Zhiyu Yang

Engineering a pharmacologically superior form of granulocyte-colony-stimulating factor by fusion with gelatin-like-protein polymer.

The plasma half-life of therapeutic proteins is a critical factor in many clinical applications. Therefore, new strategies to prolong plasma half-life of long-acting peptides and protein drugs are in high demand. Here, we designed an artificial gelatin-like protein (GLK) and fused this hydrophilic GLK polymer to granulocyte-colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF) to generate a chimeric GLK/G-CSF fusion protein. The genetically engineered recombinant GLK/G-CSF (rGLK/G-CSF) fusion protein was purified from Pichia pastoris. In vitro studies demonstrated that rGLK/G-CSF possessed an enlarged hydrodynamic radius, improved thermal stability and retained full bioactivity compared to unfused G-CSF. Following a single subcutaneous administration to rats, the rGLK/G-CSF fusion protein displayed a slower plasma clearance rate and stimulated greater and longer lasting increases in circulating white blood cells than G-CSF. Our findings indicate that fusion with this artificial, hydrophilic, GLK polymer provides many advantages in the construction of a potent hematopoietic factor with extended plasma half-life. This approach could be easily applied to other therapeutic proteins and have important clinical applications.

Development and Characterization of a Novel Fusion Protein of a Mutated Granulocyte Colony-Stimulating Factor and Human Serum Albumin in Pichia pastoris

The purpose of the present work was to develop a novel, long-acting and potent human serum albumin/granulocyte colony stimulating factor (HSA/G-CSF) therapeutic fusion protein. The novel fusion protein, called HMG, was constructed by genetically fusing mutated human derived G-CSF (mG-CSF) to the C-terminal of HSA and then prepared in Pichia pastoris. The molecular mass of HMG was about 85 kDa and the isoelectric point was 5.3. Circular dichroism spectroscopy suggested that mG-CSF retained nearly all of its native secondary structure, regardless of fusion. The binding capabilities of mG-CSF moiety to G-CSF receptor and HSA moiety to warfarin showed very little change after fusing. The bioactivity of HMG (11.0×106 IU/mg) was more than twice that of rHSA/G-CSF (4.6×106 IU/mg). A mutation was made at the 718th amino acid of HMG, substituting Ala for Thr, to investigate the glycosylation of HMG expressed in P. pastoris. Data indicated that HMG was modified at Thr718, speculatively with the addition of a mannose chain. In conclusion, a novel HSA/G-CSF fusion protein was successfully constructed based on a mutated G-CSF. This protein showed more potent bioactivity than rHSA/G-CSF and thus may be a suitable long-acting G-CSF.