Pierre-Emmanuel Y N'Guetta, Maggie M Fink, Shahir S Rizk
{"title":"Engineering a fluorescence biosensor for the herbicide glyphosate.","authors":"Pierre-Emmanuel Y N'Guetta, Maggie M Fink, Shahir S Rizk","doi":"10.1093/protein/gzaa021","DOIUrl":"10.1093/protein/gzaa021","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Glyphosate, the active ingredient in RoundUp, is the most widely used herbicide on the globe, and has recently been linked to an increased risk in non-Hodgkin's lymphoma in exposed individuals. Therefore, detection and monitoring of glyphosate levels in water and soil is important for public safety. Here, we describe a biosensor for glyphosate based on an engineered Escherichia coli phosphonate-binding protein (PhnD). Mutations in the binding pocket were introduced to convert PhnD into a glyphosate-binding protein. A fluorescence group attached near the hinge of the protein was added to monitor binding of glyphosate and to determine its concentration in unknown samples. The resulting engineered biosensor can detect glyphosate in tap water and in soil samples treated with the herbicide at submicromolar concentrations, well below the limit for drinking water in the USA. Incorporating this biosensor in a device would allow rapid and continuous monitoring of glyphosate in water and soil samples.</p>","PeriodicalId":54543,"journal":{"name":"Protein Engineering Design & Selection","volume":"33 ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.4,"publicationDate":"2020-09-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1093/protein/gzaa021","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"38478435","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
P L Herzog, E Borghi, M W Traxlmayr, C Obinger, H D Sikes, C K Peterbauer
{"title":"Developing a cell-bound detection system for the screening of oxidase activity using the fluorescent peroxide sensor roGFP2-Orp1.","authors":"P L Herzog, E Borghi, M W Traxlmayr, C Obinger, H D Sikes, C K Peterbauer","doi":"10.1093/protein/gzaa019","DOIUrl":"10.1093/protein/gzaa019","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Accurate yet efficient high-throughput screenings have emerged as essential technology for enzyme engineering via directed evolution. Modern high-throughput screening platforms for oxidoreductases are commonly assisted by technologies such as surface display and rely on emulsification techniques to facilitate single-cell analysis via fluorescence-activated cell sorting. Empowered by the dramatically increased throughput, the screening of significantly larger sequence spaces in acceptable time frames is achieved but usually comes at the cost of restricted applicability. In this work, we tackle this problem by utilizing roGFP2-Orp1 as a fluorescent one-component detection system for enzymatic H2O2 formation. We determined the kinetic parameters of the roGFP2-Orp1 reaction with H2O2 and established an efficient immobilization technique for the sensor on Saccharomyces cerevisiae cells employing the lectin Concanavalin A. This allowed to realize a peroxide-sensing shell on enzyme-displaying cells, a system that was successfully employed to screen for H2O2 formation of enzyme variants in a whole-cell setting.</p>","PeriodicalId":54543,"journal":{"name":"Protein Engineering Design & Selection","volume":"33 ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.6,"publicationDate":"2020-09-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://ftp.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pub/pmc/oa_pdf/5c/a7/gzaa019.PMC7720637.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"38478436","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Michael Ulitzka, Stefania Carrara, Julius Grzeschik, Henri Kornmann, Björn Hock, Harald Kolmar
{"title":"Engineering therapeutic antibodies for patient safety: tackling the immunogenicity problem.","authors":"Michael Ulitzka, Stefania Carrara, Julius Grzeschik, Henri Kornmann, Björn Hock, Harald Kolmar","doi":"10.1093/protein/gzaa025","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/protein/gzaa025","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Established monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) allow treatment of cancers, autoimmune diseases and other severe illnesses. Side effects either arise due to interaction with the target protein and its biology or result from of the patient's immune system reacting to the foreign protein. This immunogenic reaction against therapeutic antibodies is dependent on various factors. The presence of non-human sequences can trigger immune responses as well as chemical and post-translational modifications of the antibody. However, even fully human antibodies can induce immune response through T cell epitopes or aggregates. In this review, we briefly describe, how therapeutic antibodies can interact with the patient's immune system and summarize recent advancements in protein engineering and in silico methods to reduce immunogenicity of therapeutic monoclonal antibodies.</p>","PeriodicalId":54543,"journal":{"name":"Protein Engineering Design & Selection","volume":"33 ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.4,"publicationDate":"2020-09-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1093/protein/gzaa025","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"38644763","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Alex Chang, Joey P Ting, Alfonso Espada, Howard Broughton, Manuel Molina-Martin, Sepideh Afshar
