Tandem repeat mhBD2 gene enhance the soluble fusion expression of hBD2 in Escherichia coli

Human beta-defensin-2 (hBD2) is a cysteine-rich cationic antimicrobial peptide with low molecular weight that exhibits a broad range of antimicrobial activity. To improve the expression level of hBD2 in Escherichia coli, tandem repeats of mature hBD2 gene were constructed and expressed as fusion proteins (TrxA-nmhBD2, n=1, 2, 4, 8) by constructing the vectors of pET32-nsmhBD2 (n=1, 2, 4, 8). The results showed that the tandem repeats of mhBD2 gene were highly expressed in our constructed system. Comparing the expression levels of soluble mhBD2, BL21(DE3)/pET32-2smhBD2 was selected as an ideal recombinant strain for mature hBD2 production. Under the optimized conditions of cultivation and isopropylthiogalactoside (IPTG) induction, the maximum expression level of soluble mature hBD2 (0.76 g/l) with the highest percentage of fusion protein in soluble proteins (62.2%) was obtained in the present work, which was the highest yield of hBD2 reported so far.     

High-level production of bioactive human beta-defensin-4 in Escherichia coli by soluble fusion expression

Human beta-defensin-4 (hBD4) is a cationic 50-amino acid antimicrobial peptide with three conserved cysteine disulfide bonds. It exhibits a broad antimicrobial spectrum. This study describes the synthesis of hBD4 gene, the heterologous fusion expression of the peptide in Escherichia coli, and the bioactive assay of released hBD4. A PCR-based gene SOEing (splicing by overlap extension) synthesis method was used in the synthesis of the hBD4 gene with optimized codons. By constructing the expression plasmid (pET32-smhBD4), high concentration of soluble hBD4 fusion protein (1.9 g/l) can be obtained in E. coli. Further optimization studies showed that the expression system was very efficient to produce soluble target protein, and the solubility of the target protein could attain more than 99% even when the culture temperature was as high as 37°C. The highest productivity (2.68 g/l) of the hBD4 fusion protein was achieved by cultivating the E. coli (pET32-smhBD4) in MBL medium at 34°C, inducing the culture at the mid-exponential phase with 0.4-mM isopropyl β-d-galactopyranoside (IPTG), and collecting the broth after 6-h expression. The soluble target protein accounted for 64.6% of the total soluble proteins, and the mature hBD4 expression level was stoichiometrically estimated to be 0.689 g/l. This fusion protein was then purified and cleaved to get the mature hBD4 peptide that showed antimicrobial activity against E. coli and Pseudomonas aeruginosa.     

Efficient production of a soluble fusion protein containing human beta-defensin-2 in E. coli cell-free system

Human beta-defensin-2 (hBD2), a small cationic peptide, exhibits a broad range of antimicrobial activity and does not cause microbial resistance. In order to produce hBD2 efficiently, an Escherichia coli cell-free biosynthesis system has been developed as an alternative method. A specific plasmid pIVEX2.4c-trxA-shBD2 was constructed for the cell-free expression of fusion protein (hBD2 linked with His-Tag and Trx-Tag). This allowed enhancement of protein stability and facilitated downstream purification process. Significant amount of target fusion protein was synthesized in the batch-mode bioreactor by optimizing the reaction conditions. About five-fold improvement of productivity (ca. 2.0 mg/ml soluble fusion protein) could be achieved by using a continuous exchange cell-free (CECF) system compared to batch system. One-step affinity chromatographic process was developed to recover high purity fusion protein (95.2%) with overall recovery ratio of about 50%. The fusion protein was cleaved by cyanogens bromide (CNBr), and the mature hBD2 had demonstrated strong inhibition on the growth of E. coli D31 at low concentration.     

Production of Bioactive Human Beta-Defensin-4 in <Emphasis Type="Italic">Escherichia coli</Emphasis> Using SUMO Fusion Partner

The human beta defensins-4 (hBD4) exhibit a broad range of antimicrobial properties and are thought to be ideal therapeutic agents because of their potential ability to circumvent the problems of acquired resistance often observed with other antimicrobial therapies. We report here the application of small ubiquitin-related modifier (SUMO) fusion technology to the expression and purification of cationic antibacterial peptide hBD4. The fusion protein expressed in a soluble form was purified to a purity of 90% by Ni-IDA chromatography and 637 mg protein of interest was obtained per liter of fermentation culture. After the SUMO-hBD4 fusion protein was cleaved by the SUMO protease at 30 °C for 1 h, the cleaved sample was re-applied to a Ni-IDA. Finally, about 166 mg recombinant hBD4 was obtained from 1 L fermentation culture with no less than 96% purity and the recombinant hBD4 had similar antimicrobial properties to the synthetic hBD4. Thus, the SUMO-mediated peptide expression and purification system potentially could be employed for the production of recombinant cytotoxic peptides.     

