A Moderately Thermostable Alkaline Phosphatase from Geobacillus thermodenitrificans T2: Cloning, Expression and Biochemical Characterization

A gene-encoding alkaline phosphatase (AP) from thermophilic Geobacillus thermodenitrificans T2, termed Gtd AP, was cloned and sequenced. The deduced Gtd AP protein comprises 424 amino acids and shares a low homology with other known AP (<35% identity), while it exhibits the conservation of the active site and structure element of Escherichia coli AP. The Gtd AP protein, without a predicted signal peptide of 30 amino acids, was successfully overexpressed in E. coli and purified as a hexa-His-tagged fusion protein. The pH and temperature optima for purified enzyme are 9.0 and 65 °C, respectively. The enzyme retained a high activity at 45–60 °C, while it could be quickly inactivated by a heat treatment at 80 °C for 15 min, exhibiting a half-life of 8 min at 70 °C. The K _m and V _max for pNPP were determined to be 31.5 μM and 430 μM/min at optimal conditions. A divalent cation is essential, with a combination of Mg²⁺ and Co²⁺ or Zn²⁺ preferred. The enzyme was strongly inhibited by 10 mM ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA) and vanadate but highly resistant to urea and dithiothreitol. The properties of Gtd AP make it suitable for application in molecular cloning or amplification.     

Expression of Recombinant Human Epidermal Growth Factor in Escherichia coli and Characterization of its Biological Activity

Recombinant human epidermal growth factor (EGF) was successfully expressed as a fusion protein in Escherichia coli system. This system was used OmpA signal sequence to produce soluble protein into the periplasm of E. coli. Human EGF (hEGF) synthesized in bacterial cell was found to be similar in size with the original protein and molecular weight approximately at 6.8 kDa. Cell proliferation assay was conducted to characterize the biological activity of hEGF on human dermal fibroblasts. The synthesized hEGF was found to be functional as compared with authentic hEGF in stimulating cell proliferation and promoting growth of cell. In comparison of biological activity between synthesized and commercial hEGF on cell proliferation, the results showed there was no significant different. This finding indicates the synthesized hEGF in E. coli system is fully bioactive in vitro.     

Solubilization and Refolding with Simultaneous Purification of Recombinant Human Stem Cell Factor

Recombinant human stem cell factor (rhSCF) was solubilized and renatured from inclusion bodies expressed in Escherichia coli. The effect of both pH and urea on the solubilization of rhSCF inclusion bodies was investigated; the results indicate that the solubilization of rhSCF inclusion bodies was significantly influenced by the pH of the solution employed, and low concentration of urea can drastically improve the solubilization of rhSCF when solubilized by high pH solution. The solubilized rhSCF can be easily refolded with simultaneous purification by ion exchange chromatography (IEC), with a specific activity of 7.8 × 10⁵ IU·mg⁻¹, a purity of 96.3%, and a mass recovery of 43.0%. The presented experimental results show that rhSCF solubilized by high pH solution containing low concentration of urea is easier to be renatured than that solubilized by high concentration of urea, and the IEC refolding method was more efficient than dilution refolding and dialysis refolding for rhSCF. It may have a great potential for large-scale production of rhSCF.     

A New Protocol for Solubilization, Refolding and Purification of Recombinant Human Granulocyte Colony-stimulating Factor in Inclusion Bodies

Recombinant human granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (rhG-CSF) is a multifunctio- nal cytokine, which plays a key role in the immune system. High-level expression of rhG-CSF in Escherichia Coli (E.Coli) often accumulates in vivo as insoluble aggregates…     

Molecular Cloning and Bacterial Expression of Germacrene A Synthase cDNA from Crepidiastrum sonchifolium

Crepidiastrum sonchifolium(Bunge),whose activeingredients are sesquiterpenes,triterpene,flavone,andlignanoid,has been used as a folk medicine in Asiancountries because of its digestive,diuretic,and anti-in-flammatory activities[1,2].It is interesting to k…     

Linoleic Acid Isomerase from <Emphasis Type="Italic">Propionibacterium acnes</Emphasis>: Purification,Characterization, Molecular Cloning,and Heterologous Expression