{"title":"A novel phage display vector for selection of target-specific peptides.","authors":"Alex Chang, Joey P Ting, Alfonso Espada, Howard Broughton, Manuel Molina-Martin, Sepideh Afshar","doi":"10.1093/protein/gzaa023","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/protein/gzaa023","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Intrinsic low display level of polypeptides on phage is a fundamental and limiting hurdle in successful isolation of target-specific binders by phage display technology. To circumvent this challenge, we optimized the copy number of peptides displayed on the phage surface using type 33 phage vector. We randomized the first 67 amino acids of the wild type PIII to identify mutants that would result in its reduced expression. Consequently, the display level was improved by 30-fold due to higher incorporation of the synthetic PIII-peptide fusion protein on the phage surface. Utilization of this novel phage vector should provide a solid basis for the discovery of therapeutic peptides.</p>","PeriodicalId":54543,"journal":{"name":"Protein Engineering Design & Selection","volume":"33 ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.4,"publicationDate":"2020-09-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1093/protein/gzaa023","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"38448442","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Christine Faust, Christian Ochs, Marcus Korn, Ulrich Werner, Jennifer Jung, Werner Dittrich, Werner Schiebler, Rolf Schauder, Ercole Rao, Thomas Langer
{"title":"Production of a novel heterodimeric two-chain insulin-Fc fusion protein.","authors":"Christine Faust, Christian Ochs, Marcus Korn, Ulrich Werner, Jennifer Jung, Werner Dittrich, Werner Schiebler, Rolf Schauder, Ercole Rao, Thomas Langer","doi":"10.1093/protein/gzaa026","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/protein/gzaa026","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Insulin is a peptide hormone produced by the pancreas. The physiological role of insulin is the regulation of glucose metabolism. Under certain pathological conditions the insulin levels can be reduced leading to the metabolic disorder diabetes mellitus (DM). For type 1 DM and, dependent on the disease progression for type 2 DM, insulin substitution becomes indispensable. To relieve insulin substitution therapy for patients, novel insulin analogs with pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic profiles aiming for long-lasting or fast-acting insulins have been developed. The next step in the evolution of novel insulins should be insulin analogs with a time action profile beyond 1-2 days, preferable up to 1 week. Nowadays, insulin is produced in a recombinant manner. This approach facilitates the design and production of further insulin-analogs or insulin-fusion proteins. The usage of the Fc-domain from immunoglobulin as a fusion partner for therapeutic proteins and peptides is widely used to extend their plasma half-life. Insulin consists of two chains, the A- and B-chain, which are connected by two disulfide-bridges. To produce a novel kind of Fc-fusion protein we have fused the A-chain as well as the B-chain to Fc-fragments containing either 'knob' or 'hole' mutations. The 'knob-into-hole' technique is frequently used to force heterodimerization of the Fc-domain. Using this approach, we were able to produce different variants of two-chain-insulin-Fc-protein (tcI-Fc-protein) variants. The tcI-Fc-fusion variants retained activity as shown in in vitro assays. Finally, prolonged blood glucose lowering activity was demonstrated in normoglycemic rats. Overall, we describe here the production of novel insulin-Fc-fusion proteins with prolonged times of action.</p>","PeriodicalId":54543,"journal":{"name":"Protein Engineering Design & Selection","volume":"33 ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.4,"publicationDate":"2020-09-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1093/protein/gzaa026","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"38671398","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Yuanyuan Wang, Zemao Gong, Han Fang, Dongming Zhi, Hu Tao