Purification and characterization of novel antifungal peptide,mouse beta defensin-1, in Escherichia coli

Mouse beta defensin-1 (mBD-1) is a cationic peptide with broad antimicrobial activity. The mBD-1 gene was cloned and fused with TrxA to construct pET32-mBD1, which was transformed into E. coli BL21 (DE3). The optimal expression conditions of fusion protein TrxA–mBD1 were: cultivation at 32°C in 2 × YT medium, induction with 0.2 mM isopropylthio-d-galactoside (IPTG), and post-induction expression for 8 h. The fusion protein was highly soluble (90.0%) and accounted for 65% of the total soluble protein; and its volumetric productivity reached 0.67 g/l, i.e., 0.14 g/l of recombinant mBD-1. At 5 μM, purified recombinant mBD-1 killed 50% of Candida albicans. Electronic supplementary material  The online version of this article (doi:) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.     

TrxA mediating fusion expression of antimicrobial peptide CM4 from multiple joined genes in Escherichia coli

Antimicrobial peptide CM4, a small cationic linear α-helical peptide that consists of 35 amino acids, was isolated from Bombyx mori. To improve the expression level of CM4 in Escherichia coli, tandem repeats of CM4 gene were constructed and expressed as fusion proteins (TrxA-nCM4, n = 1, 2, 3,…,8) by constructing the vectors of pET32-nCM4 (n = 1, 2, 3,…,8). Comparison among the expression levels of soluble fusion protein TrxA-nCM4 (n = 1, 2, 3,…,8) suggested that BL21 (DE3)/pET32-3CM4 was an ideal recombinant strain for CM4 production. Under the selected conditions of cultivation and isopropylthiogalactoside (IPTG) induction, the expression level of CM4 was as high as 68 mg/l with about 21% of fusion protein in soluble form, which was the highest yield of CM4 reported so far.     

High-level expression of human beta-defensin-2 gene with rare codons in E. coli cell-free system

Human beta-defensin-2 (hBD2) is A small cationic peptide with A broad range of antimicrobial activity. An E. coli cell-free system was employed to express the hBD2 fusion protein by using the hBD2 gene with 14 rare codons. The results showed that the expression level of trxA-hBD2 fusion protein was 0.35 mg/ml, which is the same as that obtained with A synthetic codon-optimized gene. By using another fusion partner (GFP), similar high-level expression was also achieved in this cell-free system. This meant that human beta-defensin-2 gene could be directly used to express hBD2 fusion protein efficiently in an E. coli cell-free system without the optimization of codons. The expression level of hBD2 fused with thioredoxin could be further improved up to 2.0 mg/ml by adopting A continuous exchange cell-free system. A simple one-stage affinity purification procedure was also developed to recover this fusion protein efficiently.     

何首乌中Ⅲ型聚酮合酶基因FmPKS2的原核表达及鉴定

目的：对传统中药何首乌中Ⅲ型聚酮合酶基因FmPKS2进行原核表达并鉴定重组蛋白酶活性,为研究该酶基因在何首乌有效成分代谢合成及其调控中的功能奠定基础。方法：根据何首乌FmPKS2（GenBank登录号：GQ984139）基因序列,通过PCR扩增其全长的编码区,克隆至原核表达载体PET-28a,构建重组质粒PET-FmPKS2,将其转化原核表达菌株E.coli BL21（DE3）,并用IPTG诱导表达,SDS-PAGE鉴定融合蛋白可溶性,通过Ni-NTA亲和树脂纯化可溶性蛋白后以丙二酰-COA和香豆酰-COA为底物进行催化反应,TLC鉴定反应产物。结果：经过诱导,重组菌表达分子量为42KD左右的融合蛋白,其中可溶性重组蛋白最优表达条件为IPTG浓度0.5 mmol/L,诱导时间6h,温度25℃。纯化后的可溶性重组蛋白催化丙二酰-COA和香豆酰-COA得到的产物经TLC鉴定为二苯乙烯类化合物白藜芦醇。结论：成功实现FmPKS2的原核表达且融合蛋白以可溶形式存在,催化反应证明FmPKS2融合蛋白具有二苯乙烯合酶的活性。     

