• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.28 no.9
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• pp.1549-1552
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• 2007

The cytoplasmic domain of syndecan-4, a type I transmembrane heparan sulfate proteoglycan, was overexpressed as a fused form with the ubiquitin molecule in Escherichia coli, and the fusion protein was purified using immobilized metal affinity chromatography (IMAC). The cytoplasmic domain was released from its fusion partner by using yeast ubiquitin hydrolase (YUH), and subsequently purified by reverse phase chromatography. The integrity of the resulting peptide fragment was checked by MALDI-TOF and NMR spectroscopy. The yield of the peptide was 3.0-1.5 mg per liter in LB or minimal medium, respectively. The recombinant expression and purification of this domain will enable us its structural and functional studies using multidimensional NMR spectroscopy.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.33 no.3
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• pp.911-916
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• 2012

Ion selectivity in a simple cyclic peptide nanotube, composed of four cyclo[-(D-Ala-Glu-D-Ala-Gln)$_2-$] units, is investigated by calculating the PMF profiles of $Na^+$, $K^+$, and $Cl^-$ ions permeating through the peptide nanotube in water. The final PMF profiles of the ions obtained from the umbrella sampling (US) method show an excellent agreement with those from the thermodynamic integration (TI) method. The PMF profiles of $Na^+$ and $K^+$ display free energy wells while the PMF curve of $Cl^-$ features free energy barriers, indicating the selectivity of the cyclic peptide nanotube to cations. Decomposition of the total mean force into the contribution from each component in the system is also accomplished by using the TI method. The mean force decomposition profiles of $Na^+$ and $K^+$ demonstrate that the dehydration free energy barriers by water molecules near the channel entrance and inside the channel are completely compensated for by attractive electrostatic interactions between the cations and carbonyl oxygens in the nanotube. In the case of $Cl^-$, the dehydration free energy barriers are not eliminated by an interaction between the anion and the peptide nanotube, leading to the high free energy barriers in the PMF profile. Calculations of the coordination numbers of the ions with oxygen atoms pertaining to either water molecules or carbonyl groups in the peptide nanotube reveal that the stabilization of the cations in the midplane regions of the nanotube arises from the favorable interaction of the cations with the negatively charged carbonyl oxygens.

• BMB Reports
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• v.43 no.2
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• pp.146-149
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• 2010

Exendin-4 (Ex-4), a peptide secreted from the salivary glands of the Gila monster lizard, can increase pancreatic $\beta$-cell growth and insulin secretion by activating glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor. In this study, we expressed a fusion protein consisting of exendin-4 and the human immunoglobulin heavy chain (Ex-4/IgG-Fc) in E. coli and explored its potential therapeutic use for the treatment of insulin-resistant type 2 diabetes. Here, we show that the Ex-4/IgG-Fc fusion protein induces expression of insulin receptor substrate-2 in rat insulinoma INS-1 cells. Our findings therefore suggest that Ex-4/IgG-Fc overexpressed in E. coli could be used as a potential, long-acting glucagon-like peptide-1 mimetic.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.17 no.6
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• pp.952-959
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• 2007

His-His-Leu (HHL), a tripeptide derived from a Korean soybean paste, is an angiotensin-I-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitor. We report here a method of producing this tripeptide efficiently by expressing tandem multimers of the codons encoding the peptide in E. coli and purifying the HHL after hydrolysis of the peptide multimers. The HHL gene, tandemly multimerized to a 40-mer, was ligated with ubiquitin as a fusion gene (UH40). UH40 was inserted into vector pET29b; the UH40 fusion protein was then produced in E. coli BL21. The recombinant UH40 protein was purified by cation-exchange chromatography with a yield of 17.3mg/l and analyzed by matrixassisted laser desorption ionization (MALDI) time-of-flight (TOF) mass spectrometry and protein N-terminal sequencing. Leucine aminopeptidase was used to cleave a 405-Da HHL monomer from the UH40 fusion protein and the peptide was purified using reverse-phase high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) on a C18 HPLC column, with a final yield of 6.2mg/l. The resulting peptide was confirmed to be HHL with the aid of MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry, glutamine-TOF mass spectrometry, N-terminal sequencing, and measurement of ACE inhibiting activity. These results suggest that our production method is useful for obtaining a large quantity of recombinant HHL for functional antihypertensive peptide studies.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.34-41
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• 1998

