Reduced protease activity in transformed rice cell suspension cultures expressing a proteinase inhibitor

In this study, we synthesized a synthetic serine proteinase inhibitor II gene (sPI-II) that harbored the chymotrypsin and trypsin inhibitor domains of the PI-II gene from Nicotiana alata. In an effort to reduce protease activity in a rice cell suspension culture, we first synthesized sPI-II using overlap PCR and then introduced the gene into a rice calli (Oryza sativa L. cv. Dongin) by particle bombardment-mediated transformation. The sPI-II gene was under the control of a rice alpha-amylase 3D promoter induced by sugar starvation. To verify the integration and expression of the sPI-II gene in the transformed rice cells, we employed genomic DNA PCR amplification and Northern blot analysis, respectively. The relative protease activity of the transformed cell suspension culture was reduced to approximately 23% when compared to the non-transformed culture. This indicates that a transformed suspension culture system expressing a proteinase inhibitor, may be a useful tool to protect against recombinant protein losses resulting from extracellular proteases.     

High level of expression of recombinant human granulocyte-macrophage colony stimulating factor in transgenic rice cell suspension culture

Recombinant human granulocyte-macrophage colony stimulating factor (hGM-CSF) has been previously produced in tobacco cell suspension cultures. However, the amount of hGM-CSF accumulated in the culture medium dropped quickly from its maximum of 150 microg/L at 5 d after incubation. To overcome this problem, we sought an expression system in which heterologous gene expression could be induced at high levels. We selected a rice amylase expression system in which the promoter Ramy3D is induced to express recombinant protein by sucrose starvation. This induction system was found to give good yield of recombinant hGM-CSF in transgenic rice cell suspension culture and protease activity of this culture medium was low compared to that of tobacco culture system.     

重组人粒细胞——巨噬细胞集落刺激因子的分离与纯化

探讨重组人粒－巨噬细胞集落刺激因子的分离、纯化工艺。实验所得工艺流程为：离收收集菌体、超声破菌、溶解复性后以３步色谱法即疏水作用色谱、离子交换色谱、凝胶过滤精制纯化,终产品过滤除菌。所得产物用ＨＰＬＣ及ＳＤＳ－ＰＡＧＥ分析,纯度大于９９％;与生白能对照测得其生物活性为１．５９＊１０＾７－１．８６＊１０＾７Ｕ／ｍｇ;产品的急性毒性实验及热原检测均符合要求。此工艺有一定的实用价值。     

Expression of human growth hormone in transgenic rice cell suspension culture

Human growth hormone (hGH), a pituitary-derived polypeptide, evidences a wide range of biological functions, including protein synthesis, cell proliferation, and metabolism. A synthetic hGH gene (shGH) has been synthesized on the basis of plant-optimized codon usage via an overlap PCR strategy and located in a plant expression vector under the control of the rice amylase 3D (Ramy3D) promoter, which is induced by sugar starvation. The plant expression vector was introduced into rice calli (Oryza sativa L. cv. Donjin) via particle bombardment transformation methods. The integration of the shGH gene into the chromosome of the transgenic rice callus was verified via genomic DNA PCR amplification and shGH expression in transgenic rice suspension cells was confirmed via Northern blot analysis. The shGH protein was detected in the transgenic rice cell suspension culture medium following induction with sugar starvation, using Western blot analysis. The quantity of shGH that accumulated in the transgenic rice cell suspension medium was 57 mg/l. The shGH accumulated in the transgenic rice cell suspension culture medium evidenced a biological activity similar to that of Escherichia coli-derived recombinant hGH. These results indicate that the shGH was generated and accumulated in the transgenic rice cell suspension culture medium, and manifested biological activity.     

Production and secretion of biologically active human granulocyte-macrophage colony stimulating factor in transgenic tomato suspension cultures

A complementary DNA encoding human granulocyte-macrophage colony stimulating factor (hGM-CSF) was cloned and introduced into tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum cv. Seokwang) using Agrobacterium-mediated transformation. Genomic PCR and Northern blot analysis demonstrated the integration of the construction into the plant nuclear genome and expression of the hGM-CSF in transgenic tomato. The cell suspension culture was established from leaf-derived calli of the transgenic tomato plants transformed with the hGM-CSF gene. Recombinant hGM-CSF was synthesized by the transgenic cell culture and secreted into the growth medium at 45 g l^–1 after 10 d' cultivation.     

