title: Fusion protein linkers: property, design and functionality.
abstract: As an indispensable component of recombinant fusion proteins, linkers have shown increasing importance in the construction of stable, bioactive fusion proteins. This review covers the current knowledge of fusion protein linkers and summarizes examples for their design and application. The general properties of linkers derived from naturally-occurring multi-domain proteins can be considered as the foundation in linker design. Empirical linkers designed by researchers are generally classified into 3 categories according to their structures: flexible linkers, rigid linkers, and in vivo cleavable linkers. Besides the basic role in linking the functional domains together (as in flexible and rigid linkers) or releasing the free functional domain in vivo (as in in vivo cleavable linkers), linkers may offer many other advantages for the production of fusion proteins, such as improving biological activity, increasing expression yield, and achieving desirable pharmacokinetic profiles.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmacology and Pharmaceutical Sciences, School of Pharmacy, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089, USA.
authors.forename: Xiaoying
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Jennica L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Zaro
authors.forename: Wei-Chiang
authors.initials: WC
authors.lastname: Shen
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D016503:Drug Delivery Systems; D006801:Humans; D010455:Peptides / Q000737:chemistry; D017434:Protein Structure, Tertiary; D011993:Recombinant Fusion Proteins / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D010455:Peptides; D011993:Recombinant Fusion Proteins