Extension of in vivo half-life of biologically active peptides via chemical conjugation to XTEN protein polymer.

XTEN, unstructured biodegradable proteins, have been used to extend the in vivo half-life of genetically fused therapeutic proteins and peptides. To expand the applications of XTEN technology to half-life extension of other classes of molecules, XTEN protein polymers and methods for chemical XTENylation were developed. Two XTEN precursors were engineered to contain enzymatically removable purification tags. The proteins were readily expressed in bacteria and purified to homogeneity by chromatography techniques. As proof-of-principle, GLP2-2G peptide was chemically conjugated to each of the two XTEN protein polymers using maleimide-thiol chemistry. The monodisperse nature of XTEN protein polymer enabled reaction monitoring as well as the detection of peptide modifications in the conjugated state using reverse phase-high performance liquid chromatography (RP-HPLC) and electrospray ionization mass spectrometry. The resulting GLP2-2G-XTEN conjugates were purified by preparative RP-HPLC to homogeneity. In comparison with recombinantly fused GLP2-2G-XTEN, chemically conjugated GLP2-2G-XTEN molecules exhibited comparable in vitro activity, in vitro plasma stability and pharmacokinetics in rats. These data suggest that chemical XTENylation could effectively extend the half-life of a wide spectrum of biologically active molecules, therefore broadening its applicability.

Comparative studies of active site-ligand interactions among various recombinant constructs of human beta-amyloid precursor protein cleaving enzyme.

Amyloid precursor protein (APP) cleaving enzyme (BACE) is the enzyme responsible for beta-site cleavage of APP, leading to the formation of the amyloid-beta peptide that is thought to be pathogenic in Alzheimer's disease (AD). Hence, BACE is an attractive pharmacological target, and numerous research groups have begun searching for potent and selective inhibitors of this enzyme as a potential mechanism for therapeutic intervention in AD. The mature enzyme is composed of a globular catalytic domain that is N-linked glycosylated in mammalian cells, a single transmembrane helix that anchors the enzyme to an intracellular membrane, and a short C-terminal domain that extends outside the phospholipid bilayer of the membrane. Here we have compared the substrate and active site-directed inhibitor binding properties of several recombinant constructs of human BACE. The constructs studied here address the importance of catalytic domain glycosylation state, inclusion of domains other than the catalytic domain, and incorporation into a membrane bilayer on the interactions of the enzyme active site with peptidic ligands. We find no significant differences in ligand binding properties among these various constructs. These data demonstrate that the nonglycosylated, soluble catalytic domain of BACE faithfully reflects the ligand binding properties of the full-length mature enzyme in its natural membrane environment. Thus, the use of the nonglycosylated, soluble catalytic domain of BACE is appropriate for studies aimed at understanding the determinants of ligand recognition by the enzyme active site.