A simple purification procedure of biologically active recombinant human granulocyte macrophage colony stimulating factor (hGM-CSF) secreted in rice cell suspension culture

A simple purification procedure of bioactive human granulocyte macrophage colony stimulating factor (hGM-CSF) secreted in rice cell suspension culture has previously been described. In this study the protein was purified to apparent homogeneity with an overall yield of 80.1% by ammonium sulfate precipitation and a single chromatographic step involving FPLC-anion exchange chromatography. The purified hGM-CSF revealed at least five glycosylated forms ranging from 21.5∼29 kDa, and its biological activity was independent of the glycosylation pattern. This is the first purification report of recombinant hGM-CSF to apparent homogeneity from rice cell suspension cultures.     

Partitioning of recombinant human granulocyte-macrophage colony stimulating factor (hGM-CSF) from plant cell suspension culture in PEG/sodium phosphate aqueous two-phase systems

Partitioning of human granulocyte-macrophage colony stimulating factor (hGM-CSF) was achieved in the aqueous two-phase systems (ATPSs) using a crude extract of transgenic tobacco cell suspension culture. This study examined the effects of polyethylene glycol (PEG) molecular weight and concentration and the effects of sodium phosphate concentration in different PEG/sodium phosphate systems on the partition coefficient,K. The best ATPS system was 5% PEG 8,000/1.6 M sodium phosphate after 2 h of incubation at room temperature. In this system, hGM-CSF was partitioned in the PEG-rich phase with a yield of 57.99% andK _hGM-CSF of 8.12. In another system, 3% PEG 10,000/1.6 M sodium phosphate, hGM-CSF was also partitioned primarily in the top phase with a yield of 45.66% andK _hGM-CSF of 7.64 after 2 h of incubation at room temperature.     

Oral administration of recombinant human granulocyte-macrophage colony stimulating factor expressed in rice endosperm can increase leukocytes in mice

Human granulocyte-macrophage colony stimulating factor (hGM-CSF) is used clinically to treat leucopenia typically caused by cancer chemotherapy or radiotherapy. This study used multiple strategies to obtain very high expression levels of OsrhGM-CSF (14 mug/seed) in rice endosperm. Electron micrographs of immunogold-labeled transgenic endosperm showed that rhGM-CSF was not only localized in protein bodies but was also distributed in the apoplast. A biological activity assay indicated that OsrhGM-CSF stimulated the growth of TF-1 cells in vitro. In addition, the transgene was used to effectively treat leucopenia by oral administration of the unprocessed transgenic grains. In cyclophosphamide-induced leucopenic mice, transgenic seeds produced a 27% (t = 0.021) gain in leukocytes after 14 days feeding. Even in non-leucopenic mice, leukocyte gain was 37% (t = 0.002) more than that of mice fed non-transgenic seeds. This study provides a novel approach to the use of oral unprocessed transgenic OsrhGM-CSF seeds to treat leucopenia.     

Production of bioactive human granulocyte-colony stimulating factor in transgenic rice cell suspension cultures

Human granulocyte-colony stimulating factor (hG-CSF), a human cytokine, was expressed in transgenic rice cell suspension culture. The hG-CSF gene was cloned into the rice expression vector containing the promoter, signal peptide, and terminator derived from a rice alpha-amylase gene Amy3D. Using particle bombardment-mediated transformation, hG-CSF gene was introduced into the calli of rice (Oryza sativa) cultivar Dong-jin. Expression of the hG-CSF gene was confirmed by ELISA and Northern blot analysis. The amount of recombinant hG-CSF accumulated in culture medium from transgenic rice cell suspension culture on the sugar starvation was determined by time series ELISA. Biological activity of the plant derived hG-CSF was confirmed by measuring the proliferation of the AML-193 cells, and was similar to that of the commercial Escherichia coli-derived hG-CSF. In this paper, we discuss the attractive attributes of using rice cell suspension system for the expression of therapeutic recombinant hG-CSF.     

