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Karyagina AS, Gromov AV, Grunina TM, Lyaschuk AM, Poponova MS, Kleymenov DA, Strukova NV, Generalova MS, Ryazanova AV, Galushkina ZM, Dobrynina OY, Bolshakova TN, Sergeeva MV, Romanovskaya-Romanko EA, Krasilnikov IV, Subbotina ME, Lunin VG. Hybrid Proteins with Short Conformational Epitopes of the Receptor-Binding Domain of SARS-CoV-2 Spike Protein Promote Production of Virus-Neutralizing Antibodies When Used for Immunization. Biochemistry Moscow 2022; 87:319-330. [PMID: 35527370 PMCID: PMC8993036 DOI: 10.1134/s0006297922040022] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/23/2022]
Abstract
Based on the previously developed approach, hybrid recombinant proteins containing short conformational epitopes (a.a. 144-153, 337-346, 414-425, 496-507) of the receptor-binding domain (RBD) of SARS-CoV-2 Spike protein (S protein) were synthesized in Escherichia coli cells as potential components of epitope vaccines. Selected epitopes are involved in protein–protein interactions in the S protein complexes with neutralizing antibodies and ACE2 (angiotensin-converting enzyme 2). The recombinant proteins were used for immunization of mice (three doses with 2-week intervals), and the immunogenicity of protein antigens and ability of the resulting sera to interact with inactivated SARS-CoV-2 and RBD produced in eukaryotic cells were examined. All recombinant proteins showed high immunogenicity; the highest titer in the RBD binding assay was demonstrated by the serum obtained after immunization with the protein containing epitope 414-425. At the same time, the titers of sera obtained against other proteins in the RBD and inactivated virus binding assays were significantly lower than the titers of sera obtained with the previously produced four proteins containing the loop-like epitopes 452-494 and 470-491, the conformation of which was fixed with a disulfide bond. We also studied activation of cell-mediated immunity by the recombinant proteins that was monitored as changes in the levels of cytokines in the splenocytes of immunized mice. The most pronounced increase in the cytokine synthesis was observed in response to the proteins containing epitopes with disulfide bonds (452-494, 470-491), as well as epitopes 414-425 and 496-507. For some recombinant proteins with short conformational epitopes, adjuvant optimization allowed to obtained mouse sera displaying virus-neutralizing activity in the microneutralization assay with live SARS-CoV-2 (hCoV-19/Russia/StPetersburg-3524/2020 EPI_ISL_415710 GISAID). The results obtained can be used to develop epitope vaccines for prevention of COVID-19 and other viral infections.
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Affiliation(s)
- Anna S Karyagina
- Gamaleya National Research Center of Epidemiology and Microbiology, Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation, Moscow, 123098, Russia.
- All-Russia Research Institute of Agricultural Biotechnology, Moscow, 127550, Russia
- Belozersky Institute of Physico-Chemical Biology, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Moscow, 119992, Russia
| | - Alexander V Gromov
- Gamaleya National Research Center of Epidemiology and Microbiology, Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation, Moscow, 123098, Russia
| | - Tatyana M Grunina
- Gamaleya National Research Center of Epidemiology and Microbiology, Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation, Moscow, 123098, Russia
- All-Russia Research Institute of Agricultural Biotechnology, Moscow, 127550, Russia
| | - Alexander M Lyaschuk
- Gamaleya National Research Center of Epidemiology and Microbiology, Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation, Moscow, 123098, Russia
| | - Maria S Poponova
- Gamaleya National Research Center of Epidemiology and Microbiology, Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation, Moscow, 123098, Russia
| | - Denis A Kleymenov
- Gamaleya National Research Center of Epidemiology and Microbiology, Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation, Moscow, 123098, Russia
| | - Natalia V Strukova
- Gamaleya National Research Center of Epidemiology and Microbiology, Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation, Moscow, 123098, Russia
| | - Maria S Generalova
- Gamaleya National Research Center of Epidemiology and Microbiology, Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation, Moscow, 123098, Russia
| | - Anna V Ryazanova
- Gamaleya National Research Center of Epidemiology and Microbiology, Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation, Moscow, 123098, Russia
| | - Zoya M Galushkina
- Gamaleya National Research Center of Epidemiology and Microbiology, Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation, Moscow, 123098, Russia
| | - Olga Yu Dobrynina
- Gamaleya National Research Center of Epidemiology and Microbiology, Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation, Moscow, 123098, Russia
| | - Tatyana N Bolshakova
- Gamaleya National Research Center of Epidemiology and Microbiology, Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation, Moscow, 123098, Russia
| | - Maria V Sergeeva
- Institute of Influenza, Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation, St. Petersburg, 197376, Russia
| | | | - Igor V Krasilnikov
- Saint Petersburg Institute of Vaccines and Sera, FMBA, St. Petersburg, 198320, Russia
| | - Marina E Subbotina
- Gamaleya National Research Center of Epidemiology and Microbiology, Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation, Moscow, 123098, Russia.
