Proteins of recombination

The spinning of silk monofilaments from a concentrated aqueous solution (>20% protein) of recombinant spider silk protein might be the best way to generate stress-... 

The study of the proteome of the recombinant adenovirus type 5 vectors demonstrated an important apphcation of separation techniques in combination with MS methods in the drug discovery process. With completely sequenced adenovirus genome available, this approach provides a chemically well-dehned method of characterization of structural proteins of recombinant adenoviral vectors. The information of protein MWs, tryptic peptide mass mapping, and sequence tags of tryptic peptides derived from HPLC/MS resulted in the identification of 17 adenoviral proteins/polypeptides in the purified virion. The rapid and accurate identification of viral proteins from recombinant adenoviruses in this study is significant since it provides direct evidence of the maturation stage of adenoviruses, which is closely related to viral infectivity and efficacy in gene therapy. 

A potentially general method of identifying a probe is, first, to purify a protein of interest by chromatography (qv) or electrophoresis. Then a partial amino acid sequence of the protein is deterrnined chemically (see Amino acids). The amino acid sequence is used to predict likely short DNA sequences which direct the synthesis of the protein sequence. Because the genetic code uses redundant codons to direct the synthesis of some amino acids, the predicted probe is unlikely to be unique. The least redundant sequence of 25—30 nucleotides is synthesized chemically as a mixture. The mixed probe is used to screen the Hbrary and the identified clones further screened, either with another probe reverse-translated from the known amino acid sequence or by directly sequencing the clones. Whereas not all recombinant clones encode the protein of interest, reiterative screening allows identification of the correct DNA recombinant. 

Farm animals produce recombinant proteins less expensively than bacteria or cells in culture because the farm animals produce large volumes of milk containing up to 5 g/L of recombinant protein. In addition, modifications to the proteins that can be performed only by mammalian cells are made by the cells of the mammary gland. Therefore, numerous pharmaceuticals that previously could only be made by cells in culture or extracted from human tissue or blood are being produced by lactating farm animals. 

The methods involved in the production of proteins in microbes are those of gene expression. Several plasmids for expression of proteins having affinity tails at the C- or N-terminus of the protein have been developed. These tails are usefiil in the isolation of recombinant proteins. Most of these vectors are commercially available along with the reagents that are necessary for protein purification. A majority of recombinant proteins that have been attempted have been produced in E. Coli (1). In most cases these recombinant proteins formed aggregates resulting in the formation of inclusion bodies. These inclusion bodies must be denatured and refolded to obtain active protein, and the affinity tails are usefiil in the purification of the protein. Some of the methods described herein involve identification of functional domains in proteins (see also Protein engineering). 

One of the early vaccine candidates was directed against sporo2oites, the form of the parasites that is first injected into the host by a mosquito. With recent development of recombinant techniques, several circumsporo2oite proteins or its related peptides were proposed as the vaccine candidates. Clinical trials have been carried out. The vaccines were immunogenic, but did not provide sufficient protective efficacy (90,91). 

Interest in vaccine development has centered around the asexual erothrocytic stage of the life cycle, especially the mero2oite. Several proteins associated with these stages have been identified and produced by recombinant techniques (92,93). The most prominent is the MSA-1 protein of the mero2oite. A clinical trial with this protein is being planned (93). 

Figure 18.4 The hanging-drop method of protein crystallization, (a) About 10 pi of a 10 mg/ml protein solution in a buffer with added precipitant—such as ammonium sulfate, at a concentration below that at which it causes the protein to precipitate—is put on a thin glass plate that is sealed upside down on the top of a small container. In the container there is about 1 ml of concentrated precipitant solution. Equilibrium between the drop and the container is slowly reached through vapor diffusion, the precipitant concentration in the drop is increased by loss of water to the reservoir, and once the saturation point is reached the protein slowly comes out of solution. If other conditions such as pH and temperature are right, protein crystals will occur in the drop, (b) Crystals of recombinant enzyme RuBisCo from Anacystis nidulans formed by the hanging-drop method. (Courtesy of Janet Newman, Uppsala, who produced these crystals.)...

The second example is the SE-HPLC analysis of recombinant hGH. In this example, SE-HPLC is used for both a purity and a protein concentration method for bulk and formulated finished products. This method selectively separates both low molecular weight excipient materials and high molecular weight dimer and aggregate forms of hGH from monomeric hGH, as shown... 

J. S. Pati ick and A. L. Lagu, Determination of recombinant human proinsulin fusion protein produced in Escherichia coli using oxidative sulfitolysis and two-dimensional HPLC, Chem. 64 507-511 (1992). 

Previously, pharmacologists were constrained to the prewired sensitivity of isolated tissues for agonist study. As discussed in Chapter 2, different tissues possess different densities of receptor, different receptor co-proteins in the membranes, and different efficiencies of stimulus-response mechanisms. Judicious choice of tissue type could yield uniquely useful pharmacologic systems (i.e., sensitive screening tissues). However, before the availability of recombinant systems these choices were limited. With the ability to express different densities of human target proteins such as receptors has come a transformation in drug discovery. Recombinant cellular systems can now... 

Fig. 4.1.13 A ribbon representation of the crystal structure of recombinant acquorin molecule showing the secondary structure elements in the protein. Alpha-helices are denoted in cyan, beta-sheet in yellow, loops in magenta coelenterazine (yellow) and the side chain of tyrosine 184 are shown as stick representations. From Head et al., 2000, with permission from Macmillan Publishers.

The gene of Aequorea GFP was cloned by Prasher et al. (1992), and expressed in E. coli and Caenorhabditis elegans by Chalfie et al. (1994) and in E. coli by Inouye and Tsuji (1994a). The X-ray structure of recombinant GFP was solved by Ormo et al. (1996) and Yang et al. (1996,1997). The protein is in the shape of a cylinder consisting of 11 strands of (3-sheets and an a-helix inside (which contains the chromophore), with short helical segments on the ends of the cylinder. Thus the chromophore is sealed and protected from the outside medium. 

Deschamps, J. R., Miller, C. E., and Ward, K. B. (1995). Rapid purification of recombinant green fluorescent protein using the hydrophobic properties of an HPLC size-exclusion column. Protein Expression and Purification 6 555-558. 

Gonzalez, D. S., Sawyer, A., and Ward, W. W. (1997). Spectral perturbations of mutants of recombinant Aequorea victoria green-fluorescent protein (GFP). Photochem. Photobiol. 65 21S. 

Masuda, H., et al. (2003). Chromatography of isoforms of recombinant apoaequorin and method for the preparation of aequorin. Protein Expression and Purification 31 181-187. 

Petushkov, V. N., Gibson, G. B., and Lee, J. (1995). Properties of recombinant fluorescent proteins from Photobacterium leiognathi and their interaction with luciferase intermediates. Biochemistry 34 3300-3309. 

Shimomura, O., and Inouye, S. (1999). The in situ regeneration and extraction of recombinant aequorin from Escherichia coli cells and the purification of extracted aequorin. Protein Expression and Purification 16 91-95. 

Stults, N. L., Rivera, H. N., Burke-Payne, J., and Smith, D. F. (1997). Preparation of stable covalent conjugates of recombinant aequorin with proteins and nucleic acids. In Hastings, J. W., et al. (eds.), Biolumin. Chemilumin., Proc. Int. Symp., 9th, 1996, pp. 423-426. Wiley, Chichester, UK. 

Terry, B. R., Matthews, E. K., and Haseloff, J. (1995). Molecular characterization of recombinant green fluorescent protein by fluorescent correlation microscopy. Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun. 217 21—27. 

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