Bioreactor operation for transgenic Nicotiana tabacum cell cultures and continuous production of recombinant human granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor by perfusion culture

The production of hGM-CSF was investigated in both a flask and a 5-l bioreactor, using transgenic Nicotiana tabacum suspension cells. While the maximum cell density and secreted hGM-CSF in the flask were 15.4 g l⁻¹ and 6.5 μg l⁻¹, respectively, those in the bioreactor were 15.6 g l⁻¹ and 7.6 μg l⁻¹. No detectable growth inhibition, shorter production of hGM-CSF and reduced cell viability in the batch bioreactor were observed under the specific conditions used compared with the flask culture. To improve the productivity, a perfusion culture was carried out in the bioreactor, with three different perfusion rates (0.5, 1.0 and 2.0 day⁻¹). In all cases, the hGM-CSF in the medium was significantly increased during the overall culture period (16 days), with maximum values 3.0-, 9.4- and 6.0-fold higher than those obtained in the batch cultures, respectively, even though the intracellular hGM-CSF content was not significantly varied by the perfusion rate. In terms of the total amount of hGM-CSF secreted, 205.5, 1073.2 and 1246.3 μg accumulated in the perfusate within 16 days at the perfusion rates of 0.5, 1.0 and 2.0 day⁻¹, respectively. It was concluded that the beneficial effect of perfusion on the production of hGM-CSF originated from the reduced proteolytic degradation due to the lower protease activity caused by the perfusion. Additionally, the cell growth and physiology in the perfusion culture were somewhat negatively affected by the increased perfusion rate, although the dry cell density steadily increased, and as a result, 19.4, 22.4 and 22.9 g l⁻¹ of maximum cells were obtained with perfusion rates of 0.5, 1.0 and 2.0 day⁻¹, respectively. This work highlighted the importance of proteolytic degradation in plant cell cultures for the production of secretory proteins and the feasibility of perfusion strategies for the continuous production of foreign proteins by the prevention of protein loss due to proteolytic enzymes.     

Production of mouse granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor by gateway technology and transgenic rice cell culture

To establish a production platform for recombinant proteins in rice suspension cells, we first constructed a Gateway-compatible binary T-DNA destination vector. It provided a reliable and effective method for the rapid directional cloning of target genes into plant cells through Agrobacterium-mediated transformation. We used the approach to produce mouse granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (mGM-CSF) in a rice suspension cell system. The promoter for the αAmy3 amylase gene, which is induced strongly by sugar depletion, drove the expression of mGM-CSF. The resulting recombinant protein was fused with the αAmy3 signal peptide and was secreted into the culture medium. The production of rice-derived mGM-CSF (rmGM-CSF) was scaled up successfully in a 2-L bioreactor, in which the highest yield of rmGM-CSF was 24.6 mg/L. Due to post-translational glycosylation, the molecular weight of rmGM-CSF was larger than that of recombinant mGM-CSF produced in Escherichia coli. The rmGM-CSF was bioactive and could stimulate the proliferation of a murine myeloblastic leukemia cell line, NSF-60.     

Sugar response element enhances wound response of potato proteinase inhibitor II promoter in transgenic tobacco

The promoter region of the potato proteinase inhibitor II (PI-II) gene was studied to identifycis-acting regulatory sequences involved in sugar response using transgenic tobacco plants. The 5 control region covering an 892 nucleotide sequence upstream from the cap site and a 32 nucleotide untranslated region of the PI-II promoter was able to activate a reporter chloramphenicol acetyltransferase (cat) gene by wounding or by incubating in a sugar-free medium. This wound response was further enhanced by sugar. Hexoses, disaccharides, and some trisaccharides were strong inducers whereas pentoses, deoxy sugars, sugar acids, TCA cycle intermediates, amino acids, and other carbohydrates had little effect on the promoter activity. Deletion of the sequence between-892 and-573 abolished the wound response but not the sugar response. An additional 5 deletion to-453 removed the sugar inducibility. Locations of thecis-acting regulatory elements were further elucidated by 3 deletion analysis. Deletion of the downstream region from-520 did not affect the wound of sugar response of the promoter. However, 3 deletion mutant-574 was unable to respond to sugar but did respond weakly to wounding. Further deletion to-624 abolished both responses. Therefore, it can be concluded that a wound response element is located in between-624 and-574 and that the response is further enhanced by a sugar response element located in the sequence between-573 and-520.     

