Disruption of KEX1 gene reduces the proteolytic degradation of secreted two-chain Insulin glargine in Pichia pastoris.

Insulin glargine is a slow acting analog of insulin used in diabetes therapy. It is produced by recombinant DNA technology in different hosts namely E. coli and Pichia pastoris. In our previous study, we have described the secretion of fully folded two-chain Insulin glargine into the medium by over-expression of Kex2 protease. The enhanced levels of the Kex2 protease was responsible for the processing of the glargine precursor with in the host. Apart from the two-chain glargine product we observed a small proportion of arginine clipped species. This might be due to the clipping of arginine present at the C-terminus of the B-chain as it is exposed upon Kex2 cleavage. The carboxypeptidase precursor Kex1 is known to be responsible for clipping of C-terminal lysine or arginine of the proteins or peptides. In order to address this issue we created a Kex1 knock out in the host using Cre/loxP mechanism of targeted gene deletion. When two-chain glargine was expressed in the Kex1 knock out host of P. pastoris GS115 the C-terminal clipped species reduced by ∼80%. This modification further improved the process by reducing the levels of product related impurities.

Enhancement in production of recombinant two-chain Insulin Glargine by over-expression of Kex2 protease in Pichia pastoris.

Glargine is an analog of Insulin currently being produced by recombinant DNA technology using two different hosts namely Escherichia coli and Pichia pastoris. Production from E. coli involves the steps of extraction of inclusion bodies by cell lysis, refolding, proteolytic cleavage and purification. In P. pastoris, a single-chain precursor with appropriate disulfide bonding is secreted to the medium. Downstream processing currently involves use of trypsin which converts the precursor into two-chain final product. The use of trypsin in the process generates additional impurities due to presence of Lys and Arg residues in the Glargine molecule. In this study, we describe an alternate approach involving over-expression of endogenous Kex2 proprotein convertase, taking advantage of dibasic amino acid sequence (Arg-Arg) at the end of B-chain of Glargine. KEX2 gene over-expression in Pichia was accomplished by using promoters of varying strengths to ensure production of greater levels of fully functional two-chain Glargine product, confirmed by HPLC and mass analysis. In conclusion, this new production process involving Kex2 protease over-expression improves the downstream process efficiency, reduces the levels of impurities generated and decreases the use of raw materials.