Unnatural amino acid incorporation in E. coli: current and future applications in the design of therapeutic proteins

Unnatural amino acid (UAA) incorporation by amber codon suppression offers scientists a powerful tool to modify the properties of proteins at will. UAA incorporation has been used for a plethora of fundamental research applications and, more recently, also for the selective modification of therapeutic proteins. In this review most recent developments in Escherichia coli codon expansion and, unnatural amino acid incorporation are discussed together with some remarkable recent developments in improved efficient UAA incorporation. We focus on the generation of proteins that hold promise for future therapeutic applications that would be impossible to obtain without unnatural amino acid incorporation, including the generation of bi-specific antibodies and antibody drug conjugates.

Pushing the Bacterial Envelope

Over the past three decades, a powerful array of techniques has been developed for expressing heterologous proteins and saccharides on the surface of bacteria. Surface-engineered bacteria, in turn, have proven useful in a variety of settings, including high-throughput screening, biofuel production, and vaccinology. In this chapter, we provide a comprehensive review of methods for displaying polypeptides and sugars on the bacterial cell surface, and discuss the many innovative applications these methods have found to date. While already an important biotechnological tool, we believe bacterial surface display may be further improved through integration with emerging methodology in other fields, such as protein engineering and synthetic chemistry. Ultimately, we envision bacterial display becoming a multidisciplinary platform with the potential to transform basic and applied research in bacteriology, biotechnology, and biomedicine.

Recent mechanistic insights on glycoconjugate vaccines and future perspectives

Vaccination is a key strategy for the control of various infectious diseases. Many pathogens, such as Streptococcus pneumoniae , Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib), and Neisseria meningitidis produce on their surfaces dense and complex glycan structures, which represent an optimal target for eliciting carbohydrate specific antibodies able to confer protection against those bacteria. Glycoconjugates represent nowadays an important class of efficacious and safe commercial vaccines. It has been known for a long time that covalent linkage of poorly immunogenic carbohydrates to protein is fundamental to provide T cell epitopes for eliciting a memory response of the immune system against the saccharide. However, while the traditional mechanism of action of glycoconjugates has considered peptides generated from the carrier protein to be responsible of T cell help recruitment, only recently evidence of the active involvement of the carbohydrate part in determining the T cell help has been shown. In addition, zwitterionic polysaccharides have been proven to activate the adaptive immune system without further conjugation to protein. Progress in this interface area between chemistry and biology, in combination with novel synthetic and biosynthetic methods for the preparation of glycoconjugates, is opening new perspectives to clarify their mechanism of action and give new insights for the design of improved carbohydrate-based vaccines.

Bacteria like sharing their sweets

Protein glycosylation and capsular polysaccharide formation are increasingly recognized as playing central roles in the survival and virulence of bacterial pathogens. In this issue of Molecular Microbiology, structural analysis in Acinetobacter baumannii 17978 revealed that a pentasaccharide that decorates glycoproteins is formed of the same building blocks used for capsule biosynthesis demonstrating split roles for this glycan. Disruption of PglC, the initiating glycosyltransferase responsible for attachment of the first sugar to undecaprenylphosphate abolished glycoprotein production and capsule biosynthesis. Both pathways are demonstrated to be important in biofilm formation and pathogenesis, and disabling their synthesis should provide a useful route for antimicrobial design. Shared polysaccharide usage reduces the genetic and metabolic burden in a bacterial cell and is an emerging theme among bacterial pathogens that need to be energy efficient for their streamlined lifestyle.

Exploitation of bacterial N-linked glycosylation to develop a novel recombinant glycoconjugate vaccine against Francisella tularensis

Glycoconjugate-based vaccines have proved to be effective at producing long-lasting protection against numerous pathogens. Here, we describe the application of bacterial protein glycan coupling technology (PGCT) to generate a novel recombinant glycoconjugate vaccine. We demonstrate the conjugation of the Francisella tularensis O-antigen to the Pseudomonas aeruginosa carrier protein exotoxin A using the Campylobacter jejuni PglB oligosaccharyltransferase. The resultant recombinant F. tularensis glycoconjugate vaccine is expressed in Escherichia coli where yields of 3 mg l(-1) of culture were routinely produced in a single-step purification process. Vaccination of BALB/c mice with the purified glycoconjugate boosted IgG levels and significantly increased the time to death upon subsequent challenge with F. tularensis subsp. holarctica. PGCT allows different polysaccharide and protein combinations to be produced recombinantly and could be easily applicable for the production of diverse glycoconjugate vaccines.

Expanding the glycoengineering toolbox: the rise of bacterial N-linked protein glycosylation

Glycosylation is the most prevalent post-translational modification found on proteins, occurring in all domains of life. Ever since the discovery of asparagine-linked (N-linked) protein glycosylation pathways in bacteria, major efforts have been made to harness these systems for the creation of novel therapeutics, vaccines, and diagnostics. Recent advances such as the ability to produce designer glycans in bacteria, some containing unnatural sugars, and techniques for evolving glycosylation enzymes have spawned an entirely new discipline known as bacterial glycoengineering. In addition to their biotechnological and therapeutic potential, bacteria equipped with recombinant N-linked glycosylation pathways are improving our understanding of the N-glycosylation process. This review discusses the key role played by microorganisms in glycosciences, particularly in the context of N-linked glycosylation.

Realizing the Promise of Chemical Glycobiology

Chemical glycobiology is emerging as one of the most uniquely powerful sub-disciplines of chemical biology. The previous scarcity of chemical strategies and the unparalleled structural diversity have created a uniquely fertile ground that is both rich in challenges and potentially very profound in implications. Glycans (oligosaccharides, polysaccharides, and glycoconjugates) are everywhere in biological systems and yet remain disproportionately neglected - reviews highlighting this 'Cinderella status' abound. Yet, the last two decades have witnessed tremendous progress, notably in chemical and chemoenzymatic synthesis, 'sequencing' and arraying, metabolic engineering and imaging. These vital steps serve to highlight not only the great potential but just how much more remains to be done. The vast chemical and functional space of glycans remains to be truly explored. Top-down full-scale glycomic and glycoproteomic studies coupled with hypothesis-driven, bottom-up innovative chemical strategies will be required to properly realize the potential impact of glycoscience on human health, energy, and economy. In this review, we cherry-pick far-sighted advances and use these to identify possible challenges, opportunities and avenues in chemical glycobiology.

Deciphering the bacterial glycocode: recent advances in bacterial glycoproteomics

Bacterial glycoproteins represent an attractive target for new antibacterial treatments, as they are frequently linked to pathogenesis and contain distinctive glycans that are absent in humans. Despite their potential therapeutic importance, many bacterial glycoproteins remain uncharacterized. This review focuses on recent advances in deciphering the bacterial glycocode, including metabolic glycan labeling to discover and characterize bacterial glycoproteins, lectin-based microarrays to monitor bacterial glycoprotein dynamics, crosslinking sugars to assess the roles of bacterial glycoproteins, and harnessing bacterial glycosylation systems for the efficient production of industrially important glycoproteins.