乙肝病毒表面抗原preS1与人肿瘤坏死因子α融合基因的表达

用ＰＣＲ法获得了ＨＢｓＡｇｐｒｅＳ１（１－６５）肽段基因,将该基因融合在肿瘤坏死因子（ｈＴＮＦα）之后,插入表达载体ＰＳＢ－９２中,使融合基因的５′端直接置于大肠肝菌ＰＬ启动子下游,采用３０℃培养,４２℃诱导,获得了ＴＮＦ与ｐｒｅＳ１（１－６５）融合蛋白的表达产物。ＳＤＳ－ＰＡＧＥ电泳显示表达产物为２５ｋＤ,约占细菌总蛋白的３５％。表达产物经Ｗｅｓｔｅｒｎｂｌｏｔ验证,能分别特异地与ｈＴＮＦα抗体与ｐｒｅＳ１抗体结合,稀释复性后,该融合蛋白还具有ＴＮＦ的生理功能（对Ｌ９２９细胞的细胞毒活性）。经ＤＮＡ序列测定,ｐｒｅＳ１（１－６５）肽基因正确地融合在ｈＴＮＦα基因之后。该结果提供了一种制备ｐｒｅＳ１的新方法,为进一步开展治疗肝癌和乙肝的导向药物打下基础。     

A modified hepatitis B surface antigen carrying both preS1 and preS2 epitopes

ＴｈｅｅｎｖｅｌｏｐｅｐｒｏｔｅｉｎｏｆｈｅｐａｔｉｔｉｓＢｖｉｒｕｓ(ＨＢＶ)ｃｏｎｓｉｓｔｓｏｆｔｈｒｅｅｐｒｏｔｅｉｎｓ:ｓｍａｌｌ(Ｓ),ｍｉｄｄｌｅ(Ｍ)ａｎｄｌａｒｇｅ(Ｌ)[1].ＴｈｅＳｐｒｏｔｅｉｎｃａｒｒｉｅｓａｌｌｔｈｅｉｎｆｏｒｍａｔｉｏｎｒｅｑｕｉｒｅｄｆｏｒｃｅｌｌｕｌａｒｌｉｐｉｄｓｍｏｂｉｌｉｚａｔｉｏｎ,ｓｕｂｖｉｒａｌｐａｒｔｉｃｌｅｆｏｒｍａｔｉｏｎａｎｄｓｅｃｒｅｔｉｏｎ.Ｉｔｈａｓｂｅｅｎｓｕｃｃｅｓｓｆｕｌｌｙｄｅｖｅｌｏｐｅｄａｓａｃａｒｒｉｅｒｔｏｅｘｐｒｅｓｓｆ…     

Pre-structured motifs in the natively unstructured preS1 surface antigen of hepatitis B virus

The preS1 surface antigen of hepatitis B virus (HBV) is known to play an important role in the initial attachment of HBV to hepatocytes. We have characterized structural features of the full-length preS1 using heteronuclear NMR methods and discovered that this 119-residue protein is inherently unstructured without a unique tertiary structure under a nondenaturing condition. Yet, combination of various NMR parameters shows that the preS1 contains "pre-structured" domains broadly covering its functional domains. The most prominent domain is formed by residues 27-45 and overlaps with the putative hepatocyte-binding domain (HBD) encompassing residues 21-47, within which two well-defined pre-structured motifs, formed by Pro(32)-Ala(36) and Pro(41)-Phe(45) are found. Additional, somewhat less prominent, pre-structured motifs are also formed by residues 11-18, 22-25, 37-40, and 46-50. Overall results suggest that the preS1 is a natively unstructured protein (NUP) whose N-terminal 50 residues, populated with multiple pre-structured motifs, contribute critically to hepatocyte binding.     

Identification of the critical regions in hepatitis B virus preS required for its stability.

As a hepatitis B virus (HBV) envelope domain, preS plays significant roles in receptor recognition and viral infection. However, the regions critical for maintaining a stable and functional conformation of preS are still unclear and require further investigation. In order to unravel these regions, serially truncated fragments of preS were constructed and expressed in Escherichia coli. Their solubility, stability, secondary structure, and affinity to polyclonal antibodies and hepatocytes were examined. The results showed that amino acids 31-36 were vital for its stable conformation, and the absence of 10-36 amino acids significantly reduced its binding to polyclonal antibodies as well as hepatocytes. The most stable fragment 1-120 (preS1 + N-terminal 12 amino acids of preS2), perhaps the core of preS, was discovered, which bound to HepG2 cells most tightly. Moreover, the availability of large amounts of well-folded and stable preS1-120 enables us to carry out further structural determination and mechanistic study on HBV infection.     

