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.

Direct relationship between dimeric form and activity in the acidic copper-zinc superoxide dismutase from lemon.

The copper-zinc superoxide dismutase (CuZnSOD) from lemon (SOD_CL) is active in an acidic environment and resists proteolytic degradation. The enzyme occurs as a dimer, which has an indirect effect on the enzyme activity as the monomer retains only ∼35% of the activity. Here, the crystal structure of SOD_CL at 1.86 Šresolution is reported that may explain this peculiarity. The crystal belonged to space group P21, with unit-cell parameters a = 61.11, b = 74.55, c = 61.69 Å, ß = 106.86°, and contained four molecules in the asymmetric unit. The overall structure of SOD_CL resembles that of CuZnSOD from plants. The structure of SOD_CL shows a unique arrangement of surface loop IV that connects the dimer interface and the active site, which is located away from the dimer-interface region. This arrangement allows direct interaction between the residues residing in the dimer interface and those in the active site. The arrangement also includes Leu62 and Gln164, which are conserved in cytoplasmic CuZnSOD. This supports the classification of SOD_CL as a cytoplasmic CuZnSOD despite sharing the highest amino-acid sequence homology with CuZnSODs from spinach and tomato, which are chloroplastic.

Introducing Intermolecular Interaction to Strengthen the Stability of MnSOD Dimer.

Manganese superoxide dismutase from Staphylococcus equorum (MnSODSeq) maintains its activity upon treatments like a wide range of pH, addition of detergent and denaturing agent, exposure to ultraviolet light, and heating up to 50 °C. The enzyme dimer dissociates at 52-55 °C, while its monomer unfolds at 63-67 °C. MnSOD dimeric form is indispensable for the enzyme activity; therefore, strengthening the interactions between the monomers is the most preferred strategy to improve the enzyme stability. However, to date, modification of MnSODSeq at the dimer interface has been unfruitful despite excluding the inner and outer sphere regions that are important to the enzyme activity. Here, a new strategy was developed and K38R-A121E/Y double substitutions were proposed. These mutants displayed similar enzyme activity to the wild type. K38R-A121E dimer was thermally more stable and its monomer stability was similar to the wild type. The thermal stability of K38R-A121Y dimer was similar to the wild type but its monomer was thermally less stable. In addition, the structure of the previously reported L169W mutant was also elucidated. The L169W mutant structure showed that intramolecular modification can decrease flexibility of the MnSODSeq monomer and leads to a less stable enzyme with similar activity to the wild type. Thus, while the enzyme activity depends on arrangement of residues in the dimer interface, the stability appears to depend more on its monomeric architecture. Furthermore, in the L169W structure in complex with azide, which is a specific inhibitor for MnSOD, one of the azide molecules was present in the dimer interface region that previously has been identified to involve in the enzymatic reaction. Nevertheless, the present results show that an MnSODSeq mutant with better thermal stability has been obtained.

The role of S126 in the Staphylococcus equorum MnSOD activity and stability.

The dimeric form of manganese superoxide dismutase is instrumental for activity because each of the monomers provides amino acid residues participating in the enzymatic reaction. Hence, preventing dissociation of the dimer would maintain the enzymatic activity in detrimental conditions e.g. high temperature. To prevent dissociation of the dimer, a disulphide (S-S) bond was introduced at the dimer interface. In the wild type structure, S126 interacts with S126 of the other monomer. In the presented work, a mutant was designed with an S126C substitution. The crystal structure of the S126C mutant showed that only 50-70% of monomers formed the S-S bond. This observed imperfect S-S bonding was likely caused by photolytic S-S bond breakage mediated by the neighbouring tryptophan residue. In the wild type, S126 is located facing W163 and forms a water-mediated hydrogen bond with E164; W163 and E164 are crucial in the enzyme's activity. The replacement of S126 by a cysteine residue lowered the activity of the enzyme by ~70%. S126 has never been considered to play a role in the enzyme's activity or stability, thus the finding showed the importance of this residue.

The first crystal structure of manganese superoxide dismutase from the genus Staphylococcus.