Propionibacterium acnes strain ATCC 6919 catalyzes the isomerization of the double bond at the C9 position in linoleic acid (c9,c12, 18:2) to form t10,c12 conjugated linoleic acid (CLA, 18:2). CLA has significant health benefits in animal and human. The linoleic acid C9 isomerase was purified to an apparent homogeneity by successive chromatography on diethylaminoethyl (DEAE) anion exchange, hydrophobic interaction, and chromatofocusing columns. Two degenerated oligonucleotide primers were synthesized according to the N-terminal peptide sequence to clone, by polymerase chain reaction (PCR), a short nucleotide sequence (62 bp) of the isomerase gene. The linoleic acid isomerase gene (lai) was subsequently cloned by inverse PCR. The amino acid sequence deduced from the lai coding sequence predicts a protein of 424 amino acid residues (48 kDa), excluding the N-terminal methionine, which was absent in the polypeptide purified from the native host. The isomerase shares no significant sequence homology to other enzymes except a flavin-binding domain in the N-terminal region. The recombinant isomerase purified from Escherichia coli showed a typical ultraviolet spectrum for FAD-bound proteins. The recombinant enzyme produced a single isomer of t10,c12-CLA from linoleic acid, as demonstrated by gas chromatography and gas chromatography-mass spectrum analysis. The recombinant isomerase protein was expressed at high levels in E. coli, but it was almost totally sequestered in inclusion bodies. The level of active isomerase was increased 376-fold by medium and process optimization in bench-scale fermentors.     

Expression and Purification of Active Recombinant Human Nerve Growth Factor from Escherichia coli

Introduction Nerve growth factor(NGF) was first discovered and purified by Rita Levi-Montalcini and Stanley Cohen in the 1950s[1,2]. It represents the first cellular growth factor ever discovered and involved in the growth, survival, and differentiation of specific nerve cell popula-tions[3].     

Cloning, Expression and Purification of Wheat Acetyl-CoA Carboxylases CT Domain in E.coil

The entire gene of carboxyltransferase(CT) domain of acetyl-CoA carboxylase(ACCase) from Chinese Spring wheat(CSW) plastid was cloned firstly,and the 2.3 kb gene was inserted into PET28a+ vector and expressed in E.coil in a soluble state.The (His)6 fusion protein was identified by SDS-PAGE and Western blot.The recombinant protein was purified by affinity chromatography,and the calculated molecular mass(Mr) was 88000.The results of the sequence analysis indicate that the cloned gene(GeneBank accession No.EU124675) was a supplement and revision of the reported ACCase CT partial cDNA from Chinese Spring wheat plastid.The recombinant protein will be significant for us to investigate the recognizing mechanism between ACCase and herbicides,and further to screen new herbicides.     

Cloning, Expression and Purification of Wheat Acetyl-CoA Carboxylases CT Domain in E. coil

The entire gene of carboxyltransferase（CT） domain of acetyl-CoA carboxylase（ACCase） from Chinese Spring wheat（CSW） plastid was cloned firstly, and the 2.3 kb gene was inserted into PET28a^＋ vector and expressed in E. coil in a soluble state. The （His）6 fusion protein was identified by SDS-PAGE and Western blot. The recombinant protein was purified by affinity chromatography, and the calculated molecular mass（Mr） was 88000. The results of the sequence analysis indicate that the cloned gene（GeneBank accession No. EU124675） was a supplement and revision of the reported ACCase CT partial cDNA from Chinese Spring wheat plastid. The recombinant protein will be significant for us to investigate the recognizing mechanism between ACCase and herbicides, and further to screen new herbicides.     

3,6-二取代三唑并噻二唑衍生物的合成及其对细胞分裂周期25B磷酸酶和蛋白酪氨酸磷酸酶1B抑制活性评价

合成出了一系列含苯并咪唑/芳氧甲基骨架的3,6-二取代三唑并噻二唑衍生物3a~3l,其结构经傅里叶变换红外光谱仪(FT-IR)、核磁共振波谱仪(NMR)和元素分析得以确认。 评价了它们对细胞分裂周期25B磷酸酶(Cdc25B)/蛋白酪氨酸磷酸酶1B(PTP1B)的抑制活性,讨论了构效关系。 生物活性测试结果显示,化合物3a对Cdc25B和PTP1B的抑制活性最高,其半数抑制浓度(IC₅₀)值分别为(0.46±0.02) μg/mL和(1.77±0.40) μg/mL。 所得研究结果为开发新型Cdc25B/PTP1B抑制剂提供了参考依据。     