流行性感冒病毒M2蛋白可溶性表达及其免疫原性的研究

流行性感冒（流感）的M2蛋白是其保护性抗原之一,在几科所有甲型流感病毒中高度保守,因此可以用来研究具有交叉保护能力的流感疫苗。然而M2分子在病毒颗粒中含量非常少,用从病毒中纯化的方法很难获得足够的免疫原。在原核表达时发现,M2蛋白对宿主菌具有很强的毒性作用,导至其死亡,因此很难获得高表达。在本研究中,采用RT－PCR方法从病毒感染的MDCK细胞中克隆了A1／PR／8／34毒株的M2基因,然后通过基因工程手段缺失了M2蛋白的跨膜区26－55位氨基酸的编码序列,将其克隆以pET-32a中,与硫氧还蛋白融合,在大肠杆菌中获得了高效表达,并且表达产物以可溶形式存在,不形成包涵体。利用硫酸铵盐析结合金属离子鏊和柱亲和层析的方法纯化了表达的融合蛋白。免疫荧光实验表明,融合蛋白免疫小鼠后产生的抗血清能够与流感病毒感染的细胞发生特异性的结合,证明表达产物具有流感病毒M2蛋白的抗原性。     

丙型肝炎病毒ns2基因的克隆及其表达

以p90-HCV为模板,通过PCR分别得到全长和截短(2881-3078bp)ns2基因。将截短ns2基因克隆到pET32a原核表达载体,并在大肠杆菌中获得了Trx-His-NS2C融合蛋白的可溶性高表达。通过His树脂纯化得到融合蛋白,免疫家兔获得高效价高特异性的抗体。同时构建了含有全长ns2基因的重组腺病毒,利用该重组病毒感染HepG2和293细胞成功的表达23.2kDa的NS2蛋白。本文的研究为进一步开展NS2蛋白的结构与功能研究奠定了良好的基础。     

Expression and activation of an esterase from Pseudomonas aeruginosa 1001 in Escherichia coli

An expression vector was constructed to overproduce a maltose binding protein (MBP)-esterase fusion protein in Escherichia coli. Soluble fusion protein was separated by centrifugation after cell disruption. The fusion protein was partially purified with amylose resin. The higher concentration of fusion protein (above 2 mg/ml) did not show any activity but about 0.3 mg/ml of fusion protein had the highest activity (142 U/ml). It is due to the difficulty of contact between substrate and active site of enzyme in compact form at high concentration. The fusion protein over-expressed could not be separated into MBP and esterase by the action of protease ‘Factor Xa’. The esterase could be cleaved from MBP fusion protein by the treatment of SDS with the Factor Xa, and the resulting esterase activity was increased to 34% after cleavage.     

Preferential codons enhancing the expression level of human beta-defensin-2 in recombinant Escherichia coli

Human beta-defensin-2 (hBD2) is a small antimicrobial peptide with potential as a therapeutic agent. The effect of codon usage on the expression of hBD2 in Escherichia coli was studied. Two coding sequences encoding the same hBD2 precursor were both expressed as fusion protein with thioredoxin in E. coli BL21 (DE3). One is the wild-type human cDNA and the other is a gene synthesized by a PCR-based method in which rare codons were altered to those frequently used in E. coli. The expression level of recombinant hBD2 was over 50% of the total cellular protein when the synthetic gene with preferential codons was employed which was a 9-fold enhancement over the wild-type cDNA. The result shows the codon bias of the host was a major barrier in high-level expression of recombinant hBD2 and suggests a similar approach may be used in the expression of other defensins in E. coli.     

High-level soluble expression of hIGF-1 fusion protein in recombinant Escherichia coli

Human insulin-like growth factor 1 (hIGF-1) is one kind of growth factor with clinical significance in medicine. The expression of TrxA-hIGF-1 fusion protein was rationally compared in three different Escherichia coli hosts (BL21 (DE3), Rosetta (DE3) and Rosetta-gami (DE3)) with the transformation of plasmid pET32-hIGF-1. The highest productivity of soluble hIGF-1 fusion protein was achieved in E. coli Rosetta-gami (DE3). Moreover, the effects of different expression conditions in this E. coli Rosetta-gami (DE3)/pET32-hIGF-1 host were systematically investigated to improve the expression level of the fusion protein. Under the optimized conditions, a high percent of the target fusion protein (96%) was expressed as soluble form with the volumetric production of soluble fusion protein reaching up to 2.06 g/L. After cell disruption, the soluble fusion protein was separated effectively by affinity chromatography and cleaved by enterokinase, with the concentration of mature hIGF-1 reaching up to 0.42 g/L in the mixture. The present work should be useful for the enhanced production of soluble protein with multiple disulfide bonds in E. coli.     

