One step forward, two steps back: Transcriptional advancements and fermentation phenomena in Actinobacillus succinogenes 130Z.

Within the field of bioproduction, non-model organisms offer promise as bio-platform candidates. Non-model organisms can possess natural abilities to consume complex feedstocks, produce industrially useful chemicals, and withstand extreme environments that can be ideal for product extraction. However, non-model organisms also come with unique challenges due to lack of characterization. As a consequence, developing synthetic biology tools, predicting growth behavior, and building computational models can be difficult. There have been many advancements that have improved work with non-model organisms to address broad limitations, however each organism can come with unique surprises. Here we share our work in the non-model bacterium Actinobacillus succinognes 130Z, which includes both advancements in synthetic biology toolkit development and pitfalls in unpredictable fermentation behaviors. To develop a synthetic biology "tool kit" for A. succinogenes, information gleaned from a growth study and antibiotic screening was used to characterize 22 promoters which demonstrated a 260-fold range of fluorescence protein expression. The strongest of the promoters was incorporated into an inducible system for tunable gene control in A. succinogenes using the promoter for the lac operon as a template. This system flaunted a 481-fold range of expression and no significant basal expression. These findings were accompanied by unexpected changes in fermentation products characterized by a loss of succinic acid and increase in lactic acid after approximately 10 months in the lab. During evaluation of the fermentation shifts, new tests of the synthetic biology tools in a succinic acid producing strain revealed a significant loss in their functionality. Contamination and mutation were ruled out as causes and further testing is needed to elucidate the driving factors. The significance of this work is to share a successful tool development strategy that could be employed in other non-model species, report on an unfortunate phenomenon that needs addressed for further development of A. succinogenes, and provide a cautionary tale for those undertaking non-model research. In sharing our findings, we seek to provide tools and necessary information for further development of A. succinogenes as a platform for bioproduction of succinic acid and to illustrate the importance of diligent and long-term observation when working with non-model bacteria.

Simple NMR methods for evaluating higher order structures of monoclonal antibody therapeutics with quinary structure.

Monoclonal antibody (mAb) drugs constitute the largest class of protein therapeutics currently on the market. Correctly folded protein higher order structure (HOS), including quinary structure, is crucial for mAb drug quality. The quinary structure is defined as the association of quaternary structures (e.g., oligomerized mAb). Here, several commonly available analytical methods, i.e., size-exclusion-chromatography (SEC) FPLC, multi-angle light scattering (MALS), circular dichroism (CD), NMR and multivariate analysis, were combined and modified to yield a complete profile of HOS and comparable metrics. Rituximab and infliximab were chosen for method evaluation because both IgG1 molecules are known to be homologous in sequence, superimposable in Fab crystal structure and identical in Fc structure. However, herein the two are identified to be significantly different in quinary structure in addition to minor secondary structure differences. All data collectively showed rituximab was mostly monomeric while infliximab was in mono-oligomer equilibrium driven by its Fab fragment. The quinary structure differences were qualitatively inferred from the less used but more reproducible dilution-injection-SEC-FPLC curve method. Quantitative principal component analysis (PCA) was performed on NMR spectra of either the intact or the in-situ enzymatic-digested mAb samples. The cleavage reactions happened directly in NMR tubes without further separation, which greatly enhanced NMR spectra quality and resulted in larger inter- and intra-lot variations based on PCA. The new in-situ enzymatic digestion method holds potential in identifying structural differences on larger therapeutic molecules using NMR.

Synthesis and detection of N-sulfonated oversulfated chondroitin sulfate in marketplace heparin.

N-sulfonated oversulfated chondroitin sulfate (NS-OSCS), recently reported as a potential threat to the heparin supply, was prepared along with its intermediate derivatives. All compounds were spiked into marketplace heparin and subjected to United States Pharmacopeia (USP) identification assays for heparin (proton nuclear magnetic resonance [(1)H NMR], chromatographic identity, % galactosamine [%GalN], anti-factor IIa potency, and anti-factor Xa/IIa ratio). The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) strong-anionic exchange high-performance liquid chromatography (SAX-HPLC) method resolved NS-OSCS from heparin and OSCS and had a limit of detection of 0.26% (w/w) NS-OSCS. The %GalN test was sensitive to the presence of NS-OSCS in heparin. Therefore, current USP heparin monograph tests (i.e., SAX-HPLC and %GalN) detect the presence of NS-OSCS in heparin.