- All-Russia Research Institute of Agricultural Biotechnology, Moscow, 127550, Russia
| | - Vladimir G Lunin
- Gamaleya National Research Center of Epidemiology and Microbiology, Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation, Moscow, 123098, Russia
- All-Russia Research Institute of Agricultural Biotechnology, Moscow, 127550, Russia
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Karyagina AS, Gromov AV, Grunina TM, Lyaschuk AM, Grishin AV, Strukova NV, Generalova MS, Galushkina ZM, Soboleva LA, Dobrinina OY, Bolshakova TN, Subbotina ME, Romanovskaya-Romanko EA, Krasilnikov IV, Polyakov NB, Solovyev AI, Grumov DA, Zhukhovitsky VG, Ryabova EI, Prokofiev VV, Lunin VG. Development of a Platform for Producing Recombinant Protein Components of Epitope Vaccines for the Prevention of COVID-19. Biochemistry Moscow 2021; 86:1275-1287. [PMID: 34903153 PMCID: PMC8527442 DOI: 10.1134/s0006297921100096] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Abstract
A new platform for creating anti-coronavirus epitope vaccines has been developed. Two loop-like epitopes with lengths of 22 and 42 amino acid residues were selected from the receptor-binding motif of the Spike protein from the SARS‑CoV‑2 virus that participate in a large number of protein-protein interactions in the complexes with ACE2 and neutralizing antibodies. Two types of hybrid proteins, including one of the two selected epitopes, were constructed. To fix conformation of the selected epitopes, an approach using protein scaffolds was used. The homologue of Rop protein from the Escherichia coli ColE1 plasmid containing helix-turn-helix motif was used as an epitope scaffold for the convergence of C- and N-termini of the loop-like epitopes. Loop epitopes were inserted into the turn region. The conformation was additionally fixed by a disulfide bond formed between the cysteine residues present within the epitopes. For the purpose of multimerization, either aldolase from Thermotogamaritima, which forms a trimer in solution, or alpha-helical trimerizer of the Spike protein from SARS‑CoV‑2, was attached to the epitopes incorporated into the Rop-like protein. To enable purification on the heparin-containing sorbents, a short fragment from the heparin-binding hemagglutinin of Mycobacterium tuberculosis was inserted at the C-terminus of the hybrid proteins. All the obtained proteins demonstrated high level of immunogenicity after triplicate parenteral administration to mice. Sera from the mice immunized with both aldolase-based hybrid proteins and the Spike protein SARS‑CoV‑2 trimerizer-based protein with a longer epitope interacted with both the inactivated SARS‑CoV‑2 virus and the Spike protein receptor-binding domain at high titers.
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Affiliation(s)
- Anna S Karyagina
- Gamaleya National Research Center of Epidemiology and Microbiology, Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation, Moscow, 123098, Russia.
