1
|
Behzadipour Y, Hemmati S. Covalent conjugation and non-covalent complexation strategies for intracellular delivery of proteins using cell-penetrating peptides. Biomed Pharmacother 2024; 176:116910. [PMID: 38852512 DOI: 10.1016/j.biopha.2024.116910] [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: 04/03/2024] [Revised: 06/03/2024] [Accepted: 06/06/2024] [Indexed: 06/11/2024] Open
Abstract
Therapeutic proteins provided new opportunities for patients and high sales volumes. However, they are formulated for extracellular targets. The lipophilic barrier of the plasma membrane renders the vast array of intracellular targets out of reach. Peptide-based delivery systems, namely cell-penetrating peptides (CPPs), have few safety concerns, and low immunogenicity, with control over administered doses. This study investigates CPP-based protein delivery systems by classifying them into CPP-protein "covalent conjugation" and CPP: protein "non-covalent complexation" categories. Covalent conjugates ensure the proximity of the CPP to the cargo, which can improve cellular uptake and endosomal escape. We will discuss various aspects of covalent conjugates through non-cleavable (stable) or cleavable bonds. Non-cleavable CPP-protein conjugates are produced by recombinant DNA technology to express the complete fusion protein in a host cell or by chemical ligation of CPP and protein, which ensures stability during the delivery process. CPP-protein cleavable bonds are classified into pH-sensitive and redox-sensitive bonds, enzyme-cleavable bonds, and physical stimuli cleavable linkers (light radiation, ultrasonic waves, and thermo-responsive). We have highlighted the key characteristics of non-covalent complexes through electrostatic and hydrophobic interactions to preserve the conformational integrity of the CPP and cargo. CPP-mediated protein delivery by non-covalent complexation, such as zippers, CPP adaptor methods, and avidin-biotin technology, are featured. Conclusively, non-covalent complexation methods are appropriate when a high number of CPP or protein samples are to be screened. In contrast, when the high biological activity of the protein is critical in the intracellular compartment, conjugation protocols are preferred.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Yasaman Behzadipour
- Student Research Committee, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Islamic Republic of Iran; Department of Pharmaceutical Biotechnology, School of Pharmacy, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Islamic Republic of Iran
| | - Shiva Hemmati
- Department of Pharmaceutical Biotechnology, School of Pharmacy, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Islamic Republic of Iran; Biotechnology Research Center, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Islamic Republic of Iran.
| |
Collapse
|
2
|
Geng J, Xia X, Teng L, Wang L, Chen L, Guo X, Belingon B, Li J, Feng X, Li X, Shang W, Wan Y, Wang H. Emerging landscape of cell-penetrating peptide-mediated nucleic acid delivery and their utility in imaging, gene-editing, and RNA-sequencing. J Control Release 2022; 341:166-183. [PMID: 34822907 DOI: 10.1016/j.jconrel.2021.11.032] [Citation(s) in RCA: 24] [Impact Index Per Article: 12.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/25/2021] [Revised: 11/17/2021] [Accepted: 11/18/2021] [Indexed: 12/11/2022]
Abstract
The safety issues like immunogenicity and unacceptable cancer risk of viral vectors for DNA/mRNA vaccine delivery necessitate the development of non-viral vectors with no toxicity. Among the non-viral strategies, cell-penetrating peptides (CPPs) have been a topic of interest recently because of their ability to cross plasma membranes and facilitate nucleic acids delivery both in vivo and in vitro. In addition to the application in the field of gene vaccine and gene therapy, CPPs based nucleic acids delivery have been proved by its potential application like gene editing, RNA-sequencing, and imaging. Here, we focus on summarizing the recent applications and progress of CPPs-mediated nucleic acids delivery and discuss the current problems and solutions in this field.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Jingping Geng
- Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Medical School, China Three Gorges University, Yichang 443002, China; Hubei Key Laboratory of Tumor Microenvironment and Immunotherapy, China Three Gorges University, Yichang 443002, China
| | - Xuan Xia
- Department of Physiology and Pathophysiology, Medical School, China Three Gorges University, Yichang 443002, China
| | - Lin Teng
- Department of Cardiovascular Medicine, The First Clinical Medical College of China Three Gorges University, Yichang 443002, China
| | - Lidan Wang
- Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Medical School, China Three Gorges University, Yichang 443002, China; Hubei Key Laboratory of Tumor Microenvironment and Immunotherapy, China Three Gorges University, Yichang 443002, China
| | - Linlin Chen
- Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Medical School, China Three Gorges University, Yichang 443002, China; Hubei Key Laboratory of Tumor Microenvironment and Immunotherapy, China Three Gorges University, Yichang 443002, China; Affiliated Ren He Hospital of China Three Gorges University, Yichang 443002, China
