Different strategies for expression and purification of the CT26-poly-neoepitopes vaccine in Escherichia coli.

BACKGROUND: Due to the association of hypermutated colorectal cancer (CRC) with many neo-antigens, poly-neo-epitopes are attractive vaccines. The molecular features of murine CT26 are similar to those of aggressive human CRC. CT26 contains some antigenic mutations, which can provide specific immunotherapy targets. Herein, we aimed to express, and purify the previously designed hexatope containing CT26 neoepitopes, CT26-poly-neoepitopes. METHODS AND RESULTS: In the current study, expression of the CT26-poly-neoepitopes was optimized in three different Escherichia coli strains including BL21 (DE3), Origami (DE3), and SHuffle®. Furthermore, the effect of ethanol on the CT26-poly-neoepitopes expression was investigated. The highest amount of CT26-poly-neoepitopes, which included CT26-poly-neoepitopes with the uncleaved pelB signal sequence and the processed one, was achieved when BL21 containing pET-22 (CT26-poly-neoepitopes) was induced with 0.1 mM IPTG for 48 h at 22 ºC in the presence of 2% ethanol. However, 37 ºC was the optimized induction temperature for expression of the CT26-poly-neoepitopes in the absence of ethanol. To purify the CT26-poly-neoepitopes, Ni-NTA affinity chromatography under denaturing and hybrid conditions were applied. High and satisfactory CT26-poly-neoepitopes purity was achieved by the combined urea and imidazole method. CONCLUSION: The effect of ethanol on expression of the CT26-poly-neoepitopes was temperature-dependent. Furthermore, the pelB-mediated translocation of the CT26-poly-neoepitopes into the periplasm was inefficient. Moreover, higher concentration of imidazole in the washing buffer improved the CT26-poly-neoepitopes purification under hybrid condition. Overall, the immunogenicity of CT26-poly-neoepitopes expressed in BL21 under the optimum condition and purified under hybrid condition can be studied in our future in vivo study.