A new bioproduction route for a novel antimicrobial peptide

Beta defensins are antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) with a broad spectrum antimicrobial behavior against pathogens while having minimal tendency to incur pathogen resistance. Human β-defensin 28 (hBD28) is a strongly cationic AMP and hence hypothesized to be highly effective in permeabilizing negatively-charged pathogen membranes. However, the scarcity of hBD28 in vivo has impeded detailed structure and antimicrobial studies of hBD28. Chemical synthesis of hBD28 rendered extremely poor yields due to inefficient cysteine oxidation. In this study, a rapid and scalable production route to produce bioactive hBD28 in Escherichia coli (E. coli) is reported. The design of a dual fusion tag expression construct was pivotal in enhancing soluble expression and easing purification of hBD28. The final hBD28 (purity >95%) displayed significant antimicrobial activity against E. coli K12 and showed dose-dependent killing kinetics. Circular dichroism spectroscopy confirmed the presence of both β-sheet and α-helix conformations in the secondary structure of hBD28.     

Specific Binding and Chemotactic Activity of mBD4 and Its Functional Orthologue hBD2 to CCR6-expressing Cells

β-Defensins are small antimicrobial polypeptides that are mainly expressed by epithelial cells and play an important role in the antimicrobial innate immune response. In addition to the direct microbicidal effects of these polypeptides, members of the β-defensin super family have the capacity to promote local innate inflammatory and systemic adaptive immune responses, which are in part mediated by the CC-chemokine receptor CCR6. Here we report the expression of recombinant mBD4 and its human orthologue hBD2 fused to the constant domain of human IgG₁ to obtain correct folding and to increase stability and solubility using the Drosophila S2 expression system. Purified recombinant mBD4:Ig and hBD2:Ig fusion proteins retained potent antimicrobial activity against Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria. Furthermore, these β-defensin fusion proteins showed specific binding to CCR6-expressing cells as revealed by flow cytometry. Interestingly, although hBD2:Ig bound to both human and mouse CCR6-expressing cells, mBD4:Ig did only bind to mCCR6-expressing cells but not to hCCR6-expressing cells. Both β-defensin fusion proteins demonstrated chemotactic activity for cells expressing the mouse CC-chemokine receptor CCR6. The chemokine ligand CCL20 competed with the β-defensin fusion proteins for specific binding to CCR6 as analyzed by fluorescence-activated cell sorter analysis. Both β-defensin fusion proteins demonstrated chemotactic activity for cells expressing the mouse CCR6 receptor, but mBD4:Ig did not induce chemotactic activity of cells expressing human CCR6. This result supports our finding that mBD4 does not interact with human CCR6-expressing cells. Further evidence for specific interaction of the β-defensin fusion proteins with CCR6-expressing cells is demonstrated by the observation that CCL20 and β-defensin fusion proteins desensitize each other in inducing chemotactic activity. In addition both mBD4:Ig and hBD2:Ig demonstrated CCR6-independent chemotaxis of freshly isolated mouse resident peritoneal cells and human peripheral blood mononuclear cells, indicating the interaction with another chemotaxis-inducing receptor. Thus, the β-defensin fusion proteins used in this study retained their biological activity and are a feasible tool to identify and analyze specific β-defensin receptor interactions.     

Construction and characterization of a recombinant human beta defensin 2 fusion protein targeting the epidermal growth factor receptor: in vitro study