| | - Xiangli Guo
- Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Medical School, China Three Gorges University, Yichang 443002, China; Hubei Key Laboratory of Tumor Microenvironment and Immunotherapy, China Three Gorges University, Yichang 443002, China
| | - Bonn Belingon
- Institute of Cell Engineering, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 21210, USA
| | - Jason Li
- Department of Biology, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 21210, USA
| | - Xuemei Feng
- Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Medical School, China Three Gorges University, Yichang 443002, China; Hubei Key Laboratory of Tumor Microenvironment and Immunotherapy, China Three Gorges University, Yichang 443002, China
| | - Xianghui Li
- Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Medical School, China Three Gorges University, Yichang 443002, China; Hubei Key Laboratory of Tumor Microenvironment and Immunotherapy, China Three Gorges University, Yichang 443002, China
| | - Wendou Shang
- Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Medical School, China Three Gorges University, Yichang 443002, China; Hubei Key Laboratory of Tumor Microenvironment and Immunotherapy, China Three Gorges University, Yichang 443002, China
| | - Yingying Wan
- Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Medical School, China Three Gorges University, Yichang 443002, China; Hubei Key Laboratory of Tumor Microenvironment and Immunotherapy, China Three Gorges University, Yichang 443002, China
| | - Hu Wang
- Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Medical School, China Three Gorges University, Yichang 443002, China.
| |
Collapse
|
3
|
Lobaina Y, Urquiza D, Garay H, Perera Y, Yang K. Evaluation of Cell-Penetrating Peptides as Mucosal Immune Enhancers for Nasal Vaccination. Int J Pept Res Ther 2021; 27:2873-2882. [PMID: 34658688 PMCID: PMC8511864 DOI: 10.1007/s10989-021-10296-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 09/29/2021] [Indexed: 11/09/2022]
Abstract
Cell-penetrating peptides (CPPs) have been evaluated as enhancers in drug delivery, their addition in medical formulations favors drug absorption allowing obtaining the pharmacological effect with lower doses. In vaccine formulations their inclusion has been also explored with interesting results. Currently mucosal vaccination constitutes a promising alternative with the main advantage of inducing both systemic and mucosal immune responses, which are crucial for control tumors and infections at mucosal tissues. In the present work the nasal immune-enhancing effect of four CPPs was evaluated in Balb/c mice. Animals were intranasally immunized with CPP and the recombinant hepatitis B surface protein (HBsAg) as model antigen. The antibody response in sera and mucosal tissue was measured by ELISA. The IFN-γ secretion response at spleen was also evaluated by ELISPOT and ELISA. Among the CPPs studied one novel peptide stand out by its ability to potentiate the humoral and cellular immune response against the co-administered antigen. Considering that the use of mucosal routes is a promising strategy in vaccination, which are gaining special relevance nowadays in the development of novel candidates against SARS-CoV-2 and other potential emerging respiratory virus, the searching and development of safe mucosal adjuvants constitute a current need.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Yadira Lobaina
- Biomedical Research Division, Vaccine Department, Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (CIGB), 10600 Havana, Cuba.,China-Cuba Biotechnology Joint Innovation Center (CCBJIC), Yongzhou Zhong Gu Biotechnology Co., Ltd, Lengshuitan District, Yongzhou City, 425000 Hunan Province China
| | - Dioslaida Urquiza
- Animal Facilities, Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, 10600 Havana, Cuba
| | - Hilda Garay
- Biomedical Research Division, Peptide Synthesis Lab, Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, 10600 Havana, Cuba
| | - Yasser Perera
- Biomedical Research Division, Pharmaceutical Department, Molecular Oncology Group, Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, 10600 Havana, Cuba.,China-Cuba Biotechnology Joint Innovation Center (CCBJIC), Yongzhou Zhong Gu Biotechnology Co., Ltd, Lengshuitan District, Yongzhou City, 425000 Hunan Province China
| | - Ke Yang
- China-Cuba Biotechnology Joint Innovation Center (CCBJIC), Yongzhou Zhong Gu Biotechnology Co., Ltd, Lengshuitan District, Yongzhou City, 425000 Hunan Province China
| |
Collapse
|
4
|
Namazi F, Bolhassani A, Sadat SM, Irani S. Delivery of HIV-1 Polyepitope Constructs Using Cationic and Amphipathic Cell Penetrating Peptides into Mammalian Cells. Curr HIV Res 2020; 17:408-428. [DOI: 10.2174/1570162x17666191121114522] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/12/2019] [Revised: 11/06/2019] [Accepted: 11/13/2019] [Indexed: 12/14/2022]
Abstract
Background:
An effective vaccine against human immunodeficiency virus 1 (HIV-1) is
an important global health priority. Despite many efforts in the development of the HIV-1 vaccine,
no effective vaccine has been approved yet. Recently, polyepitope vaccines including several immunogenic
and conserved epitopes of HIV-1 proteins have received special attention.
