MUTANT AND CHIMAERIC RECOMBINANT PLASMINOGEN ACTIVATORS
In order to produce plasminogen activators (PA) more specific and more active than their natural counterparts, we designed recombinant genes encoding mutant forms of urokinase (u-PA) and chimaeric molecules combining fragments of tissue type plasminogen activator (t-PA) and of u-PA. The following constructs have been realized : 1°) u-PA where amino acids Arg156 and Lys158 have been replaced by Thr. The purpose of this approach was to obtain a prourokinase molecule displaying similar properties as the natural single chain urokinase (scu-PA) but resistant to the cleavage by plasmin ; 2°) u-PA where the second cleavage site, Lys135-Lys136, was also eliminated either by replacing amino acid 132 to amino acid 147 by a shorter link (Ser-Thr) as found in t-PA, or by replacing the two lysines by glutamine residues. The resulting molecules correspond thus to completely uncleavable scu-PA forms ; 3°) an hybrid composed of the finger domain of t-PA and of the B-chain of u-PA ; 4°) an hybrid made of the A-chain of t-PA and of the B-chain of u-PA ; 5°) an hybrid where the kringle 2 of t-PA has been inserted between the kringle domain and the B-chain of u-PA. The last three constructs have been made to confer the fibrin binding specificity of t-PA to the B-chain of u-PA.All recombinant DNAs were introduced, via an expression vector, into R1610 and CosI cells. Secretion of the recombinant products was monitored by ELISA and activities were assayed in an immobilized system involving a monoclonal antibody (AAU2) raised against 33K u-PA, plasminogen and the specific chromogenic substrate S2251. In this assay, all recombinant products, except the plasmin resistant (156-158) scu-PA, showed apparent specific activities comparable to the activity of natural two-chain u-PA. Potential interest of these new plasminogen activators in therapy will be discussed and further characterization of the new molecules will-be presented.