Preparation of strong anion-exchange chromatographic packings based on monodisperse polymeric beads and their application in the separation of biopolymers

A new hydrophilic strong anion-exchange (SAX) stationary phase for HPLC has been synthesized by chemical modification of macroporous 8.0-m monodisperse poly(glycidylmethacrylate-co-ethylenedimethacrylate) beads (P_GMA/EDMA). The stationary phase was evaluated in detail to determine its ion-exchange properties, separability, reproducibility, hydrophilicity, and the effect of column loading and pH on the separation and retention of proteins. It was found to have an ion-exchange chromatographic (IEC) retention mechanism. The highest dynamic protein loading capacity of the synthesized SAX packing for BSA was 22.6 mg g^–1. Five proteins were separated within 6.0 min using the synthesized SAX resin. The SAX resin was also used for rapid separation and purification of recombinant human stem cell factor (rhSCF) from a crude extract solution in only one step. The purity of the purified of rhSCF was >92.4%.     

Purification and Biochemical Characterization of a New Protease Inhibitor from Conyza dioscoridis with Antimicrobial,Antifungal and Cytotoxic Effects

The main objective of the current study was the extraction, purification, and biochemical characterization of a protein protease inhibitor from Conyza dioscoridis. Antimicrobial potential and cytotoxic effects were also examined. The protease inhibitor was extracted in 0.1 M phosphate buffer (pH 6–7). Then, the protease inhibitor, named PDInhibitor, was purified using ammonium sulfate precipitation followed by filtration through a Sephadex G-50 column and had an apparent molecular weight of 25 kDa. The N-terminal sequence of PDInhibitor showed a high level of identity with those of the Kunitz family. PDInhibitor was found to be active at pH values ranging from 5.0 to 11.0, with maximal activity at pH 9.0. It was also fully active at 50 °C and maintained 90% of its stability at over 55 °C. The thermostability of the PDInhibitor was clearly enhanced by CaCl₂ and sorbitol, whereas the presence of Ca²⁺ and Zn²⁺ ions, Sodium taurodeoxycholate (NaTDC), Sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS), Dithiothreitol (DTT), and β-ME dramatically improved the inhibitory activity. A remarkable affinity of the protease inhibitor with available important therapeutic proteases (elastase and trypsin) was observed. PDInhibitor also acted as a potent inhibitor of commercial proteases from Aspergillus oryzae and of Proteinase K. The inhibitor displayed potent antimicrobial activity against gram+ and gram- bacteria and against fungal strains. Interestingly, PDInhibitor affected several human cancer cell lines, namely HCT-116, MDA-MB-231, and Lovo. Thus, it can be considered a potentially powerful therapeutic agent.     

具有生物活性的人带3蛋白胞质片段融合蛋白的克隆、表达与纯化

用PCR法从质粒pHB3中扩增了人红细胞带3蛋白胞质片段(CDB3)基因.PCR产物经限制性内切酶切割后与多克隆位点处带有编码6个组氨酸序列的高效表达载体pET28b连接,构建为重组子pCDBHistag.重组子经酶切及序列测定后在大肠杆菌BL21(DE3)中获得高效表达,可溶性目的蛋白占菌体总蛋白的40%左右.C端带有6个连续组氨酸的带3蛋白胞质片段作为融合蛋白不仅可以降低宿主菌蛋白酶对其水解程度,而且简化了目的蛋白的纯化过程.经一步螯合Ni²⁺的亲和层析获得了电泳纯的带3蛋白胞质片段融合蛋白.活性测定结果表明,带3蛋白胞质片段融合蛋白能够抑制醛缩酶(Aldolase)活性的70%,与文献报道的人红细胞内带3蛋白胞质片段具有相同的功能.     

