Abstract
A fusion protein, consisting of a human epidermal growth factor as the recognition domain and human angiogenin as the toxin domain, can be used as a targeted therapeutic against breast cancer cells among others. The fusion protein was expressed as an inclusion body in recombinant E. coli, yet when the conventional solution-phase refolding process was used the refolding yield was very low due to severe aggregation, probably because of the opposite surface charge resulting from the vastly different pl values of each domain. Accordingly the solid-phase refolding process, which exploits the ionic interactions between a solid matrix and the protein, was tried, however the ionic binding yield was also very low regardless of the resins and pH conditions used. Therefore, to provide a higher affinity toward the solid matrix, six Iysine residues were tagged to the N-terminus of the hEGF domain. When cation exchange resins, such as heparin- or CM-Sepharose, were used as the matrix, the adsorption capacity increased 2.5~3-fold and the subsequent refolding yield increased nearly 15-fold compared to the conventional process. A similat result was also obtained when an Ni-NTA metal affinity resin was used.
Poly-Iysine이 tagging된 hEGF와 angiogenin(6L10ESA)의 융합단백질의 고체상 재접힘이 heparin-Sepharose colullln에서 수행되었을 때, untagging 단백질(E5h)의 기존의 액상 재접힘 방법과 비교하여 재접힘 수율은 약 13배 정도 증가하였다. 게다가 poly-Iysine tagging된angiogenin은 heparin에 친화도를 높여주므로 2.5배에서 3배 정도의 흡탁 수율이 증가한다. 재접힘 수율은 고체상 반응으로 인해 높은 재현성을 보였다. 재접힘 공정시간은 대략 8배 단축되었다. 고체상 재전힘된 단백질은 자신의 생물학적 역가를 유지하였다. 따라서 이 연구는 고체상 재접힘 방법이 분자간의 상호작용을 억제하여 응집현상을 현저히 줄였기 때문에 기인한 결과로 생각된다. 따라서 응집으로 인한 재접힘 수율이 낮은 단백질의 재접힘 긍정에 고체상 재접힘 공정을 사용하면 높은 재접힘 수율을 얻을 수 있다.