A recombinant Staphylococcus equorum manganese superoxide dismutase (MnSOD) with an Asp13Arg substitution displays activity over a wide range of pH, at high temperature and in the presence of chaotropic agents, and retains 50% of its activity after irradiation with UVC for up to 45 min. Interestingly, Bacillus subtilis MnSOD does not have the same stability, despite having a closely similar primary structure and thus presumably also tertiary structure. Here, the crystal structure of S. equorum MnSOD at 1.4 Šresolution is reported that may explain these differences. The crystal belonged to space group P3221, with unit-cell parameters a = 57.36, b = 57.36, c = 105.76 Å, and contained one molecule in the asymmetric unit. The symmetry operation indicates that the enzyme has a dimeric structure, as found in nature and in B. subtilis MnSOD. As expected, their overall structures are nearly identical. However, the loop connecting the helical and α/ß domains of S. equorum MnSOD is shorter than that in B. subtilis MnSOD, and adopts a conformation that allows more direct water-mediated hydrogen-bond interactions between the amino-acid side chains of the first and last α-helices in the latter domain. Furthermore, S. equorum MnSOD has a slightly larger buried area compared with the dimer surface area than that in B. subtilis MnSOD, while the residues that form the interaction in the dimer-interface region are highly conserved. Thus, the stability of S. equorum MnSOD may not originate from the dimeric form alone. Furthermore, an additional water molecule was found in the active site. This allows an alternative geometry for the coordination of the Mn atom in the active site of the apo form. This is the first structure of MnSOD from the genus Staphylococcus and may provide a template for the structural study of other MnSODs from this genus.

The light subunit of mushroom Agaricus bisporus tyrosinase: Its biological characteristics and implications.

The light subunit of mushroom Agaricus bisporus tyrosinase (LSMT) is a protein of unknown function that was discovered serendipitously during the elucidation of the crystal structure of the enzyme. The protein is non-immunogenic and can penetrate the intestinal epithelial cell barrier, and thus, similar to its structural homologue HA-33 from Clostridium botulinum, may be potentially absorbable by the intestine. LSMT also shares high structural homology with the ricin-B-like lectin from the mushroom Clitocybe nebularis (CNL), which has been shown to display biological activity against leukemic cancer cells and dendritic cells. Therefore, we evaluated the biological activity of LSMT. An in vitro assay suggested that LSMT presentation to most of the cancer cell lines studied has a negligible effect on their proliferation. However, inhibition of cell growth and a slight stimulation of cell proliferation were observed with breast cancer and macrophage cells, respectively. LSMT appeared to be relatively resistant against proteolysis by trypsin and papain, but not bromelain. Challenges with gastric and intestinal juice suggested that the protein is resistant to gastrointestinal tract conditions. This is the first report on the biological characteristics and implication of LSMT.

Structure-activity relationship of a recombinant hybrid Manganese superoxide dismutase of Staphylococcus saprophyticus/S. equorum.

Recombinant hybrid Manganese superoxide dismutase from Staphyloccus saphropyticus/S. equorum (rMnSODSeq) exhibits stability at high temperatures. The enzyme occurs as a dimer that dissociates around 52°C prior to unfolding of the monomer around 64°C, demonstrating contribution of the dimeric form to stability. Here, structure - activity relationship of rMnSODSeq was evaluated on the basis of its activity and stability in the presence of inhibitors, NaCl, denaturants, detergents, reducing agents, and at different pH values. The activity was evaluated at both 37°C and 52°C, which the latter is the temperature for dissociation of the dimer. Dimer to monomer transition coincided with significant decrease in residual activity at 52°C. However, the activity assay results at 52°C and 37°C suggest spontaneous re-association of the monomer into dimer. Intriguingly, various new species with melting temperature (TM) values other than those of the dimer or monomer were observed. These species displayed medium to comparable level of residual activities to the native at 37°C. This report suggests that dimer to monomer transition may be not the only explanation for activity loss or decrease.

Separate Toxin-Antidote Stabilization System in Two Plasmids for Recombinant Protein Production.

BACKGROUND: Expression vector is an important component in the production of therapeutic recombinant proteins. Most of the commercialized expression vectors apply antibiotic-based selection system. Meanwhile, World Health Organization highly recommends for the alternative system due to its potentials to cause spreading of resistance gene and hypersensitivity to some people. METHODS: In current work, we developed an expression system for Escherichia coli using the toxinantidote system in two separated plasmids. An antidote gene (ccdA) with its natural promoter and terminator was constructed in a plasmid (pDCSAsod) containing a DNA fragment encoding recombinant superoxide dismutase from Staphylococcus equorum (rMnSODSeq) as a model. The gene expression was directed under T7 promoter and regulated by lac operator. The toxin gene (ccdB) was located in a separate plasmid (pDCSB) under PBAD promoter. This study aimed to study the growth profile of the host in the presence of both plasmids, to determine plasmids stability, and the effect of the toxinantidote system on rMnSODSeq production and activity. RESULTS: The presence of both plasmids did not affect the growth profile of E. coli BL21(DE3), while the plasmid stability was 94% for pDCSAsod and 68% for pDCSB at the end of protein production time. The yield of purified rMnSODSeq was 3.2 mg/ml and the enzyme was shown to be active by a zymography assay. CONCLUSION: In conclusion, for the first time, we show that toxin-antidote system in two separated plasmids has the potential for the production of recombinant therapeutic proteins and is more flexible in choosing the E. coli strain compared to established chromosomally integrated toxin-antidote selection system.

