The trispecific DARPin ensovibep inhibits diverse SARS-CoV-2 variants.

The emergence of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) variants with potential resistance to existing drugs emphasizes the need for new therapeutic modalities with broad variant activity. Here we show that ensovibep, a trispecific DARPin (designed ankyrin repeat protein) clinical candidate, can engage the three units of the spike protein trimer of SARS-CoV-2 and inhibit ACE2 binding with high potency, as revealed by cryo-electron microscopy analysis. The cooperative binding together with the complementarity of the three DARPin modules enable ensovibep to inhibit frequent SARS-CoV-2 variants, including Omicron sublineages BA.1 and BA.2. In Roborovski dwarf hamsters infected with SARS-CoV-2, ensovibep reduced fatality similarly to a standard-of-care monoclonal antibody (mAb) cocktail. When used as a single agent in viral passaging experiments in vitro, ensovibep reduced the emergence of escape mutations in a similar fashion to the same mAb cocktail. These results support further clinical evaluation of ensovibep as a broad variant alternative to existing targeted therapies for Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19).

Highly efficient production of rare sugars D-psicose and L-tagatose by two engineered D-tagatose epimerases.

Rare sugars are monosaccharides that do not occur in nature in large amounts. However, many of them demonstrate high potential as low-calorie sweetener, chiral building blocks or active pharmaceutical ingredients. Their production by enzymatic means from broadly abundant epimers is an attractive alternative to synthesis by traditional organic chemical means, but often suffers from low space-time yields and high enzyme costs due to rapid enzyme degradation. Here we describe the detailed characterization of two variants of d-tagatose epimerase under operational conditions that were engineered for high stability and high catalytic activity towards the epimerization of d-fructose to d-psicose and l-sorbose to l-tagatose, respectively. A variant optimized for the production of d-psicose showed a very high total turnover number (TTN) of up to 10(8) catalytic events over a catalyst's lifetime, determined under operational conditions at high temperatures in an enzyme-membrane reactor (EMR). Maximum space-time yields as high as 10.6 kg L(-1) d(-1) were obtained with a small laboratory-scale EMR, indicating excellent performance. A variant optimized for the production of l-tagatose performed less stable in the same setting, but still showed a very good TTN of 5.8 × 10(5) and space-time yields of up to 478 g L(-1) d(-1) . Together, these results confirm that large-scale enzymatic access to rare sugars is feasible.

Directed divergent evolution of a thermostable D-tagatose epimerase towards improved activity for two hexose substrates.

Functional promiscuity of enzymes can often be harnessed as the starting point for the directed evolution of novel biocatalysts. Here we describe the divergent morphing of an engineered thermostable variant (Var8) of a promiscuous D-tagatose epimerase (DTE) into two efficient catalysts for the C3 epimerization of D-fructose to D-psicose and of L-sorbose to L-tagatose. Iterative single-site randomization and screening of 48 residues in the first and second shells around the substrate-binding site of Var8 yielded the eight-site mutant IDF8 (ninefold improved kcat for the epimerization of D-fructose) and the six-site mutant ILS6 (14-fold improved epimerization of L-sorbose), compared to Var8. Structure analysis of IDF8 revealed a charged patch at the entrance of its active site; this presumably facilitates entry of the polar substrate. The improvement in catalytic activity of variant ILS6 is thought to relate to subtle changes in the hydration of the bound substrate. The structures can now be used to select additional sites for further directed evolution of the ketohexose epimerase.

A separation-integrated cascade reaction to overcome thermodynamic limitations in rare-sugar synthesis.

Enzyme cascades combining epimerization and isomerization steps offer an attractive route for the generic production of rare sugars starting from accessible bulk sugars but suffer from the unfavorable position of the thermodynamic equilibrium, thus reducing the yield and requiring complex work-up procedures to separate pure product from the reaction mixture. Presented herein is the integration of a multienzyme cascade reaction with continuous chromatography, realized as simulated moving bed chromatography, to overcome the intrinsic yield limitation. Efficient production of D-psicose from sucrose in a three-step cascade reaction using invertase, D-xylose isomerase, and D-tagatose epimerase, via the intermediates D-glucose and D-fructose, is described. This set-up allowed the production of pure psicose (99.9%) with very high yields (89%) and high enzyme efficiency (300 g of D-psicose per g of enzyme).