Hidenao Arai

Establishment of a reborn MMV-microarray technology: realization of microbiome analysis and other hitherto inaccessible technologies

BackgroundWith the accelerating development of bioscience, the problem of research cost has become important. We previously devised and developed a novel concept microarray with manageable volumes (MMV) using a soft gel. It demonstrated the great potential of the MMV technology with the examples of 1024-parallel-cell culture and PCR experiments. However, its full potential failed to be expressed, owing to the nature of the material used for the MMV chip.ResultsIn the present study, by developing plastic-based MMVs and associated technologies, we introduced novel technologies such as C2D2P (in which the cells in each well are converted from DNA to protein in 1024-parallel), NGS-non-dependent microbiome analysis, and other powerful applications.ConclusionsThe reborn MMV-microarray technology has proven to be highly efficient and cost-effective (with approximately 100-fold cost reduction) and enables us to realize hitherto unattainable technologies.

Synthetic Assembly of Mannose Moieties Using Polymer Chemistry and the Biological Evaluation of Its Interaction towards Concanavalin A.

Protein–carbohydrate interactions exhibit myriad intracellular recognition events, so understanding and investigating their specific interaction with high selectivity and strength are of crucial importance. In order to examine the effect of multivalent binding on the specificity of protein–carbohydrate interactions, we synthesized mannose glycosides as a novel type of glycosylated monomer and glycopolymers of polyacrylamide derivatives with α-mannose (α-Man) by radical polymerization and monitored their strength of interaction with concanavalin A (Con A) by surface plasmon resonance (SPR) detection. In a quantitative test using the Con A-immobilized sensor surface, the kinetic affinity for the synthesized polymers, 8a (KD = 3.3 × 10−6 M) and 8b (KD = 5.3 × 10−5 M), were concentration-dependent, showing strong, specific molecular recognition abilities with lectin. Our study showed the enhancement in recognition specificity for multivalent saccharides, which is often mediated by cell surface carbohydrate-binding proteins that exhibit weak affinity and broad specificity for the individual ligands.

Characterization of Norovirus RNA replicase for in vitro amplification of RNA

BackgroundThe isothermal amplification of RNA in vitro has been used for the study of in vitro evolution of RNA. Although Qβ replicase has been traditionally used as an enzyme for this purpose, we planned to use norovirus replicase (NV3Dpol) due to its structural simplicity in the scope of in vitro autonomous evolution of the protein. Characteristics of the enzyme NV3Dpolin vitro were re-evaluated in this context.ResultsNV3Dpol, synthesized by using a cell-free translation system, represented the activities which were reported in the previous several studies and the reports were not fully consistent each other. The efficiency of the initiation of replication was dependent on the 3’-terminal structure of single-stranded RNA template, and especially, NV3Dpol preferred a self-priming small stem-loop. In the non-self-priming and primer-independent replication reaction, the presence of -CCC residues at the 3’-terminus increased the initiation efficiency and we demonstrated the one-pot isothermal RNA (even dsRNA) amplification by 16-fold. NV3Dpol also showed a weak activity of elongation-reaction from a long primer. Based on these results, we present a scheme of the primer-independent isothermal amplification of RNA with NV3Dpolin vitro.ConclusionsNV3Dpol can be used as an RNA replicase in in vitro RNA + protein evolution with the RNA of special terminal sequences.

In Vitro Selection of Single-Domain Antibody (VHH) Using cDNA Display

Single-domain antibody (e.g., Nanobody, VHH antibody) is a promising scaffold for therapeutic and diagnostic reagents. To expand the range of target molecules, in vitro selection using cell-free display technologies such as cDNA display is useful and powerful because of their huge libraries and robust stability. We provide technical details for in vitro selection of single-domain antibodies using cDNA display.

Iodoacetyl-functionalized pullulan: A supplemental enhancer for single-domain antibody–polyclonal antibody sandwich enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay for detection of survivin

Survivin, an inhibitor of the apoptosis protein family, is a potent tumor marker for diagnosis and prognosis. The enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) is one of the methods that has been used for detection of survivin. However, ELISA has several disadvantages caused by the use of conventional antibodies, and we have therefore been trying to develop a novel ELISA system using camelid single-domain antibodies (VHHs) as advantageous replacements. Here we report a supplemental approach to improve the VHH-polyclonal antibody sandwich ELISA for survivin detection. Iodoacetyl-functionalized pullulan was synthesized, and its thiol reactivity was characterized by a model reaction with l-cysteine. The thiophilic pullulan was applied to an immunoassay asan additive upon coating of standard assay plates with an anti-survivin VHH fusion protein with C-terminal cysteine. The results showed that the mole ratio of the additive to VHH had a significant effect on the consequent response. Mole ratios of 0.07, 0.7, and 7 led to 90% lower, 15% higher, and 69% lower responses, respectively, than the response of a positive control in which no additive was used. The background levels observed in any additive conditions were as low as that of a negative control lacking both VHH and the additive. These results indicate the applicability of the thiol-reactive pullulan as a response enhancer to VHH-based ELISA.

Optimal terminal sequences for continuous or serial isothermal amplification of dsRNA with norovirus RNA replicase

The norovirus RNA replicase (NV3Dpol, 56 kDa, single chain monomeric protein) can amplify double-stranded (ds) RNA isothermally. It will play an alternative role in the in vitro evolution against traditional Qβ RNA replicase, which cannot amplify dsRNA and consists of four subunits, three of which are borrowed from host E.coli. In order to identify the optimal 3′-terminal sequence of the RNA template for NV3Dpol, an in vitro selection using the serial transfer was performed for a random library having the 3′-terminal sequence of ---UUUUUUNNNN-3′. The population landscape on the 4-dimensional sequence space of the 17th round of transfer gave a main peak around ---CAAC-3′. In the preceding studies on the batch amplification reaction starting from a single-stranded RNA, a template with 3′-terminal C-stretch was amplified effectively. It was confirmed that in the batch amplification the ---CCC-3′ was much more effective than the ---CAAC-3′, but in the serial transfer condition in which the ----CAAC-3′ was sustained stably, the ---CCC-3′ was washed out. Based on these results we proposed the existence of the “shuttle mode” replication of dsRNA. We also proposed the optimal terminal sequences of RNA for in vitro evolution with NV3Dpol.