Production of recombinant human granulocyte macrophage-colony stimulating factor in rice cell suspension culture with a human-like N-glycan structure

The rice α-amylase 3D promoter system, which is activated under sucrose-starved conditions, has emerged as a useful system for producing recombinant proteins. However, using rice as the production system for therapeutic proteins requires modifications of the N-glycosylation pattern because of the potential immunogenicity of plant-specific sugar residues. In this study, glyco-engineered rice were generated as a production host for therapeutic glycoproteins, using RNA interference (RNAi) technology to down-regulate the endogenous α-1,3-fucosyltransferase (α-1,3-FucT) and β-1,2-xylosyltransferase (β-1,2-XylT) genes. N-linked glycans from the RNAi lines were identified, and their structures were compared with those isolated from a wild-type cell suspension. The inverted-repeat chimeric RNA silencing construct of α-1,3-fucosyltransferase and β-1,2-xylosyltransferase (Δ3FT/XT)-9 glyco-engineered line with significantly reduced core α-1,3-fucosylated and/or β-1,2-xylosylated glycan structures was established. Moreover, levels of plant-specific α-1,3-fucose and/or β-1,2-xylose residues incorporated into recombinant human granulocyte/macrophage colony-stimulating factor (hGM-CSF) produced from the N44 + Δ3FT/XT-4 glyco-engineered line co-expressing ihpRNA of Δ3FT/XT and hGM-CSF were significantly decreased compared with those in the previously reported N44-08 transgenic line expressing hGM-CSF. None of the glyco-engineered lines differed from the wild type with respect to cell division, proliferation or ability to secrete proteins into the culture medium.     

High-level production of recombinant trypsin in transgenic rice cell culture through utilization of an alternative carbon source and recycling system

Productivity of recombinant bovine trypsin using a rice amylase 3D promoter has been studied in transgenic rice suspension culture. Alternative carbon sources were added to rice cell suspension cultures in order to improve the production of recombinant bovine trypsin. It was demonstrated that addition of alternative carbon sources such as succinic acid, fumaric acid and malic acid in the culture medium could increase the productivity of recombinant bovine trypsin 3.8–4.3-fold compared to those in the control medium without carbon sources. The highest accumulated trypsin reached 68.2 mg/L on day 5 in the culture medium with 40 mM fumaric acid.The feasibility of repeated use of the cells for recombinant trypsin production was tested in transgenic rice cell suspension culture with the culture medium containing the combination of variable sucrose concentration and 40 mM fumaric acid. Among the used combinations, the combination of 1% sucrose and 40 mM fumaric acid resulted in a yield of up to 53 mg/L five days after incubation. It also increased 31% (W/W) of dry cell weight and improved 43% of cell viability compared to that in control medium without sucrose. Based on these data, recycling of the trypsin production process with repeated 1% sucrose and 40 mM fumaric acid supplying-harvesting cycles was developed in flask scale culture. Recombinant bovine trypsin could be stably produced with a yield of up to 53–39 mg/L per cycle during five recycling cycles.     

High levels of stable phytase accumulate in the culture medium of transgenic Medicago truncatula cell suspension cultures

The use of plants for production of recombinant proteins is becoming widely accepted. More recently, plant cell cultures have been proposed as valuable systems for producing a wide range of biologically active proteins. Such systems provide certain advantages over whole plants, but yields are still considered a limitation. In this study we established a Medicago truncatula cell suspension line expressing phytase from Aspergillus niger. Phytase is an N-glycosylated enzyme that breaks down indigestible phytate, resulting in an increased availability of phosphorus and other minerals in monogastric animals and reduced levels of phosphorus output in their manure. Various production systems have previously been used to express heterologous phytase, including several plant species. In this work, remarkable amounts of enzymatically active recombinant phytase were produced and secreted into the culture medium. Recombinant phytase accumulated to at least 25 mg/L and remained stable along the growth curve, and an enriched fraction with high enzymatic activity was easily obtained. We therefore propose M. truncatula cell suspension cultures as a potential system for the production of recombinant proteins. Most importantly, we have shown that, contrary to general belief, it is possible to achieve high levels of a functional recombinant protein in plant cell culture systems.     

