title: Stable expression of soluble therapeutic peptides in eukaryotic cells by multimerisation: application to the HIV-1 fusion inhibitory peptide C46.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Georg-Speyer-Haus, Institute for Biomedical Research, Paul-Ehrlich-Strasse 42-44, 60596 Frankfurt am Main, Germany.
authors.forename: Xavier
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Dervillez
authors.forename: Alexandra
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Hüther
authors.forename: Jochen
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Schuhmacher
authors.forename: Christian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Griesinger
authors.forename: Jacques H
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Cohen
authors.forename: Dorothee
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: von Laer
authors.forename: Ursula
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Dietrich
mesh_terms: 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
chemical_list: C515020:C46 HIV-1 fusion inhibitory peptide; D017931:DNA Primers; D011993:Recombinant Fusion Proteins; D011994:Recombinant Proteins