Methods:
In this study, HIV-1 Nef, Tat, Gp160 and P24 proteins were considered for selection of
immunodominant and conserved epitopes due to their critical roles in the viral life cycle and pathogenesis.
At first, the Nef60-84-Nef126-144-Tat29-49-Gp16030-53-Gp160308-323-P248-151 DNA construct was
designed using in silico studies. Then, the DNA construct was subcloned in pEGFP-N1 and pET-
24a (+) expression vectors and the rNef-Tat-Gp160-P24 polyepitope peptide was generated in E.coli
expression system for in vitro delivery using novel cell-penetrating peptides (CPPs), LDP-NLS and
CyLoP-1, in a non-covalent manner. Also, the HR9 and MPG CPPs were used to transfer the DNA
construct.
Results:
Our results showed that the recombinant polyepitope peptide generated in Rosetta strain
migrated as a clear band of ~31 kDa in SDS-PAGE. The SEM data confirmed the formation of stable
nanoparticles with a size below 250 nm. MTT assay revealed that the complexes did not represent
any considerable cytotoxic effect compared to untreated cells. The results of fluorescence microscopy,
flow cytometry and western blotting indicated that these CPPs successfully delivered polyepitope
constructs into HEK-293T cell line.
Conclusion:
These data suggested that these CPPs can be used as a promising approach for the development
of the HIV-1 vaccine.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Fatemeh Namazi
- Department of Biology, School of Basic Sciences, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran
| | - Azam Bolhassani
- Department of Hepatitis and AIDS, Pasteur Institute of Iran, Tehran, Iran
| | - Seyed Mehdi Sadat
- Department of Hepatitis and AIDS, Pasteur Institute of Iran, Tehran, Iran
| | - Shiva Irani
- Department of Biology, School of Basic Sciences, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran
| |
Collapse
|
5
|
Kardani K, Hashemi A, Bolhassani A. Comparison of HIV-1 Vif and Vpu accessory proteins for delivery of polyepitope constructs harboring Nef, Gp160 and P24 using various cell penetrating peptides. PLoS One 2019; 14:e0223844. [PMID: 31671105 PMCID: PMC6822742 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0223844] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/11/2019] [Accepted: 09/30/2019] [Indexed: 02/06/2023] Open
Abstract
To develop an effective therapeutic vaccine against HIV-1, prediction of the most conserved epitopes derived from major proteins using bioinformatics tools is an alternative achievement. The epitope-driven vaccines against variable pathogens represented successful results. Hence, to overcome this hyper-variable virus, we designed the highly conserved and immunodominant peptide epitopes. Two servers were used to predict peptide-MHC-I binding affinity including NetMHCpan4.0 and Syfpeithi servers. The NetMHCIIpan3.2 server was utilized for MHC-II binding affinity. Then, we determined immunogenicity scores and allergenicity by the IEDB immunogenicity predictor and Algpred, respectively. Next, for estimation of toxicity and population coverage, ToxinPred server and IEDB population coverage tool were applied. After that, the MHC-peptide binding was investigated by GalexyPepDock peptide-protein flexible docking server. Finally, two different DNA and peptide constructs containing Nef-Vif-Gp160-P24 and Nef-Vpu-Gp160-P24 were prepared and complexed with four various cell penetrating peptides (CPPs) for delivery into mammalian cells (MPG and HR9 CPPs for DNA delivery, and CyLoP-1 and LDP-NLS CPPs for protein delivery). Our results indicated that the designed DNA and peptide constructs could form non-covalent stable nanoparticles at certain ratios as observed by scanning electron microscope (SEM) and Zetasizer. The flow cytometry results obtained from in vitro transfection of the nanoparticles into HEK-293T cell lines showed that the percentage of GFP expressing cells was about 38.38 ± 1.34%, 25.36% ± 0.30, 54.95% ± 0.84, and 25.11% ± 0.36 for MPG/pEGFP-nef-vif-gp160-p24, MPG/pEGFP-nef-vpu-gp160-p24, HR9/pEGFP-nef-vif-gp160-p24 and