Structural and functional characterization of recombinant human growth hormone isolated from transgenic pig milk.

This study aimed to establish and reproduce transgenic pigs expressing human growth hormone (hGH) in their milk. We also aimed to purify hGH from the milk, to characterize the purified protein, and to assess the potential of our model for mass production of therapeutic proteins using transgenic techniques. Using ~15.5 L transgenic pig milk, we obtained proteins with ≥ 99% purity after three pre-treatments and five column chromatography steps. To confirm the biosimilarity of our milk-derived purified recombinant hGH (CGH942) with commercially available somatropin (Genotropin), we performed spectroscopy, structural, and biological analyses. We observed no difference between the purified protein and Genotropin samples. Furthermore, rat models were used to assess growth promotion potential. Our results indicate that CGH942 promotes growth, by increasing bone development and body weight. Toxicity assessments revealed no abnormal findings after 4 weeks of continuous administration and 2 weeks of recovery. The no-observed-adverse-effect level for both males and females was determined to be 0.6 mg/kg/day. Thus, no toxicological differences were observed between commercially available somatropin and CGH942 obtained from transgenic pig milk. In conclusion, we describe a transgenic technique using pigs, providing a new platform to produce human therapeutic proteins.

Crystallization and preliminary X-ray crystallographic analysis of the methionine sulfoxide reductase A domain of MsrAB from Haemophilus influenzae.

Methionine sulfoxide reductase (Msr) is a repair enzyme that reduces oxidized methionine to methionine. The Msr enzyme is divided into MsrA and MsrB, which reduce the S and R configurations of the substrate, respectively. In some pathogenic bacteria MsrA and MsrB exist in a fusion-protein form, MsrAB. In this study, the recombinant MsrA part of MsrAB from Haemophilus influenzae (HIMsrA) was overexpressed, purified and crystallized using the hanging-drop vapour-diffusion method. A diffraction data set was collected to 1.6 Šresolution. The crystal of HIMsrA was found to belong to space group P4(1)2(1)2, with unit-cell parameters a = b = 57.29, c = 186.28 Å, a calculated Matthews coefficient of 1.82 Å(3) Da(-1) and two molecules per asymmetric unit. A preliminary solution was determined by molecular replacement. Refinement of the structure is currently in progress.