Mutational Analysis of Ocriplasmin to Reduce Proteolytic and Autolytic Activity in Pichia Pastoris
Abstract Background: Ocriplasmin (Jetrea) is using for the treatment of symptomatic vitreomacular adhesion. This enzyme undergoes rapid inactivation and limited activities duration as a result of its autolytic and proteolytic nature after injection within the eye. Moreover, the proteolytic activities can cause photoreceptor damage, which may result in visual impairment in the more serious cases.Results: The present research aimed to reduce the disadvantages of ocriplasmin using site-directed mutagenesis. To reduce the autolytic activity of ocriplasmin in the first variant, lysine 156 changed to glutamic acid and in the second variant for the proteolytic activity reduction, alanine 59 mutated to threonine. The third variant contained both the mutations. Expression of wild type and three mutant variants of ocriplasmin constructs were done in Pichia pastoris expression system. The mutant variants analyzed in silico and in vitro and compared to the wild type. The kinetic parameters of ocriplasmin variants showed both variants with K156E substitution were more resistant to autolytic degradation than wild-type. These variants also exhibited reduced Kcat and Vmax values. An increase in their Km values, leading to a decreased catalytic efficiency (the Kcat/Km ratio) of autolytic and mix variants. Moreover, in variant with A59T mutation, Kcat and Vmax values have reduced compared to wild type. The mix variants showed the most increase in Km value (almost 2-fold) as well as reduced enzymatic affinity to the substrate. Thus, the results indicated combine mutations at ocriplasmin sequence were more effective compared with single mutations. Conclusions: The results indicated such variants represent valuable tools for the investigation of therapeutic strategies aiming at non-surgical resolution of vitreomacular adhesion.