Engineering bacterial nitroreductases for anticancer gene therapy and targeted cell ablation

Bacterial nitroreductases are members of a diverse family of oxidoreductase enzymes that can catalyse the bioreductive activation of nitroaromatic compounds, including anti-cancer and antibiotic prodrugs. Nitroreductases have diverse applications in medicine and research, including anti-cancer gene therapy and targeted ablation of nitroreductase‑expressing cells in transgenic zebrafish to model degenerative diseases. Research in these fields to date has focused almost exclusively on the canonical nitroreductase NfsB from Escherichia coli (NfsB_Ec), which is a relatively inefficient choice for most applications. By exploring alternative nitroreductase candidates from a variety of bacterial species, in concert with enzyme engineering to fine-tune specific activities, we have generated improved prodrug-activating enzymes. The nitroreductase NfsB from Vibrio vulnificus (NfsB_Vv) has been central to our efforts, and following solution of its crystal structure, was selected as a scaffold for directed evolution via site-saturation mutagenesis. By applying library screening strategies that involved rounds of both positive and negative selection, several mutants that displayed improved activity with a promising next-generation cancer prodrug were identified. In parallel work, an engineered NfsB_Vv variant from the same library was found to be substantially improved in activation of the antibiotic prodrug metronidazole, which is widely used for targeted cell ablation in transgenic zebrafish. Current methods of ablation employing NfsB_Ec require high, near lethal concentrations of metronidazole to achieve total ablation of nitroreductase-expressing cells. A transgenic zebrafish line expressing a lead NfsB_Vv variant was generated and we found we could achieve robust ablation of nitroreductase-expressing cells at a 100-fold reduced metronidazole concentration compared to the NfsB_Ec line (0.1 mM challenge for 24 hours vs 10 mM challenge for 48 hours respectively). The identification of these superior nitroreductase variants offers improved tools for researchers aiming to achieve targeted cell ablation in either a cancer therapy or degenerative disease-modelling context

Discovering and engineering novel prodrug activating and detoxifying enzymes to improve targeted cell ablation

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Discovery and evolution of primordial antibiotic resistance genes from soil microbes

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Accessing bacterial dark matter for improved enzyme discovery and engineering

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Engineering bacterial nitroreductases for anticancer gene therapy and targeted cell ablation

Specific tumour ablation through gene therapy holds great promise as an anti-cancer strategy. Gene therapy has potential to achieve specificity and ablation through a mechanism unlike that of chemo and radio-therapies, and to be used in combination with these therapies without overlapping toxicities. In one promising therapy a bacterial or viral tumour-tropic vector can be ‘armed’ with genes encoding enzymes that convert prodrugs, non-toxic precursor molecules, into a highly cytotoxic form. Current cancer treatments are disadvantaged by their non-specificity resulting in undesirable side-effects for patients, and historically gene therapy has been hindered by the inability of the vector to infect all cancer cells necessary to eradicate the tumour and prevent recurrence. Please click on the file below for full content

VapC proteins from Mycobacterium tuberculosis share ribonuclease sequence specificity but differ in regulation and toxicity.

The chromosome of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) contains a large number of Type II toxin-antitoxin (TA) systems. The majority of these belong to the VapBC TA family, characterised by the VapC protein consisting of a PIN domain with four conserved acidic residues, and proposed ribonuclease activity. Characterisation of five VapC (VapC1, 19, 27, 29 and 39) proteins from various regions of the Mtb chromosome using a combination of pentaprobe RNA sequences and mass spectrometry revealed a shared ribonuclease sequence-specificity with a preference for UAGG sequences. The TA complex VapBC29 is auto-regulatory and interacts with inverted repeat sequences in the vapBC29 promoter, whereas complexes VapBC1 and VapBC27 display no auto-regulatory properties. The difference in regulation could be due to the different properties of the VapB proteins, all of which belong to different VapB protein families. Regulation of the vapBC29 operon is specific, no cross-talk among Type II TA systems was observed. VapC29 is bacteriostatic when expressed in Mycobacterium smegmatis, whereas VapC1 and VapC27 displayed no toxicity upon expression in M. smegmatis. The shared sequence specificity of the five VapC proteins characterised is intriguing, we propose that the differences observed in regulation and toxicity is the key to understanding the role of these TA systems in the growth and persistence of Mtb

The Crystal Structure of Engineered Nitroreductase NTR 2.0 and Impact of F70A and F108Y Substitutions on Substrate Specificity

Bacterial nitroreductase enzymes that convert prodrugs to cytotoxins are valuable tools for creating transgenic targeted ablation models to study cellular function and cell-specific regeneration paradigms. We recently engineered a nitroreductase (“NTR 2.0”) for substantially enhanced reduction of the prodrug metronidazole, which permits faster cell ablation kinetics, cleaner interrogations of cell function, ablation of previously recalcitrant cell types, and extended ablation paradigms useful for modelling chronic diseases. To provide insight into the enhanced enzymatic mechanism of NTR 2.0, we have solved the X-ray crystal structure at 1.85 Angstroms resolution and compared it to the parental enzyme, NfsB from Vibrio vulnificus. We additionally present a survey of reductive activity with eight alternative nitroaromatic substrates, to provide access to alternative ablation prodrugs, and explore applications such as remediation of dinitrotoluene pollutants. The predicted binding modes of four key substrates were investigated using molecular modelling