Interaction of preS domains of hepatitis B virus with phospholipid vesicles

The role of preS domains of the hepatitis B virus (HBV) envelope proteins in the first steps of viral infection has been restricted to their implication in virus attachment to a putative hepatocyte receptor. In order to explore a fusion activity in these regions, we used recombinant preS domains to characterize their interaction with liposomes. Binding experiments carried out with NBD-labeled proteins indicated that preS were able to interact in a monomeric way with acidic phospholipid vesicles, being the partition coefficient similar to that described for peptides which can insert deeply into bilayers. Fluorescence depolarization of DPH-labeled vesicles confirmed the specificity for negative charged phospholipids. Upon interaction the proteins induced aggregation, lipid mixing and release of internal contents of acidic vesicles at both acid and neutral pH in a concentration-dependent manner. Taken together, all these data indicate that preS domains are able to insert into the hydrophobic core of the bilayer. Moreover, the insertion resulted in a protein conformational change which increased the helical content. Therefore all these results suggest that, besides their participation in the recognition of a cellular receptor, the preS domains could be involved in the fusion mechanism of HBV with the plasma membrane of target cells.     

Efficient expression and characterization of hepatitis B virus preS2 antigen in Escherichia coli

The complete (encoding 55 amino acids, aa) or partial (encoding aa 1–26) preS2 region gene of hepatitis B virus (HBV) was fused to the 3-end of glutathion-S-transferase (GST) gene and expressed under the control of the inducible tac promoter in Escherichia coli at 37 °C. The fusion protein with the complete preS2 region was moderately expressed (8%) while the protein with the N-terminal 26 aa was expressed at a higher level, yielding about 20% of the total cellular proteins. The GST-preS2 (aa 1–26) protein, which contains the immunodominant epitope, was produced form the soluble protein fraction of the recombinant bacteria and purified by affinity chromatography using glutathione-agarose column. The purified preS2 fusion protein showed the antigenicity of preS2, as assessed by indirect and competitive ELISAs.     

乙型肝炎病毒全长PreS蛋白基因在酵母中的表达

应用直接提取法从武汉地区乙型肝炎病人患者阳性血清中提取HBV基因组,以此作为模板,用引物PCR方法获得全长preS基因,该片段的DNA大小1203bp-克隆到pUCm-T载体中,应用M13通用引物进行序列测定,与中国HBV标准株序列比较,证实基因型为Adr亚型。有24个核苷酸不同,preS基因包含3个起始密码ATG分别为preS1,preS2,和S的翻译起点。然后将preS基因克隆到毕赤酵母表达载体pPIC9K中,将Sal Ⅰ线性化的pPIC9K—preS质粒用电击法导入巴斯德一毕赤酵母GS115His中。通过MD—G418平板筛选和5‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘AOXI和3’AOXI引物PCR鉴定获得稳定重组HBV全长严preS基因的His^ Mut^ 酵母工程菌株。此酵母菌株在合适的培养条件和甲醇诱导下高效表达产生全长preS蛋白并可分泌到培养液中,SDS—PAGE显示培养液中含有分子量约为48kDa的带;微孔ELISIA法证实表达并分泌到培养液中的preS蛋白能够与HBV抗体阳性血清发生特异性反应。     

毕赤酵母表达的含前S1、前S2和S表位乙肝表面抗原疫苗的制备和免疫原性研究

整合了乙肝表面抗原嵌合基因SS1和SS2的毕赤酵母工程菌株GS115-SS1S2经高密度发酵培养,甲醇诱导,抗原表达量达到300~600mg/L发酵液。SS1S2抗原经细胞破碎、硅胶吸附、疏水层析和凝胶过滤纯化,纯度达99%以上,每升培养物可收获纯化抗原82mg。纯化的SS1S2抗原经Al(OH)3吸附,在NIH小鼠中进行免疫效果评价。三组NIH雌性小鼠,分别腹腔接种2.5μg、0.625μg和0.156μgSS1S2疫苗或商品化的单S疫苗。部分小鼠在30天时采血,测定各疫苗组的ED50值。在SS1S2疫苗组,前S1、前S2和S抗原的ED50值分别为0.46、0.29和0.84μg,而S疫苗组S抗原的ED50为0.99μg。另一部分小鼠分别在7天和14天时采血,考察抗体阳转率与时间的关系。SS1S2疫苗前S1、前S2抗体阳转率在7d和14d时比S抗体的阳转率为高,提示前S抗体出现的时间较早。上述结果显示SS1S2疫苗比单S疫苗具有更好的免疫原性。     

HBcAg和HBsAg前S1表位肽融合蛋白的表达研究

构建、表达并纯化了HBcAg与HBsAg前S1表位肽融合蛋白BTcs1,为开发新型HBV治疗和预防性疫苗提供实验依据。利用DNA重组技术,构建了HBcAg与HBsAg前S1表位肽融合蛋白原核表达质粒pBTcs1,在大肠杆菌（HB101）中进行表达,用蔗糖密度梯度超速离心对表达产物BTcs1进行纯化,用SDS-PAGE、SEC、WESTERN-BLOT和电镜进行鉴定。结果表明成功构建了HBcAg与HBsAg前S1表位肽融合蛋白原核表达质粒pBTcs1,BTcs1的表达量为20-25 mg/L,DOT-BLOT结果显示BTcs1主要分布在30%-50%蔗糖介质中,SDS-PAGE和SEC结果显示蛋白纯度>95%,WESTERN-BLOT结果显示BTcs1可以与抗HBcAg抗体和抗HBsAg前S1抗体特异杂交,显色条带在约28 kD处,电镜分析表明BTcs1可以自主组装成病毒样颗粒（VLP）,直径约为30-34 nm。本研究为进一步探讨BTcs1的功能及应用奠定了基础。