The HER2/neu proto-oncogene encodes a 185-kDa trans-membrane glycoprotein kinase with extensive homology to the epidermal growth factor receptor and plays a key role in the transformation and growth of malignant tumors. To date, two antibody drugs targeting HER2/neu have been developed successfully. In order to reduce the cost and the time of clinical treatment, we produced a fusion protein composed of human beta defensin 2 (hBD2) and anti-HER2/neu single-chain variable fragment (scFv 4D5), which is capable of specifically targeting, significantly inhibiting, and promptly killing HER2/neu-positive cancer cells. The recombinant protein was expressed in Escherichia coli using the small ubiquitin-related modifier (SUMO) as the molecular chaperone, and the optimal expression level reached to 40.2 % of the total supernatant protein. After purifying by Ni-NTA affinity chromatography, the fusion protein was cleaved with a SUMO-specific protease to obtain hBD2–4D5, which was further purified by Ni-NTA affinity chromatography. The purity of hBD2–4D5 was higher than 95 %, and the yield was 19?±?2 mg/L in flask fermentation. The cell number count and flow cytometry results showed that hBD2–4D5 exerted cytotoxic and anti-proliferative effects on HER2/neu-positive breast cancer cell line, SKBR-3. The results of scanning electron microscope and transmission electron microscope observation indicated that hBD2–4D5 could induce intracellular ultrastructure changes and cell necrosis by disrupting the cell membrane. Immunofluorescence analysis showed that hBD2–4D5 could bind to SKBR-3 cells and further be internalized into the cytoplasm. Moreover, hBD2–4D5 could also mediate apoptosis of SKBR-3 cells by up-regulating the ratio of Bax to Bcl-2.     

HER-2/neu胞外配体结合区2在大肠杆菌中可溶性表达及纯化

用PCR技术扩增HER 2 neu胞外配体结合区 2 (RLD2 )cDNA ,并将扩增的基因片段克隆于硫氧还蛋白 (TrxA)原核表达载体中 ,获得TrxA RLD2融合蛋白的可溶性表达 .通过插入偶联翻译序列 ,实现TrxA与RLD2蛋白在大肠杆菌中的共表达 .表达产物经免疫印记检测可被抗HER 2 neu特异性抗体识别 .经离子交换层析和钴亲和层析纯化 ,RLD2蛋白的纯度达 90 % .用质谱法分析RLD2蛋白的分子量 ,与预期值相符 .结果表明 ,利用TrxA表达体系在大肠杆菌中获得了HER 2 neuRLD2蛋白高效可溶性表达     

ASCT2胞外域ECL2原核可溶性表达条件的优化及其纯化

目的构建重组人ASCT2胞外域ECL2融合蛋白的原核表达载体,优化其在大肠埃希菌中可溶性表达的条件,并获得纯化的ECL2蛋白。方法以PCR方法扩增编码ECL2的DNA片段,插入至pET-41b载体中,构建ECL2的原核表达载体,转化至大肠埃希菌,优化可溶性表达条件,GSH—Agarose亲和层析纯化并鉴定,与MCF-7细胞结合活性的测定。结果免疫印迹显示,ECL2融合蛋白既表达于包涵体中,也能以可溶性形式表达。随IPTG浓度的增高,可溶性表达水平提高;培养温度为28℃和33℃时可溶性产物高于37℃;而随诱导时间的延长至12h以上,可溶性表达量下降。可溶性表达优化条件为：温度33℃、IPTG浓度0．4mmol／L、诱导时间4h。经亲和层析获得高纯度ECL2蛋白并具有与MCF-7细胞结合活性。结论优化了ECL2融合蛋白的可溶性表达条件,通过亲和层析一步法可获得高纯度融合蛋白。     

人β防御素3在大肠杆菌中可溶性表达及其生物活性的鉴定

根据大肠杆菌对精氨酸密码子使用的偏好,设计引物并通过酶促法合成了人β防御素3(hBD-3)全基因序列,克隆进pGEX-4T-2中构建pGEX-4T-2-hBD-3融合表达载体．将表达载体转化Ecoli宿主菌DH5α,进行IPTG诱导表达．控制诱导条件,提高可溶性蛋白的表达量．将菌体进行反复冻溶使细胞膜穿孔,释放可溶性蛋白．融合蛋白GST-hBD-3经凝血酶切割得到重组人防御素蛋白．用琼脂孔穴扩散抑菌法检测表明,重组人β防御素3对金黄色葡萄球菌有抑菌活性．     

人IGF-1在大肠杆菌中的可溶表达和纯化

目的:在大肠杆菌中的可溶表达和纯化人胰岛素样生长因子1(hIGF-1)。方法:根据hIGF-1的氨基酸序列和大肠杆菌密码子偏爱性,利用重叠延伸PCR的方法合成hIGF-1DNA序列,构建表达载体,在大肠杆菌OrigamiB(DE3)中与硫氧还蛋白TrxA融合表达,并通过盐析和镍柱亲合层析进行纯化。结果:SDS-PAGE分析显示,重组融合蛋白以可溶形式存在,分子量约为28kDa,占上清总蛋白的50%以上。经盐析和镍柱亲合层析进行纯化,目标蛋白纯度可达到90%左右。结论:复合干扰素在大肠杆菌中的高效可溶表达。