Improved expression and purification of recombinant human serum albumin from transgenic tobacco suspension culture

Most human serum albumin (HSA) for medical applications is derived from human plasma due to the lack of suitable heterologous expression systems for recombinant HSA (rHSA). To determine whether plant cell cultures could provide an alternative source, we employed the hyper-translatable cowpea mosaic virus protein expression system (CPMV-HT) to stably express rHSA in tobacco Bright Yellow-2 (BY-2) cells. rHSA was stably produced with yield up to 11.88 μg/ml in the culture medium, accounting for 0.7% of total soluble protein, in a 25-ml flask. Cultivation of transgenic cells in modified Murashige and Skoog medium with a pH of 8.0 improved the yield of rHSA two-fold, which may be the result of reduced proteolytic activity in the modified medium. A simple purification scheme was developed to purify the rHSA from culture medium, resulting in a recovery of 48.41% of the secreted rHSA. Matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry and N-terminal sequence analysis of the purified rHSA revealed that plant cell-derived rHSA is identical to that of the plasma-derived HSA. Our results show that the CPMV-HT system, which was originally developed as a transient expression system for use in whole plants, can also be used for high-level expression of rHSA, a protein highly susceptible to proteolysis, in transgenic tobacco cells.     

An in-built proteinase inhibitor system for the protection of recombinant proteins recovered from transgenic plants

Proteolytic degradation represents a significant barrier to the efficient production of several recombinant proteins in plants, both in vivo during their expression and in vitro during their recovery from source tissues. Here, we describe a strategy to protect recombinant proteins during the recovery process, based on the coexpression of a heterologous proteinase inhibitor acting as a 'mouse trap' against the host proteases during extraction. After confirming the importance of trypsin- and chymotrypsin-like activities in crude protein extracts of potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) leaves, transgenic lines of potato expressing either tomato cathepsin D inhibitor (CDI) or bovine aprotinin, both active against trypsin and chymotrypsin, were generated by Agrobacterium tumefaciens-mediated genetic transformation. Leaf crude protein extracts from CDI-expressing lines, showing decreased levels of cathepsin D-like and ribulose 1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase hydrolysing activities in vitro, conducted decreased turnover rates of the selection marker protein neomycin phosphotransferase II (NPTII) relative to the turnover rates measured for transgenic lines expressing only the marker protein. A similar stabilizing effect on NPTII was observed in leaf protein extracts from plant lines coexpressing bovine aprotinin, confirming the ability of ectopically expressed broad-spectrum serine proteinase inhibitors to reproduce the protein-stabilizing effect of low-molecular-weight proteinase inhibitors generally added to protein extraction media.     

Expression of bioactive human interferon-gamma in transgenic rice cell suspension cultures

We investigated the possibility of producing the therapeutic recombinant cytokine, Interferon-gamma (IFN-), in transgenic rice cell (Oryza sativa, cultivar TNG67) suspension cultures. We tested expression of two vector constructs, each harboring an Amy3 leader peptide and a C-terminus His 6 tag fused to a human IFN- cDNA, one driven by a sucrose-starvation inducible promoter (rice Amy3 promoter) and the other by a constitutive maize ubiquitin promoter, in rice cell suspensions, introduced via Agrobacterium tumefaciens. There was a significant difference in the amounts of recombinant IFN- protein produced by the Ups and Amy cell lines, as cytosolic and secretory proteins respectively. Immunological analysis of IFN- recombinant protein conferred a dose-dependent anti-dengue virus activity in human A549 cells, similar to the commercial product. We discuss the attractive attributes of using rice cell suspension system for the expression of therapeutic recombinant IFN-.     

Differential expression of the potato proteinase inhibitor II promoter in transgenic tobacco

We studied temporal and spatial expression patterns of the potato proteinase inhibitor II (PI-II) promoter, using transgenic tobacco (Nkotiana tabacum L cv. Xanthi) plants that carried a fusion between the PI-II promoter and the chloramphenicol acetyltransferase (cat) gene. Pl-ll promoter activity was low when plants were young, but increased as plants grew. In 8-week-old plants, old leaves showed higher activity than young leaves. At flowering stage (ca. 15 weeks), the overall promoter activity was reduced to a lower level except in the petals. Compared with stems or petioles at the flowering stage, the roots and floral organs showed minimal activity for the Pl-ll promoter. We used several environmental stimuli to examine the induction of the Pl-ll promoter in different organs. Promoter induction was effected by wounding or methyl jasmonate in stems, petioles, sepals, and leaves. The induction was highest in leaves, as was sucrose-enhanced wound induction. These results suggest that the Pl-ll gene is temporally and spatially regulated. We also established a transient assay system in tobacco BY2 suspension cells to elucidate the upstream regulatory region of the Pl-ll promoter. A field strength of 0.75 kV/cm and 400 μF capacitance were optimal electroporation conditions for our transient assay.