Cloning,Expression, Purification,and Characterization of β-Galactosidase from Bifidobacterium longum and Bifidobacterium pseudocatenulatum

Expression and purification of β-galactosidases derived from Bifidobacterium provide a new resource for efficient lactose hydrolysis and lactose intolerance alleviation. Here, we cloned and expressed two β-galactosidases derived from Bifidobacterium. The optimal pH for BLGLB1 was 5.5, and the optimal temperature was 45 °C, at which the enzyme activity of BLGLB1 was higher than that of commercial enzyme E (300 ± 3.6 U/mg) under its optimal conditions, reaching 2200 ± 15 U/mg. The optimal pH and temperature for BPGLB1 were 6.0 and 45 °C, respectively, and the enzyme activity (0.58 ± 0.03 U/mg) under optimum conditions was significantly lower than that of BLGLB1. The structures of the two β-galactosidase were similar, with all known key sites conserved. When o-nitrophenyl-β-D-galactoside (oNPG) was used as an enzyme reaction substrate, the maximum reaction velocity (V_max) for BLGLB1 and BPGLB1 was 3700 ± 100 U/mg and 1.1 ± 0.1 U/mg, respectively. The kinetic constant (K_m) of BLGLB1 and BPGLB1 was 1.9 ± 0.1 and 1.3 ± 0.3 mmol/L, respectively. The respective catalytic constant (k_cat) of BLGLB1 and BPGLB1 was 1700 ± 40 s⁻¹ and 0.5 ± 0.02 s⁻¹, respectively; the respective k_cat/K_m value of BLGLB1 and BPGLB1 was 870 L/(mmol∙s) and 0.36 L/(mmol∙s), respectively. The K_m, k_cat and V_max values of BLGLB1 were superior to those of earlier reported β-galactosidase derived from Bifidobacterium. Overall, BLGLB1 has potential application in the food industry.     

Cloning,Expression and Inhibitory Effects on Lewis Lung Carcinoma Cells of rAj-Tspin from Sea Cucumber (Apostichopus japonicus)

In recent years, sea cucumber has become a favorite healthcare food due to its characteristic prevention of cardiovascular diseases, suppression of tumors, as well as enhancement of immunity. In order to screen the anti-tumoral proteins or peptides from sea cucumber (Apostichopus japonicus), its cDNA library was analyzed, and a disintegrin-like and metalloproteinase with thrombospondin type 1 motif, member 13 (ADAMTS13)-like was found. ADAMTS13-like contains 10 thrombospondin 1 (TSP1) domains. Based on analysis of bioinformatics, the third TSP1 domain of this protein, which is further named Aj-Tspin, contains an arginine-glycine-aspartate (RGD) motif. Since our previous studies showed that the recombinant RGD-containing peptide from lampreys showed anti-tumoral activity, the third TSP1 domain of ADAMTS13-like was chosen to evaluate it’s effect on tumor proliferation and metastasis, despite the fact it shares almost no homologue with disintegrins from other species. After artificial synthesis, its cDNA sequence, Aj-Tspin, which is composed of 56 amino acids, was subcloned into a pET23b vector and expressed as a recombinant Aj-Tspin (rAj-Tspin) in a soluble form with a molecular weight of 6.976 kDa. Through affinity chromatography, rAj-Tspin was purified as a single protein. Both anti-proliferation and immunofluorescence assays showed that rAj-Tspin suppressed the proliferation of Lewis lung carcinoma (LLC) cells through apoptosis. Adhesion assay also displayed that rAj-Tspin inhibited the adhesion of LLC cells to ECM proteins, including fibronectin, laminin, vitronectin and collagen. Lastly, rAj-Tspin also suppressed the migration and invasion of LLC cells across the filter in transwells. Thus, the above indicates that rAj-Tspin might act as a potential anti-tumoral drug in the future and could also provide information on the nutritional value of sea cucumber.     

Actinolactomycin,a New 2-Oxonanonoidal Antitumor Antibiotic Produced by Streptomyces flavoretus 18522,and its Inhibitory Effect on the Proliferation of Human Cancer Cells

In the course of our screening for new anticancer agents from microbial resources usingmammalian cancer tsFT210 cells1-3, we found that the fermentation broth of anactinomycete strain 18522 significantly inhibited the cell cycle of tsFT210 cells at theG0/G1 phase. From the fermentation broth of this strain, we have now isolated a new2-oxonanonoidal anitumor antibiotic, named actinolactomycin 1, through a bioassay-guided separation procedure. In this communication, the isolation, structure de…     

