Lysine-PEGylated Cytochrome C with Enhanced Shelf-Life Stability

Cytochrome c (Cyt-c), a small mitochondrial electron transport heme protein, has been employed in bioelectrochemical and therapeutic applications. However, its potential as both a biosensor and anticancer drug is significantly impaired due to poor long-term and thermal stability. To overcome these drawbacks, we developed a site-specific PEGylation protocol for Cyt-c. The PEG derivative used was a 5 kDa mPEG-NHS, and a site-directed PEGylation at the lysine amino-acids was performed. The effects of the pH of the reaction media, molar ratio (Cyt-c:mPEG-NHS) and reaction time were evaluated. The best conditions were defined as pH 7, 1:25 Cyt-c:mPEG-NHS and 15 min reaction time, resulting in PEGylation yield of 45% for Cyt-c-PEG-4 and 34% for Cyt-c-PEG-8 (PEGylated cytochrome c with 4 and 8 PEG molecules, respectively). Circular dichroism spectra demonstrated that PEGylation did not cause significant changes to the secondary and tertiary structures of the Cyt-c. The long-term stability of native and PEGylated Cyt-c forms was also investigated in terms of peroxidative activity. The results demonstrated that both Cyt-c-PEG-4 and Cyt-c-PEG-8 were more stable, presenting higher half-life than unPEGylated protein. In particular, Cyt-c-PEG-8 presented great potential for biomedical applications, since it retained 30-40% more residual activity than Cyt-c over 60-days of storage, at both studied temperatures of 4 °C and 25 °C.publishe

Building better biobetters: from fundamentals to industrial application

Biological drugs or biopharmaceuticals off patent open a large market for biosimilars and biobetters, follow-on biologics. Biobetters, in particular, are new drugs designed from existing ones with improved properties such as higher selectivity, stability, half-life and/or lower toxicity/immunogenicity. Glycosylation is one of the most used strategies to improve biological drugs, nonetheless bioconjugation is an additional alternative and refers to the covalent attachment of polymers to biological drugs. Extensive research on novel polymers is underway, nonetheless PEGylation is still the best alternative with the longest clinical track record. Innovative trends based on genetic engineering techniques such as fusion proteins and PASylation are also promising. In this review, all these alternatives wereexplored as well as current market trends, legislation and future perspectives.publishe

In situpurification of periplasmatic L-asparaginase by aqueous two phase systems with ionic liquids (ILs) as adjuvants

(ALL) and lymphosarcoma. Considering its main use in cancer therapy, the most important request for ASNase production is the need for a highly pure biopharmaceutical obtained in the final of the downstream process, which is considered as the crucial step in its production. RESULTS: This work proposes the use of polymer–salt aqueous two-phase systems (ATPS) based on polyethylene glycol and citrate buffer, with ionic liquids (ILs) as adjuvants, combined with the permeabilization of cell membrane using n-dodecane and glycine for the in situ purification of periplasmatic ASNase from Escherichia coli cells. The process proposed was optimized (polymer molecular weight, pH, tie-line length/mixture point, presence, nature and concentration of the adjuvant). The results show that ASNase partitions mostly to the PEG-rich phase, due to hydrophobic interactions between both PEG and enzyme. Remarkably, the addition of 5 wt% of 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium methanesulfonate [C4mim][CH3SO3] as adjuvant lead to high recoveries [87.94 ± 0.03 (%)], purification factors (20.09 ± 0.35), and a final specific activity SA = 3.61 ± 0.38 U mg-1 protein, from a crude enzyme extract with a SA = 0.18 ± 0.05 U mg-1 protein. Moreover, better results were achieved when a prepurification step consisting of an ammonium sulfate precipitation was combined with the optimized ATPS, achieving an increased SA = 22.01 ± 1.36 U mg-1 protein and PF = 173.8. CONCLUSIONS: A novel integrated downstream process was successfully implemented for the in situ purification of ASNase from fermentation broth.publishe