A novel immune-tolerable and permeable lectin-like protein from mushroom Agaricus bisporus.

A lectin like protein designated as LSMT is recently discovered in Agaricus bisporus. The protein adopts very similar structure to Ricin-B like lectin from Clitocybe nebularis (CNL) and HA-33 from Clostridium botulinum (HA-33), which both recognize sugar molecules that decorate the surface of the epithelial cells of the intestine. A preliminary study in silico pointed out potential capability of LSMT to perform such biological activity. Following that hypothesis, we demonstrated that LSMT is indeed capable of penetrating out from a dialysis tube of the mice intestine origin. Furthermore, the protein appeared not to evoke the immune response upon introduction into mice, unlike its structural homologs. This is the first report on the biological implication of LSMT that might lead to its application.

Study of HMG-CoA Reductase Inhibition Activity of the Hydrolyzed Product of Snakehead Fish (Channa striata) Skin Collagen with 50 kDa Collagenase from Bacillus licheniformis F11.4.

Bioactive peptides produced from enzymatic hydrolysis fibrous protein have been proven to have several biological activities. Previous study showed that the hydrolysis product of snakehead fish skin collagen with 26 kDa collagenase from Bacillus licheniformis F11.4 showed HMG-CoA (HMGR) inhibition activity. The aim of this research was to determine the ability of the hydrolysis product produced from snakehead fish skin collagen hydrolysed by 50 kDa collagenase from B. licheniformis F11.4 in inhibiting HMGR activity. Snakehead fish skin collagen was extracted using an acid method and collagenase was produced from B. licheniformis F11.4 using half-strength Luria Bertani (LB) medium containing 5% collagen. Crude collagenase was concentrated and fractionated using the DEAE Sephadex A-25 column eluted with increasing gradient concentrations of NaCl. Collagen, collagenase, and fractions were analyzed using SDS-PAGE and collagenolytic activity was analyzed by the zymography method. Collagenase with 50 kDa molecular weight presented in fraction one was used to hydrolyze the collagen. The reaction was done in 18 hours at 50°C. The hydrolysis product using 3.51 µg collagen and 9 ng collagenase showed 25.8% inhibition activity against pravastatin. This work shows for the first time that the hydrolysis product of snakehead fish skin collagen and 50 kDa collagenase from B. licheniformis F11.4 has potential as an anticholesterol agent.

Plasmid Copy Number Determination by Quantitative Polymerase Chain Reaction.

Recombinant therapeutic proteins are biopharmaceutical products that develop rapidly for years. Recombinant protein production in certain hosts requires vector expression harboring the gene encoding the corresponding protein. Escherichia coli is the prokaryote organism mostly used in recombinant protein production, commonly using a plasmid as the expression vector. Recombinant protein production is affected by plasmid copy number harboring the encoded gene, hence the determination of plasmid copy number also plays an important role in establishing a recombinant protein production system. On the industrial scale, a low copy number of plasmids are more suitable due to their better stability. In the previous study we constructed pCAD, a plasmid derived from the low copy number pBR322 plasmid. This study was aimed to confirm pCAD's copy number by quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR). Plasmid copy number was determined by comparing the quantification signal from the plasmid to those from the chromosome. Copy number was then calculated by using a known copy number plasmid as a standard. Two pairs of primers, called tdk and ori, were designed for targeting a single gene tdk in the chromosome and a conserved domain in the plasmid's ori, respectively. Primer quality was analyzed in silico using PrimerSelect DNASTAR and PraTo software prior to in vitro evaluation on primer specificity and efficiency as well as optimization of qPCR conditions. Plasmid copy number determination was conducted on E. coli lysates harboring each plasmid, with the number of cells ranging from 10(2)-10(5) cells/µL. Cells were lysed by incubation at 95ºC for 10 minutes, followed by immediate freezing at -4°C. pBR322 plasmid with the copy number of ~19 copies/cell was used as the standard, while pJExpress414-sod plasmid possessing the high copy number pUC ori was also determined to test the method being used. In silico analysis based on primer-primer and primer-template interactions showed that both primer pairs were acceptable and were predicted to have good performance. Those predictions were in agreement with the in vitro test that gave a single band in the PCR product's electropherogram and a single peak in DNA amplicon's melting curve with a Tm value of 79.01 ± 0.11°C for the tdk primer and 81.53 ± 0.29°C for the ori primer. The efficiency of each primer was 1.95 and 1.97, respectively. The calculation result of pCAD's copy number was 13.1 ± 0.3 copies/cell, showing that pCAD's low copy number has been determined and confirmed. Meanwhile, it was 576.3 ± 91.9 copies/cell for pJExpress414-sod, in accordance with the hypothesis that pUC ori regulates the high copy number plasmid. In conclusion, the designed primers and qPCR conditions used in this study can be used to determine plasmid copy number for plasmids with pBR322 and pUC ori. The method should be tested further on plasmids harboring other type of ori.