- All-Russia Research Institute of Agricultural Biotechnology, Moscow, 127550, Russia
- Belozersky Institute of Physico-Chemical Biology, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Moscow, 119992, Russia
| | - Alexander V Gromov
- Gamaleya National Research Center of Epidemiology and Microbiology, Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation, Moscow, 123098, Russia
| | - Tatyana M Grunina
- Gamaleya National Research Center of Epidemiology and Microbiology, Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation, Moscow, 123098, Russia
- All-Russia Research Institute of Agricultural Biotechnology, Moscow, 127550, Russia
| | - Alexander M Lyaschuk
- Gamaleya National Research Center of Epidemiology and Microbiology, Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation, Moscow, 123098, Russia
| | - Alexander V Grishin
- Gamaleya National Research Center of Epidemiology and Microbiology, Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation, Moscow, 123098, Russia
| | - Natalia V Strukova
- Gamaleya National Research Center of Epidemiology and Microbiology, Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation, Moscow, 123098, Russia
| | - Maria S Generalova
- Gamaleya National Research Center of Epidemiology and Microbiology, Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation, Moscow, 123098, Russia
| | - Zoya M Galushkina
- Gamaleya National Research Center of Epidemiology and Microbiology, Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation, Moscow, 123098, Russia
| | - Lyubov' A Soboleva
- Gamaleya National Research Center of Epidemiology and Microbiology, Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation, Moscow, 123098, Russia
| | - Olga Yu Dobrinina
- Gamaleya National Research Center of Epidemiology and Microbiology, Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation, Moscow, 123098, Russia
| | - Tatyana N Bolshakova
- Gamaleya National Research Center of Epidemiology and Microbiology, Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation, Moscow, 123098, Russia
| | - Marina E Subbotina
- Gamaleya National Research Center of Epidemiology and Microbiology, Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation, Moscow, 123098, Russia.
- All-Russia Research Institute of Agricultural Biotechnology, Moscow, 127550, Russia
| | | | - Igor V Krasilnikov
- Saint Petersburg Institute of Vaccines and Sera, FMBA, St. Petersburg, 198320, Russia
| | - Nikita B Polyakov
- Gamaleya National Research Center of Epidemiology and Microbiology, Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation, Moscow, 123098, Russia
- Vernadsky Institute of Geochemistry and Analytical Chemistry, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, 119991, Russia
| | - Andrey I Solovyev
- Gamaleya National Research Center of Epidemiology and Microbiology, Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation, Moscow, 123098, Russia
| | - Daniil A Grumov
- Gamaleya National Research Center of Epidemiology and Microbiology, Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation, Moscow, 123098, Russia
| | - Vladimir G Zhukhovitsky
- Gamaleya National Research Center of Epidemiology and Microbiology, Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation, Moscow, 123098, Russia
| | - Ekaterina I Ryabova
- Gamaleya National Research Center of Epidemiology and Microbiology, Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation, Moscow, 123098, Russia
| | - Vladimir V Prokofiev
- Gamaleya National Research Center of Epidemiology and Microbiology, Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation, Moscow, 123098, Russia
| | - Vladimir G Lunin
- Gamaleya National Research Center of Epidemiology and Microbiology, Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation, Moscow, 123098, Russia
- All-Russia Research Institute of Agricultural Biotechnology, Moscow, 127550, Russia
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Karyagina AS, Grunina TM, Lyaschuk AM, Voronina EV, Marigin RA, Cherepushkin SA, Trusova IN, Grishin AV, Poponova MS, Orlova PA, Manskikh VN, Strukova NV, Generalova MS, Nikitin KE, Soboleva LA, Boksha IS, Gromov AV. Recombinant Human Erythropoietin Proteins Synthesized in Escherichia coli Cells: Effects of Additional Domains on the in vitro and in vivo Activities. Biochemistry (Mosc) 2019; 84:20-32. [PMID: 30927522 DOI: 10.1134/s0006297919010036] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/17/2022]
Abstract
The aim of this work was to compare biological activities of three variants of bacterially expressed human recombinant erythropoietin (EPO) with additional protein domains: 6His-s-tag-EPO protein carrying the s-tag (15-a.a. oligopeptide from bovine pancreatic ribonuclease A) at the N-terminus and HBD-EPO and EPO-HBD proteins containing heparin-binding protein domains (HBD) of the bone morphogenetic protein 2 from Danio rerio at the N- and C-termini, respectively. The commercial preparation Epostim (LLC Pharmapark, Russia) produced by synthesis in Chinese hamster ovary cells was used for comparison. The EPO variant with the C-terminal HBD domain connected by a rigid linker (EPO-HBD) possesses the best properties as compared to HBD-EPO with the reverse domain arrangement. It was ~13 times more active in vitro (i.e., promoted proliferation of human erythroleukemia TF-1 cells) and demonstrated a higher rate of association with the erythropoietin receptor. EPO-HBD also exhibited the greatest binding to the demineralized bone matrix (DBM) and more prolonged release from the DBM among the four proteins studied. Subcutaneous administration of EPO-HBD immobilized on DBM resulted in significantly more pronounced vascularization of surrounding tissues in comparison with the other proteins and DBM alone. Therefore, EPO-HBD displayed better performance with regard to all the investigated parameters than other examined EPO variants, and it seems promising to study the possibility of its medical use.