HR9/pEGFP-nef-vpu-gp160-p24, respectively. Thus, these data showed that the DNA construct harboring nef-vif-gp160-p24 multi-epitope gene had higher efficiency than the DNA construct harboring nef-vpu-gp160-p24 multi-epitope gene to penetrate into the cells. Moreover, delivery of the recombinant Nef-Vif-Gp160-P24 and Nef-Vpu-Gp160-P24 polyepitope peptides in HEK-293T cells was confirmed as a single band about 32 kDa using western blot analysis. Although, both DNA and peptide constructs could be successfully transported by a variety of CPPs into the cells, but the difference between them in transfection rate will influence the levels of immune responses for development of therapeutic vaccines.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Kimia Kardani
- Department of Pharmaceutical Biotechnology, School of Pharmacy, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
| | - Atieh Hashemi
- Department of Pharmaceutical Biotechnology, School of Pharmacy, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
| | - Azam Bolhassani
- Department of Hepatitis and AIDS, Pasteur Institute of Iran, Tehran, Iran
| |
Collapse
|
6
|
Kardani K, Milani A, H Shabani S, Bolhassani A. Cell penetrating peptides: the potent multi-cargo intracellular carriers. Expert Opin Drug Deliv 2019; 16:1227-1258. [PMID: 31583914 DOI: 10.1080/17425247.2019.1676720] [Citation(s) in RCA: 113] [Impact Index Per Article: 22.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/18/2022]
Abstract
Introduction: Cell penetrating peptides (CPPs) known as protein translocation domains (PTD), membrane translocating sequences (MTS), or Trojan peptides (TP) are able to cross biological membranes without clear toxicity using different mechanisms, and facilitate the intracellular delivery of a variety of bioactive cargos. CPPs could overcome some limitations of drug delivery and combat resistant strains against a broad range of diseases. Despite delivery of different therapeutic molecules by CPPs, they lack cell specificity and have a short duration of action. These limitations led to design of combined cargo delivery systems and subsequently improvement of their clinical applications. Areas covered: This review covers all our studies and other researchers in different aspects of CPPs such as classification, uptake mechanisms, and biomedical applications. Expert opinion: Due to low cytotoxicity of CPPs as compared to other carriers and final degradation to amino acids, they are suitable for preclinical and clinical studies. Generally, the efficiency of CPPs was suitable to penetrate the cell membrane and deliver different cargos to specific intracellular sites. However, no CPP-based therapeutic approach has approved by FDA, yet; because there are some disadvantages for CPPs including short half-life in blood, and nonspecific CPP-mediated delivery to normal tissue. Thus, some methods were used to develop the functions of CPPs in vitro and in vivo including the augmentation of cell specificity by activatable CPPs, specific transport into cell organelles by insertion of corresponding localization sequences, incorporation of CPPs into multifunctional dendrimeric or liposomal nanocarriers to improve selectivity and efficiency especially in tumor cells.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Kimia Kardani
- Department of Hepatitis and AIDS, Pasteur Institute of Iran , Tehran , Iran
| | - Alireza Milani
- Department of Hepatitis and AIDS, Pasteur Institute of Iran , Tehran , Iran
| | - Samaneh H Shabani
- Department of Hepatitis and AIDS, Pasteur Institute of Iran , Tehran , Iran
| | - Azam Bolhassani
- Department of Hepatitis and AIDS, Pasteur Institute of Iran , Tehran , Iran
| |
Collapse
|
7
|
Namazi F, Bolhassani A, Sadat SM, Irani S. In vitro Delivery of HIV-1 Nef Antigen by Histidine-rich nona-arginine and Latarcin 1 peptide. JOURNAL OF MEDICAL MICROBIOLOGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES 2019. [DOI: 10.29252/jommid.7.4.107] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/21/2022] Open
|