Immunogenicity studies of recombinant RBD SARS-CoV-2 as a COVID-19 vaccine candidate produced in Escherichia coli.

The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 -related global COVID-19 pandemic has been impacting millions of people since its outbreak in 2020. COVID-19 vaccination has proven highly efficient in reducing illness severity and preventing infection-related fatalities. The World Health Organization has granted emergency use approval to multiple, including protein subunit technology-based, COVID-19 vaccines. Foreseeably, additional COVID-19 subunit vaccine development would be essential to meet the accessible and growing demand for effective vaccines, especially for Low-Middle-Income Countries (LMIC). The SARS-CoV-2 spike protein receptor binding domain (RBD), as the primary target for neutralizing antibodies, holds significant potential for future COVID-19 subunit vaccine development. In this study, we developed a recombinant Escherichia coli-expressed RBD (rRBD) as a vaccine candidate and evaluated its immunogenicity and preliminary toxicity in BALB/c mice. The rRBD induced humoral immune response from day 7 post-vaccination and, following the booster doses, the IgG levels increased dramatically in mice. Interestingly, our vaccine candidate also significantly induced cellular immune response, indicated by the incrased IFN-É£-producing cell numbers. We observed no adverse effect or local reactogenicity either in control or treated mice. Taken together, our discoveries could potentially support efficient and cost-effective vaccine antigen production, from which LMICs could particularly benefit.

Development of Adenovirus-Based Covid-19 Vaccine Candidate in Indonesia.

Covid-19 pandemic has struck worldwide by end of 2019 and the use of various vaccine platforms was one of the main strategies to end this. To meet the needs for vaccine technology equality among many countries, we developed adenovirus-based Covid-19 vaccine candidate in Indonesia. SARS-CoV-2 Spike gene (S) was constructed into pAdEasy vector. The recombinant serotype 5 Adenovirus (AdV_S) genome was transfected into AD293 cells to produce recombinant adenovirus. Characterization using PCR confirmed the presence of spike gene. Transgene expression analysis showed the expression of S protein in AdV_S infected AD293 and A549 cells. Optimization of viral production showed the highest titer was obtained at MOI of 0.1 and 1 at 4 days. The in vivo study was performed by injecting Balb/c mice with 3.5 × 107 ifu of purified adenovirus. The result showed that S1-specific IgG was increased up to 56 days after single-dose administration of AdV_S. Interestingly, significant increase of S1 glycoprotein-specific IFN-γ ELISpot was observed in AdV_S treated Balb/c mice. In conclusion, the AdV_S vaccine candidate was successfully produced at laboratory scale, immunogenic, and did not cause severe inflammation in Balb/c mice. This study serves as initial step towards manufacturing of adenovirus-based vaccine in Indonesia.

Isolation, expression, and characterization of raw starch degrading α-amylase from a marine lake Bacillus megaterium NL3.

A land-locked marine lake Kakaban with its significant ecological paramaters provides a unique habitat for bacteria with novel biotechnology potential that uses a diverse array of catalytic agents, including α-amylase. Aiming at the isolation of raw starch degrading α-amylase from marine biodiversity, a gene encoding BmaN2 from a sea anemone associated bacterium Bacillus megaterium NL3 was cloned and expressed in Escherichia coli ArcticExpress (DE3). It comprises an open reading frame of 1,563 nucleotides encoding BmaN2 of 520 amino acids and belongs to the glycoside hydrolase family 13 subfamily 36 (GH13_36). This α-amylase has a maximum activity at pH 6.0 and 60 °C with a specific activity of 28.7 U mg-1. The BmaN2 activity is enhanced strongly by Ca2+ but inhibited by EDTA. BmaN2 also exhibits high catalytic efficiency on soluble starch with k cat /K M value of 14.1 mL mg-1 s-1. Despite no additional starch-binding domain, BmaN2 is able to hydrolyze various raw starches, such as wheat, corn, cassava, potato, rice, sago, and canna, in which granular wheat is the preferred substrate for BmaN2. These characteristics indicate that BmaN2 is a promising raw starch degrading enzyme within the subfamily GH13_36.

A new group of glycoside hydrolase family 13 α-amylases with an aberrant catalytic triad.

α-Amylases are glycoside hydrolase enzymes that act on the α(1→4) glycosidic linkages in glycogen, starch, and related α-glucans, and are ubiquitously present in Nature. Most α-amylases have been classified in glycoside hydrolase family 13 with a typical (ß/α)8-barrel containing two aspartic acid and one glutamic acid residue that play an essential role in catalysis. An atypical α-amylase (BmaN1) with only two of the three invariant catalytic residues present was isolated from Bacillus megaterium strain NL3, a bacterial isolate from a sea anemone of Kakaban landlocked marine lake, Derawan Island, Indonesia. In BmaN1 the third residue, the aspartic acid that acts as the transition state stabilizer, was replaced by a histidine. Three-dimensional structure modeling of the BmaN1 amino acid sequence confirmed the aberrant catalytic triad. Glucose and maltose were found as products of the action of the novel α-amylase on soluble starch, demonstrating that it is active in spite of the peculiar catalytic triad. This novel BmaN1 α-amylase is part of a group of α-amylases that all have this atypical catalytic triad, consisting of aspartic acid, glutamic acid and histidine. Phylogenetic analysis showed that this group of α-amylases comprises a new subfamily of the glycoside hydrolase family 13.

Alkyl hydroperoxide reductase from Bacillus aquimaris MKSC 6.2 protects Esherichia coli from oxidative stress.