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Affiliation(s)
- A S Karyagina
- Gamaleya National Research Center of Epidemiology and Microbiology, Ministry of Healthcare of the Russian Federation, Moscow, 123098, Russia. .,All-Russia Research Institute of Agricultural Biotechnology, Moscow, 127550, Russia.,Belozersky Institute of Physico-Chemical Biology, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Moscow, 119992, Russia
| | - T M Grunina
- Gamaleya National Research Center of Epidemiology and Microbiology, Ministry of Healthcare of the Russian Federation, Moscow, 123098, Russia
| | - A M Lyaschuk
- Gamaleya National Research Center of Epidemiology and Microbiology, Ministry of Healthcare of the Russian Federation, Moscow, 123098, Russia
| | - E V Voronina
- State Research Institute of Genetics and Selection of Industrial Microorganisms, Kurchatov Institute National Research Center, Moscow, 117545, Russia
| | - R A Marigin
- State Research Institute of Genetics and Selection of Industrial Microorganisms, Kurchatov Institute National Research Center, Moscow, 117545, Russia
| | - S A Cherepushkin
- State Research Institute of Genetics and Selection of Industrial Microorganisms, Kurchatov Institute National Research Center, Moscow, 117545, Russia
| | - I N Trusova
- State Research Institute of Genetics and Selection of Industrial Microorganisms, Kurchatov Institute National Research Center, Moscow, 117545, Russia
| | - A V Grishin
- Gamaleya National Research Center of Epidemiology and Microbiology, Ministry of Healthcare of the Russian Federation, Moscow, 123098, Russia.,All-Russia Research Institute of Agricultural Biotechnology, Moscow, 127550, Russia
| | - M S Poponova
- Gamaleya National Research Center of Epidemiology and Microbiology, Ministry of Healthcare of the Russian Federation, Moscow, 123098, Russia
| | - P A Orlova
- Gamaleya National Research Center of Epidemiology and Microbiology, Ministry of Healthcare of the Russian Federation, Moscow, 123098, Russia
| | - V N Manskikh
- Gamaleya National Research Center of Epidemiology and Microbiology, Ministry of Healthcare of the Russian Federation, Moscow, 123098, Russia.,Belozersky Institute of Physico-Chemical Biology, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Moscow, 119992, Russia
| | - N V Strukova
- Gamaleya National Research Center of Epidemiology and Microbiology, Ministry of Healthcare of the Russian Federation, Moscow, 123098, Russia
| | - M S Generalova
- Gamaleya National Research Center of Epidemiology and Microbiology, Ministry of Healthcare of the Russian Federation, Moscow, 123098, Russia
| | - K E Nikitin
- Gamaleya National Research Center of Epidemiology and Microbiology, Ministry of Healthcare of the Russian Federation, Moscow, 123098, Russia
| | - L A Soboleva
- Gamaleya National Research Center of Epidemiology and Microbiology, Ministry of Healthcare of the Russian Federation, Moscow, 123098, Russia
| | - I S Boksha
- Gamaleya National Research Center of Epidemiology and Microbiology, Ministry of Healthcare of the Russian Federation, Moscow, 123098, Russia.,Research Center of Mental Health, Moscow, 115522, Russia
| | - A V Gromov
- Gamaleya National Research Center of Epidemiology and Microbiology, Ministry of Healthcare of the Russian Federation, Moscow, 123098, Russia.
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