{"title":"The N-terminal 1-55 residues domain of pyruvate dehydrogenase from Escherichia coli assembles as a dimer in solution.","authors":"Yuanyuan Wang, Zemao Gong, Han Fang, Dongming Zhi, Hu Tao","doi":"10.1093/protein/gzz044","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/protein/gzz044","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The pyruvate dehydrogenase complex (PDHc) from Escherichia coli is a large protein complex consisting of multiple copies of the pyruvate dehydrogenase (E1ec), dihydrolipoamide acetyltransferase (E2ec) and dihydrolipoamide dehydrogenase (E3ec). The N-terminal domain (NTD, residues 1-55) of E1ec plays a critical role in the interaction between E1ec and E2ec and the whole PDHc activity. Using circular dichroism, size-exclusion chromatography and dynamic light scattering spectroscopy, we show that the NTD of E1ec presents dimeric assembly under physiological condition. Pull-down and isothermal titration calorimetry binding assays revealed that the E2ec peripheral subunit-binding domain (PSBD) forms a very stable complex with the NTD, indicating the isolated NTD functionally interacts with PSBD and the truncated E1ec (E1ec∆NTD) does not interact with PSBD. These findings are important to understand the mechanism of PDHc and other thiamine-based multi-component enzymes.</p>","PeriodicalId":54543,"journal":{"name":"Protein Engineering Design & Selection","volume":"32 6","pages":"271-276"},"PeriodicalIF":2.4,"publicationDate":"2019-12-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1093/protein/gzz044","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"37449848","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Filip Claes, Stanislav Rudyak, Angela S Laird, Nikolaos Louros, Jacinte Beerten, Maja Debulpaep, Emiel Michiels, Rob van der Kant, Joost Van Durme, Greet De Baets, Bert Houben, Meine Ramakers, Kristy Yuan, Serene S L Gwee, Sara Hernandez, Kerensa Broersen, Mikael Oliveberg, Barbara Moahamed, Janine Kirstein, Wim Robberecht, Frederic Rousseau, Joost Schymkowitz
{"title":"Exposure of a cryptic Hsp70 binding site determines the cytotoxicity of the ALS-associated SOD1-mutant A4V.","authors":"Filip Claes, Stanislav Rudyak, Angela S Laird, Nikolaos Louros, Jacinte Beerten, Maja Debulpaep, Emiel Michiels, Rob van der Kant, Joost Van Durme, Greet De Baets, Bert Houben, Meine Ramakers, Kristy Yuan, Serene S L Gwee, Sara Hernandez, Kerensa Broersen, Mikael Oliveberg, Barbara Moahamed, Janine Kirstein, Wim Robberecht, Frederic Rousseau, Joost Schymkowitz","doi":"10.1093/protein/gzaa008","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/protein/gzaa008","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The accumulation of toxic protein aggregates is thought to play a key role in a range of degenerative pathologies, but it remains unclear why aggregation of polypeptides into non-native assemblies is toxic and why cellular clearance pathways offer ineffective protection. We here study the A4V mutant of SOD1, which forms toxic aggregates in motor neurons of patients with familial amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). A comparison of the location of aggregation prone regions (APRs) and Hsp70 binding sites in the denatured state of SOD1 reveals that ALS-associated mutations promote exposure of the APRs more than the strongest Hsc/Hsp70 binding site that we could detect. Mutations designed to increase the exposure of this Hsp70 interaction site in the denatured state promote aggregation but also display an increased interaction with Hsp70 chaperones. Depending on the cell type, in vitro this resulted in cellular inclusion body formation or increased clearance, accompanied with a suppression of cytotoxicity. The latter was also observed in a zebrafish model in vivo. Our results suggest that the uncontrolled accumulation of toxic SOD1A4V aggregates results from insufficient detection by the cellular surveillance network.</p>","PeriodicalId":54543,"journal":{"name":"Protein Engineering Design & Selection","volume":"32 10","pages":"443-457"},"PeriodicalIF":2.4,"publicationDate":"2019-12-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1093/protein/gzaa008","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"37927125","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Marcia Stickler, Anita Reddy, Joanna M Xiong, Melanie H Wong, Yoshiko Akamatsu, Paul R Hinton, Fiona A Harding
{"title":"Design, creation and in vitro testing of a reduced immunogenicity humanized anti-CD25 monoclonal antibody that retains functional activity.","authors":"Marcia Stickler, Anita Reddy, Joanna M Xiong, Melanie H Wong, Yoshiko Akamatsu, Paul R Hinton, Fiona A Harding","doi":"10.1093/protein/gzaa017","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/protein/gzaa017","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Humanized and fully human sequence-derived therapeutic antibodies retain the capacity to induce anti-drug antibodies. Daclizumab (humanized version of the murine anti-Tac antibody; E.HAT) was selected for a proof of concept application of engineering approaches to reduce potential immunogenicity due to its demonstrated immunogenicity in the clinic. Reduced immunogenicity variants of E.HAT were created by identifying and modifying a CD4+ T cell epitope region in the VH region. Variant epitope region peptides were selected for their reduced capacity to induce CD4+ T cell proliferative responses in vitro. Variant antibody molecules were created, and CD25 affinity and potency were similar to the unmodified parent antibody. Fab fragments from the variant antibodies induced a lower frequency and magnitude of responses in human peripheral blood mononuclear cells proliferation tests. By the empirical selection of two amino acid mutations, fully functional humanized E.HAT antibodies with reduced potential to induce immune responses in vitro were created.