Unique Characteristics of Recombinant Hybrid Manganese Superoxide Dismutase from Staphylococcus equorum and S. saprophyticus.

A recombinant hybrid of manganese dependent-superoxide dismutase of Staphylococcus equorum and S. saprophyticus has successfully been overexpressed in Escherichia coli BL21(DE3), purified, and characterized. The recombinant enzyme suffered from degradation and aggregation upon storage at -20 °C, but not at room temperature nor in cold. Chromatographic analysis in a size exclusion column suggested the occurrence of dimeric form, which has been reported to contribute in maintaining the stability of the enzyme. Effect of monovalent (Na(+), K(+)), divalent (Ca(2+), Mg(2+)), multivalent (Mn(2+/4+), Zn(2+/4+)) cations and anions (Cl(-), SO4 (2-)) to the enzyme stability or dimeric state depended on type of cation or anion, its concentration, and pH. However, tremendous effect was observed with 50 mM ZnSO4, in which thermostability of both the dimer and monomer was increased. Similar situation was not observed with MnSO4, and its presence was detrimental at 200 mM. Finally, chelating agent appeared to destabilize the dimer around neutral pH and dissociate it at basic pH. The monomer remained stable upon addition of ethylene diamine tetraacetic acid. Here we reported unique characteristics and stability of manganese dependent-superoxide dismutase from S. equorum/saprophyticus.

Codon optimization for high level expression of human bone morphogenetic protein-2 in Escherichia coli.

Codons in the open reading frame (ORF) encoding for human bone morphogenetic protein-2 (hBMP-2) were optimized to reach high level expression in Escherichia coli. The optimization was done by the computer programs DNA works and DNA Star according to Thermodynamically Balanced Inside Out (TBIO) approach. The ORF consisting of 342 base pairs (bp) was assembled using two-steps Polymerase Chain Reaction, cloned into a pGEM-T vector with a mutation rate of 6.38 bp per kb and transformed into E. coli JM109. After a DNA sequence confirmation, mutation-free ORF was subcloned into pET32b and transformed into E. coli BL21(DE3). The rhBMP-2 was produced as a thioredoxin-his-tag fusion protein at relatively high level, approximately 60% of total intracellular proteins as inclusion bodies (IB), with a yield of 1.39 g per liter culture. Solubilization of IB gave soluble monomer rhBMP-2 with a recovery of 13.6% and refolding of soluble rhBMP-2 produced dimeric forms with a yield of 8.7%. The size and identity of the purified rhBMP-2 was confirmed by nano-LC-MS/MS2 analysis. Our work demonstrates for the first time that by using TBIO approach, a codon-optimized ORF encoding for rhBMP-2 protein can be expressed at high level in E. coli expression system.

Construction of synthetic open reading frame encoding human interferon alpha 2b for high expression in Escherichia coli and characterization of its gene product.

The aim of this research was to obtain recombinant human interferon alpha 2b (rhIFNalpha2b) from a synthetic open reading frame (ORF) overexpressed in Escherichia coli. For gene assembly, oligonucleotides were designed by Thermodynamically Balanced Inside Out (TBIO) method using the published synthetic codon optimized hIFNalpha2b ORF for high expression in E. coli. The synthetic ORF was assembled by a two-step Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) and cloned into a pGEM-T vector. The two-step PCR resulted in a DNA band of 522 base pairs (bp) corresponding to the size of hIFNalpha2b ORF. Fifteen recombinant pGEM-Ts were obtained and the sequencing results showed that the ORFs contained one to ten mutations with an error rate of 8.3 per kilo base. An ORF carrying one mutation was cloned into a pET32b vector and site-directed mutagenesis was performed to correct the mutation. The hIFNalpha2b ORF was overexpressed as a thioredoxin-his-tag fusion protein in E. coli BL21. The rhIFNalpha2b fusion protein was isolated from inclusion bodies (IB), renatured, and purified using Nickel columns, and all steps were monitored by Sodium Dodecyl Sulphate Polyacrylamide Gel Electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE). A rhIFNalpha2b fusion protein of 37kDa in size was produced in high expression levels relative to total protein, renatured and purified from IB with a yield of 3.46mg/l without any further optimization. The purified rhIFNalpha2b was confirmed by peptide analysis with nano-LC-MS/MS2 mass spectrometry. Our current research demonstrates for the first time that by using the TBIO method a synthetic ORF encoding hIFNalpha2b gene can be expressed at high levels in E. coli.