Stable expression of soluble therapeutic peptides in eukaryotic cells by multimerisation: application to the HIV-1 fusion inhibitory peptide C46.
A major drawback of therapeutic peptides is their short half-life, which results in the need for multiple applications and high synthesis costs. To overcome this, we established a eukaryotic expression system that allows the stable expression of small therapeutic peptides by multimerisation. By inserting the sequence encoding the therapeutic peptide between a signal peptide and the multimerising domain of the alpha-chain from the human C4bp plasma protein, therapeutic peptides as small as 5 kDa are secreted as multimers from transfected cells; this allows easy purification. As proof of principle, we show that the T20-derived HIV-1 fusion inhibitory peptide C46 in its multimeric form: i) was efficiently secreted, ii) was more stable than the current antiviral drug T20 in vitro and in vivo, and iii) inihibited HIV-1 entry with similar efficiency in vitro. Besides the gain in stability, multimerisation also leads to increased valency and allows the combination of several therapeutic functions. Furthermore, by expressing the multimers from cells, post-translational modifications could easily be introduced.
Dervillez
Xavier
X
Georg-Speyer-Haus, Institute for Biomedical Research, Paul-Ehrlich-Strasse 42-44, 60596 Frankfurt am Main, Germany.
Hüther
Alexandra
A
Schuhmacher
Jochen
J
Griesinger
Christian
C
Cohen
Jacques H
JH
von Laer
Dorothee
D
Dietrich
Ursula
U
D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D017931:DNA Primers; D004591:Electrophoresis, Polyacrylamide Gel; D005057:Eukaryotic Cells / Q000378:metabolism; D006031:Glycosylation; D051379:Mice; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D011993:Recombinant Fusion Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism / Q000494:pharmacology*; D011994:Recombinant Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism / Q000494:pharmacology; D012995:Solubility
C515020:C46 HIV-1 fusion inhibitory peptide; D017931:DNA Primers; D011993:Recombinant Fusion Proteins; D011994:Recombinant Proteins