Synthesis,Characterization and Biological Activity of Tetrahydrobenzo[4,5]thieno[2,3-d]pyrimidine Derivatives as Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor Inhibitors

Based on the molecular docking studies, which were performed to position Erlotinib and the target compounds into the active site of the epidermal growth factor receptor(EGFR) to determine the probable binding model, a novel series of 5,6,7,8-tetrahydrobenzo[4,5]thieno[2,3-d]pyrimidine derivatives as the novel potential EGFR kinase inhibitors was designed and synthesized. The antitumor activity of all the target compounds against human pulmonary carcinoma cell line A549 has been screened. Of all the target compounds, 4-[2-(1-piperidyl)carbonylmethoxyl- phenthio]-5,6,7,8-tetrahydrobenzo[4,5]thieno[2,3-d]pyrimidine(7j) demonstrated the most potent antitumor activity. Several of the target compounds exhibited moderate antitumor activity. The preliminary structure-activity relationships of some target compounds were summarized.     

Expression,Purification, and Characterization of Hepatitis B Virus Surface Antigens (HBsAg) in Yeast <Emphasis Type="Italic">Pichia Pastoris</Emphasis>

Prevention of the prevalence of HB depends upon the development of efficient diagnostic reagent and preventive vaccine. Pichia pastoris offers many advantages over the other expression systems in the production of recombinant HBsAg. In this study, we reported that the recombinant P. pastoris strains were cultured in shake flasks and then scaled up in a 5.0-l bioreactor: approximately 27 mg/l of the protein and the maximal cell OD at 600 nm of 310 were achieved in the bioreactor. The recombinant HBsAg was purified by three steps of purification procedures. SDS-PAGE showed that the purified recombinant HBsAg constituted only one homogeneous band of ~24 kDa. CsCl density gradient ultracentrifugation assay indicated that the density of the HBsAg was 1.2 mg/ml, which was in agreement with the natural HBsAg, the HBsAg expressed in Saccharomyces cerevisiae and in mammalian cells. Electron microscope observation revealed that the purified recombinant HBsAg was homogeneous 22-nm particles, suggesting the HBsAg expressed in P. pastoris was self-assembled to virus-like structures. Competitive ELISA indicated that P. pastoris-derived HBsAg possessed the excellent immunoreaction with anti-HBsAg. Animal immunization showed that the immunogenicity of P. pastoris-derived HBsAg was superior to that of S. cerevisiae-derived HBsAg. Together, our results demonstrated that the recombinant HBsAg expressed in P. pastoris could provide promising, inexpensive, and large-scale materials for the diagnostic reagent and vaccine to prevent HBV infection. Electronic supplementary material  The online version of this article (doi:) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. Rushi Liu and Qinlu Lin contributed equally to this work.     

Enzymatic and Molecular Characterization of Anti-Leishmania Molecules That Differently Target Leishmania and Mammalian eIF4A Proteins,LieIF4A and eIF4AMus

Previous investigations of the Leishmania infantum eIF4A-like protein (LieIF4A) as a potential drug target delivered cholestanol derivatives inhibitors. Here, we investigated the mode of action of cholesterol derivatives as a novel scaffold structure of LieIF4A inhibitors on the RNA-dependent ATPase activity of LieIF4A and its mammalian ortholog (eIF4AI). We compared their biochemical effects on RNA-dependent ATPase activities of both proteins and investigated if rocaglamide, a known inhibitor of eIF4A, could affect LieIF4A as well. Kinetic measurements were conducted at different concentrations of ATP, of the compound and in the presence of saturating whole yeast RNA concentrations. Kinetic analyses showed different ATP binding affinities for the two enzymes as well as different sensitivities to 7-α-aminocholesterol and rocaglamide. The 7-α-aminocholesterol inhibited LieIF4A with a higher binding affinity relative to cholestanol analogs. Cholesterol, another tested sterol, had no effect on the ATPase activity of LieIF4A or eIF4AI. The 7-α-aminocholesterol demonstrated an anti-Leishmania activity on L. infantum promastigotes. Additionally, docking simulations explained the importance of the double bond between C5 and C6 in 7-α-aminocholesterol and the amino group in the C7 position. In conclusion, Leishmania and mammalian eIF4A proteins appeared to interact differently with effectors, thus making LieIF4A a potential drug against leishmaniases.