Burgos

Copia digital. Valladolid : Junta de Castilla y León. Consejería de Cultura y Turismo, 2009-201

Adenoviral gene transfer of angiostatic ATF-BPTI inhibits tumour growth

BACKGROUND: The outgrowth of new vessels – angiogenesis – in the tumour mass is considered to be a limiting factor of tumour growth. To inhibit the matrix lysis that is part of the tumour angiogenesis, we employed the chimeric protein mhATF-BPTI, composed of the receptor binding part of the urokinase (ATF) linked to an inhibitor of plasmin (BPTI). METHODS: For delivery, recombinant adenovirus encoding the transgene of interest was injected intravenously or locally into the tumour. The anti tumour effect of this compound was compared to that of human endostatin and of mhATF alone in two different rat bronchial carcinomas growing either as subcutaneous implants or as metastases. RESULTS: Significant inhibition of the tumour growth and decrease of the number of lung metastasis was achieved when the concentration of mhATF-BPTI at the tumour site was above 400 of ng / g tissue. This concentration could be achieved via production by the liver, only if permissive to the recombinant adenovirus. When the tumour cells could be transduced, local delivery of the vector was enough to obtain a response. In the case of metastasis, the capacity of the lung tissue to concentrate the encoded protein was essential to reach the required therapeutic levels. Further, endostatin or mhATF could not reproduce the effects of mhATF-BPTI, at similar concentrations (mhATF) and even at 10-fold higher concentration (endostatin). CONCLUSION: The ATF-BPTI was shown to inhibit tumour growth of different rat lung tumours when critical concentration was reached. In these tumour models, endostatin or ATF induce almost no tumour response

A point mutation in a murine immunoglobulin V-region strongly influences the antibody yield in Escherichia coli

Recombinant DNA technology has made it possible to produce specific Fab and scFv antibody (Ab) fragments in prokaryotic host cells. Using vectors designed for periplasmic expression of encoded Ab fragments, we have been studying how the sequence and genetic localization of the light chain (L-chain) variable region gene of a mouse Ab (CB-Nm.1) determined the level of Ab production. The variable region was shown to belong to the VKV family and contained a previously unreported Ile72. Nine different Ab constructions were tested in monocistronic (scFv) or dicistronic (Fab) operons for their ability to affect the synthesis level of the L-chain. When the gene coding for the L-chain was located downstream from the Fd fragment gene, the substitution of codons encoding Ile by a codon encoding Thr was found to be crucial for any expression of the L-chain fragment. This was, however, not accompanied by an increase in L-chain-specific mRNA, neither was there any change in the size of the mRNA. The fact that the unmutated L-chain protein was produced from cells transformed with certain other constructions indicated that the protein as such was not incompatible with the prokaryotic environment. Together, this suggested that the translation process was involved in the restricted production of the L-chain. Thus, surprisingly small substitutions significantly affected the expression level, a fact that will have important implications on the library size expressed in prokaryotic hosts, including phagedisplayed Ab libraries

Intra- and extracellular expression of an scFv antibody fragment in E. coli : Effect of bacterial strains and pathway engineering using GroES/L chaperonins

We have studied the influence of bacterial host on the secretion of single-chain Fv antibody fragment (scFv), the production of this antibody fragment as intracellular fusion protein, and the effect of chaperonin coexpression on intracellular antibody expression. Seven bacterial strains were transformed with a vector carrying the genes encoding the variable regions of an anti-CEA scFv antibody and the ompA leader sequence (ptrp/ompA/scFvCEA). Expression and secretion of this antibody fragment were highest in the W3110 strain, as determined by Western blot analysis and enzyme immunoassay, where the scFv fragment amounted to approximately 30% of the total periplasmic protein. Except for BMH71-18, the other strains were unsuitable for antibody fragment expression, suggesting screening of bacterial strains as an important parameter. For intracellular expression, the scFv was expressed as a fusion protein with a 26-amino acid N-terminal fragment of human interleukin-2 (IL-2), using the pIL-2f/scFvCEA vector. The fusion protein was expressed at 30% of total biomass and retained antigen binding after in vitro refolding. Co-expression of chaperonin encoding plasmic pGroES/L with pIL-2f/scFv increased the intracellular production of the fusion protein two-fold, with a similar increase in the final amount of active scFv antibody fragment that could be obtained after in vitro refolding. The chaperonins had no effect on secretion of scFv antibody fragments, using the ptrp/ompA/scFvCEA