Alkyl hydroperoxide reductase genes (ahpCF) from the soft coral associated Bacillus aquimaris MKSC6.2 have been isolated. The cloned 546 bp ahpC gene encodes a 181 amino acid residues polypeptide. The AhpC belongs to typical 2-Cys peroxiredoxin (Prx) containing conserved peroxidatic cysteine residue (C46 ) required for hydroperoxide reduction and conserved resolving cysteine (C166 ). The isolated 1530 bp ahpF gene encodes a polypeptide of 509 amino acid residues with two conserved C128 HNC131 and C337 PHC340 catalytic residues required for reduction of oxidized-AhpC during catalytic turnover. A survival study with Escherichia coli showed that overexpression of AhpC and AhpF resulted in a total protection against 0.16 mM t-butyl hydroperoxide.

Effect of introducing a disulphide bond between the A and C domains on the activity and stability of Saccharomycopsis fibuligera R64 α-amylase.

Native enzyme and a mutant containing an extra disulphide bridge of recombinant Saccharomycopsis fibuligera R64 α-amylase, designated as Sfamy01 and Sfamy02, respectively, have successfully been overexpressed in the yeast Pichia pastoris KM71H. The purified α-amylase variants demonstrated starch hydrolysis resulting in a mixture of maltose, maltotriose, and glucose, similar to the wild type enzyme. Introduction of the disulphide bridge shifted the melting temperature (TM) from 54.5 to 56 °C and nearly tripled the enzyme half-life time at 65 °C. The two variants have similar kcat/KM values. Similarly, inhibition by acarbose was only slightly affected, with the IC50 of Sfamy02 for acarbose being 40 ± 3.4 µM, while that of Sfamy01 was 31 ± 3.9 µM. On the other hand, the IC50 of Sfamy02 for EDTA was 0.45 mM, nearly two times lower than that of Sfamy01 at 0.77 mM. These results show that the introduction of a disulphide bridge had little effect on the enzyme activity, but made the enzyme more susceptible to calcium ion extraction. Altogether, the new disulphide bridge improved the enzyme stability without affecting its activity, although minor changes in the active site environment cannot be excluded.

Construction of individual, fused, and co-expressed proteins of endoglucanase and ß-glucosidase for hydrolyzing sugarcane bagasse.

At least a combination of endoglucanase (EglII) and ß-glucosidase (BglZ) is required for hydrolyzing crystalline cellulose. To understand the catalytic efficiency of combination enzymes for converting biomass to sugars, EglII and BglZ were constructed in the form of individual, fused as well as co-expression proteins, and their activities for hydrolyzing sugarcane bagasse were evaluated. The genes, eglII isolated from Bacillus amyloliquefaciens PSM3.1 earlier and bglZ from B. amyloliquefaciens ABBD, were expressed extracellularly in Bacillus megaterium MS941. EglII exhibited both exoglucanase and endoglucanase activities, and BglZ belonging to the glycoside hydrolase 1 family (GH 1) showed ß-glucosidase activity. A combination of EglII and BglZ showed activity on substrates Avicel, CMC and sugarcane bagasse. Specifically for hydrolyzing sugarcane bagasse, fused protein (fus-EglII+BglZ), co-expression protein (coex-BglZ+EglII), and mixed-individual protein (mix-EglII+BglZ) produced cellobiose as the main product, along with a small amount of glucose. The amount of reducing sugars released from the hydrolyzing bleached sugarcane bagasse (BSB) using fus-EglII+BglZ and mix-EglII+BglZ was 2.7- and 4.2-fold higher, respectively, than steamed sugarcane bagasse (SSB), indicating the synergetic enzymes worked better on treated sugarcane bagasse. Compared with fus-EglII+BglZ and mix-EglII+BglZ, coex-BglZ+EglII released more mol reducing sugars from SSB, indicating the enzymes were potential for biomass conversion. Additionally, coex-BglZ+EglII acted on BSB 2.5-fold faster than fus-EglII+BglZ. Thus, coex-bglZ+eglII expression system was the best choice to produce enzymes for hydrolyzing sugarcane baggase.

Chemical modification of Saccharomycopsis fibuligera R64 α-amylase to improve its stability against thermal, chelator, and proteolytic inactivation.

α-Amylase catalyzes hydrolysis of starch to oligosaccharides, which are further degraded to simple sugars. The enzyme has been widely used in food and textile industries and recently, in generation of renewable energy. An α-amylase from yeast Saccharomycopsis fibuligera R64 (Sfamy) is active at 50 °C and capable of degrading raw starch, making it attractive for the aforementioned applications. To improve its characteristics as well as to provide information for structural study ab initio, the enzyme was chemically modified by acid anhydrides (nonpolar groups), glyoxylic acid (GA) (polar group), dimethyl adipimidate (DMA) (cross-linking), and polyethylene glycol (PEG) (hydrophilization). Introduction of nonpolar groups increased enzyme stability up to 18 times, while modification by a cross-linking agent resulted in protection of the calcium ion, which is essential for enzyme activity and integrity. The hydrophilization with PEG resulted in protection against tryptic digestion. The chemical modification of Sfamy by various modifiers has thereby resulted in improvement of its characteristics and provided systematic information beneficial for structural study of the enzyme. An in silico structural study of the enzyme improved the interpretation of the results.

Direct spectrophotometric assay for benzaldehyde lyase activity.

Benzaldehyde lyase from Pseudomonas fluorescens Biovar I. (BAL, EC 4.1.2.38) is a versatile catalyst for the organic synthesis of chiral α-hydroxy ketones. To allow fast assessment of enzyme activity, a direct spectrophotometric assay is desirable. Here, a new robust and easy-to-handle assay based on UV absorption is presented. The assay developed is based on the ligation of the α-hydroxy ketone (R)-2,2'-furoin from 2-furaldehyde. A robust assay with direct monitoring of the product is facilitated with a convenient concentration working range minimising experimental associated with low concentrations.