</p>","PeriodicalId":54543,"journal":{"name":"Protein Engineering Design & Selection","volume":"32 12","pages":"543-554"},"PeriodicalIF":2.4,"publicationDate":"2019-12-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1093/protein/gzaa017","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"38213005","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Patrick Kunz, A. Ortale, N. Mücke, Katinka Zinner, J. Hoheisel
{"title":"Nanobody stability engineering by employing the ΔTm shift; a comparison with apparent rate constants of heat-induced aggregation.","authors":"Patrick Kunz, A. Ortale, N. Mücke, Katinka Zinner, J. Hoheisel","doi":"10.1093/protein/gzz017","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/protein/gzz017","url":null,"abstract":"The antigen-binding domains of camelid heavy-chain antibodies, also called nanobodies, gained strong attention because of their unique functional and biophysical properties. They gave rise to an entire spectrum of applications in biotechnology, research and medicine. Despite several reports about reversibly refolding nanobodies, protein aggregation plays a major role in nanobody thermoresistance, asking for strategies to engineer their refolding behavior. Here, we use measurements of nanobody aggregation kinetics to validate structural features in the nanobody fold that are suppressing heat-induced nanobody aggregation. Furthermore, the kinetic measurements yielded a detailed insight into the concept of the ΔTm shift, a metric for protein aggregation propensities obtained from differential scanning fluorimetry measurements. By relating the equilibrium measurements of the ΔTm shift to the kinetic measurements of heat-induced nanobody aggregation, a distinct relationship could be identified that allows a prediction of nanobody aggregation rates from a simple equilibrium measurement of ΔTm.","PeriodicalId":54543,"journal":{"name":"Protein Engineering Design & Selection","volume":"61 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.4,"publicationDate":"2019-12-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"86060422","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Monica L Fernández-Quintero, Johannes R Loeffler, Franz Waibl, Anna S Kamenik, Florian Hofer, Klaus R Liedl
{"title":"Conformational selection of allergen-antibody complexes-surface plasticity of paratopes and epitopes.","authors":"Monica L Fernández-Quintero, Johannes R Loeffler, Franz Waibl, Anna S Kamenik, Florian Hofer, Klaus R Liedl","doi":"10.1093/protein/gzaa014","DOIUrl":"10.1093/protein/gzaa014","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Antibodies have the ability to bind various types of antigens and to recognize different antibody-binding sites (epitopes) of the same antigen with different binding affinities. Due to the conserved structural framework of antibodies, their specificity to antigens is mainly determined by their antigen-binding site (paratope). Therefore, characterization of epitopes in combination with describing the involved conformational changes of the paratope upon binding is crucial in understanding and predicting antibody-antigen binding. Using molecular dynamics simulations complemented with strong experimental structural information, we investigated the underlying binding mechanism and the resulting local and global surface plasticity in the binding interfaces of distinct antibody-antigen complexes. In all studied allergen-antibody complexes, we clearly observe that experimentally suggested epitopes reveal less plasticity, while non-epitope regions show high surface plasticity. Surprisingly, the paratope shows higher conformational diversity reflected in substantially higher surface plasticity, compared to the epitope. This work allows a visualization and characterization of antibody-antigen interfaces and might have strong implications for antibody-antigen docking and in the area of epitope prediction.</p>","PeriodicalId":54543,"journal":{"name":"Protein Engineering Design & Selection","volume":"32 11","pages":"513-523"},"PeriodicalIF":2.6,"publicationDate":"2019-12-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7451023/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"10707438","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}