scholarly journals Efficacy of a Potential Trivalent Vaccine Based on Hc Fragments of Botulinum Toxins A, B, and E Produced in a Cell-Free Expression System

2010 ◽  
Vol 17 (5) ◽  
pp. 784-792 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. Zichel ◽  
A. Mimran ◽  
A. Keren ◽  
A. Barnea ◽  
I. Steinberger-Levy ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT Botulinum toxins produced by the anaerobic bacterium Clostridium botulinum are the most potent biological toxins in nature. Traditionally, people at risk are immunized with a formaldehyde-inactivated toxin complex. Second generation vaccines are based on the recombinant carboxy-terminal heavy-chain (Hc) fragment of the neurotoxin. However, the materialization of this approach is challenging, mainly due to the high AT content of clostridial genes. Herein, we present an alternative strategy in which the native genes encoding Hc proteins of botulinum toxins A, B, and E were used to express the recombinant Hc fragments in a cell-free expression system. We used the unique property of this open system to introduce different combinations of chaperone systems, protein disulfide isomerase (PDI), and reducing/oxidizing environments directly to the expression reaction. Optimized expression conditions led to increased production of soluble Hc protein, which was successfully scaled up using a continuous exchange (CE) cell-free system. Hc proteins were produced at a concentration of more than 1 mg/ml and purified by one-step Ni+ affinity chromatography. Mice immunized with three injections containing 5 μg of any of the in vitro-expressed, alum-absorbed, Hc vaccines generated a serum enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) titer of 105 against the native toxin complex, which enabled protection against a high-dose toxin challenge (103 to 106 mouse 50% lethal dose [MsLD50]). Finally, immunization with a trivalent HcA, HcB, and HcE vaccine protected mice against the corresponding trivalent 105 MsLD50 toxin challenge. Our results together with the latest developments in scalability of the in vitro protein expression systems offer alternative routes for the preparation of botulinum vaccine.

1990 ◽  
Vol 10 (12) ◽  
pp. 6607-6612
Author(s):  
J F Elliston ◽  
S E Fawell ◽  
L Klein-Hitpass ◽  
S Y Tsai ◽  
M J Tsai ◽  
...  

RNA synthesis was stimulated directly in a cell-free expression system by crude preparations of recombinant mouse estrogen receptor (ER). Receptor-stimulated transcription required the presence of estrogen response elements (EREs) in the test template and could be specifically inhibited by addition of competitor oligonucleotides containing EREs. Moreover, polyclonal antibodies directed against the DNA-binding region of ER inhibited ER-dependent transcription. In our cell-free expression system, hormone-free ER induced transcription in a hormone-independent manner. Evidence is presented suggesting that ER acts by facilitating the formation of a stable preinitiation complex at the target gene promoter and thus augments the initiation of transcription by RNA polymerase II. These observations lend support to our current understanding of the mechanism of steroid receptor-regulated gene expression and suggest strong conservation of function among members of the steroid receptor superfamily.


1990 ◽  
Vol 10 (12) ◽  
pp. 6607-6612 ◽  
Author(s):  
J F Elliston ◽  
S E Fawell ◽  
L Klein-Hitpass ◽  
S Y Tsai ◽  
M J Tsai ◽  
...  

RNA synthesis was stimulated directly in a cell-free expression system by crude preparations of recombinant mouse estrogen receptor (ER). Receptor-stimulated transcription required the presence of estrogen response elements (EREs) in the test template and could be specifically inhibited by addition of competitor oligonucleotides containing EREs. Moreover, polyclonal antibodies directed against the DNA-binding region of ER inhibited ER-dependent transcription. In our cell-free expression system, hormone-free ER induced transcription in a hormone-independent manner. Evidence is presented suggesting that ER acts by facilitating the formation of a stable preinitiation complex at the target gene promoter and thus augments the initiation of transcription by RNA polymerase II. These observations lend support to our current understanding of the mechanism of steroid receptor-regulated gene expression and suggest strong conservation of function among members of the steroid receptor superfamily.


2009 ◽  
Vol 96 (3) ◽  
pp. 44a
Author(s):  
Patrick J. Macdonald ◽  
Jolene Johnson ◽  
Yan Chen ◽  
Bin Wu ◽  
Joachim Mueller

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jongmin Kim ◽  
Juan F Quijano ◽  
Enoch Yeung ◽  
Richard M Murray

Recent advances in nucleic acids engineering introduced several RNA-based regulatory components for synthetic gene circuits, expanding the toolsets to engineer organisms. In this work, we designed genetic circuits implementing an RNA aptamer previously described to have the capability of binding to the T7 RNA polymerase and inhibiting its activity in vitro. Using in vitro transcription assays, we first demonstrated the utility of the RNA aptamer in combination with programmable synthetic transcription networks. As a step to quickly assess the feasibility of aptamer functions in vivo, a cell-free expression system was used as a breadboard to emulate the in vivo conditions of E. coli. We tested the aptamer and its three sequence variants in the cell-free expression system, verifying the aptamer functionality in the cell-free testbed. In vivo expression of aptamer and its variants demonstrated control over GFP expression driven by T7 RNA polymerase with different response curves, indicating its ability to serve as building blocks for both logic circuits and transcriptional cascades. This work elucidates the potential of RNA-based regulators for cell programming with improved controllability leveraging the fast production and degradation time scales of RNA molecules.


Toxicon ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 177 ◽  
pp. S57
Author(s):  
Jessica Ferreira ◽  
DIlza Trevisan-Silva ◽  
Daniela Cajado-Carvalho ◽  
Solange Serrano ◽  
Milene Cristina Menezes

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