutralization assay revealed that neutralizing antibodies induced by mHla-RBD against different SARS-CoV-2 variants were comparable to those against the wild-type virus and showed broad-spectrum neutralizing activity toward different SARS-CoV-2 variants. Our results demonstrated that mHla-RBD is a promising candidate antigen for development of SARS-CoV-2 vaccines and the mHla could serve as a universal carrier protein for antigen design.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jintao Zou
- National Engineering Research Center of Immunological Products, Department of Microbiology and Biochemical Pharmacy, College of Pharmacy, Third Military Medical University, Chongqing, China
| | - Haiming Jing
- National Engineering Research Center of Immunological Products, Department of Microbiology and Biochemical Pharmacy, College of Pharmacy, Third Military Medical University, Chongqing, China
| | - Xiaoli Zhang
- Department of Clinical Hematology, College of Pharmacy, Third Military Medical University, Chongqing, China
| | - Yiheng Liu
- National Engineering Research Center of Immunological Products, Department of Microbiology and Biochemical Pharmacy, College of Pharmacy, Third Military Medical University, Chongqing, China
| | - Zhuo Zhao
- National Engineering Research Center of Immunological Products, Department of Microbiology and Biochemical Pharmacy, College of Pharmacy, Third Military Medical University, Chongqing, China
| | - Lianli Duan
- National Engineering Research Center of Immunological Products, Department of Microbiology and Biochemical Pharmacy, College of Pharmacy, Third Military Medical University, Chongqing, China
| | - Yue Yuan
- National Engineering Research Center of Immunological Products, Department of Microbiology and Biochemical Pharmacy, College of Pharmacy, Third Military Medical University, Chongqing, China
| | - Zhifu Chen
- National Engineering Research Center of Immunological Products, Department of Microbiology and Biochemical Pharmacy, College of Pharmacy, Third Military Medical University, Chongqing, China
| | - Qiang Gou
- National Engineering Research Center of Immunological Products, Department of Microbiology and Biochemical Pharmacy, College of Pharmacy, Third Military Medical University, Chongqing, China
| | - Qingshan Xiong
- National Engineering Research Center of Immunological Products, Department of Microbiology and Biochemical Pharmacy, College of Pharmacy, Third Military Medical University, Chongqing, China
| | - Sisi Li
- National Engineering Research Center of Immunological Products, Department of Microbiology and Biochemical Pharmacy, College of Pharmacy, Third Military Medical University, Chongqing, China
| | - Feng Yang
- National Engineering Research Center of Immunological Products, Department of Microbiology and Biochemical Pharmacy, College of Pharmacy, Third Military Medical University, Chongqing, China
| | - Hao Zeng
- National Engineering Research Center of Immunological Products, Department of Microbiology and Biochemical Pharmacy, College of Pharmacy, Third Military Medical University, Chongqing, China
| | - Quanming Zou
- National Engineering Research Center of Immunological Products, Department of Microbiology and Biochemical Pharmacy, College of Pharmacy, Third Military Medical University, Chongqing, China
| | - Jinyong Zhang
- National Engineering Research Center of Immunological Products, Department of Microbiology and Biochemical Pharmacy, College of Pharmacy, Third Military Medical University, Chongqing, China
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