A method was developed for the controlled expression of an antimicrobial peptide magainin in Escherichia coli. A series of concatemeric magainin genes was constructed with a gene amplification vector, and fused to the 3'end of malE gene encoding the affinity ligand, E. coli maltose-binding protein (MBP). The construct directed the synthesis of the fusion protein with the magainin polypeptide fused to the C-terminus of MBP. The fusion protein was expressed in a tightly regulatable expression system which was under the control of an invertible promoter. The MBP-fused magainin monomer was expressed efficiently. However, the expression level of the MBP-fused magainin in E. coli decreased with the increasing size of multimers possibly because of the transcription and translation inhibition by the multimeric peptides. After purification using an amylose affinity column, the fusion protein was digested by factor Xa at a specific cleavage site between the monomers. The recombinant magainin had an antimicrobial activity identical to that of synthetic magainin. This experiment shows that a biologically active, antimicrobial peptide magainin can be produced by fusing to MBP, along with a promoter inversion vector system.

• Journal of Dairy Science and Biotechnology
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.17-20
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• 2007

Bovine lactoferricin(LFcin B) is a peptide of 25 amino acids that originated from the N terminus of bovine lactoferrin, and is characterized as having potent antimicrobial activity against bacteria, fungi, protozoa and viruses. But, direct expression of Lfcin B is lethal to Escherichia coli. For the efficient production of Lfcin B in microorganism, we developed an expression system in which the gene for cationic Lfcin B was fused to an anionic peptide gene, and successfully expressed the concatemeric fusion gene in E. coli. The purified recombinant Lfcin B was found to have antimicrobial activity, as chemically synthesized Lfcin B peptide does.

• 한국유가공학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2007.09a
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• pp.13-20
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• 2007

Bovine lactoferricin(LFcin B) is a peptide of 25 amino acids that originated from the N terminus of bovine lactoferrin, and is characterized as having potent antimicrobial activity against bacteria, fungi, protozoa and viruses. But, direct expression of Lfcin B is lethal to Escherichia coli. For the efficient production of Lfcin B in E. coli, we developed an expression system in which the gene for cationic Lfcin B was fused to an anionic peptide gene, and successfully expressed the concatemeric fusion gene in E. coli. The purified recombinant Lfcin B was found to have antimicrobial activity, as the native Lfcin B peptide does.

• Molecules and Cells
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.54-59
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• 2005

Deoxyribonuclease I (DNase I) is a divalent cation dependent endonuclease and thought to be a significant barrier to effective gene delivery. The only known DNase I-specific inhibitor is monomeric actin which acts by forming a 1:1 complex with DNase I. Its use, however, is restricted because of tendency to polymerize under certain conditions. We screened two random phage peptide libraries of complexity $10^8$ and $10^9$ for DNase I binders as candidates for DNase I inhibitors. A number of DNase I-binding peptide sequences were identified. When these peptides were expressed as fusion proteins with Escherichia coli maltose binding protein, they inhibited the actin-DNase I interaction ($IC_{50}=0.1-0.7{\mu}M$) and DNA degradation by DNase I ($IC_{50}=0.8-8{\mu}M$). Plasmid protection activity in the presence of DNase I was also observed with the fusion proteins. These peptides have the potential to be a useful adjuvant for gene therapy using naked DNA.

• BMB Reports
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• v.44 no.4
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• pp.256-261
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• 2011

PEP-1 peptide has been used for transduction of native protein into mammalian cells. This work describes the findings that the fusion of PEP-1 to target proteins led to protein truncation likely in a non-protein-specific manner. Approximately 75% of PEP-1-MsrA fusion protein was truncated in the N-terminal region of MsrA between Lys-27 and Val-28 during expression in Escherichia coli and purification. This large protein truncation was also observed in another PEP-1 fused protein, PEP-1-MsrB2, in the N-terminal region of MsrB2. The full-length PEP-1-MsrA protein was rapidly transduced into keratinocyte cells within 15 min. The transduced PEP-1-MsrA was functionally active and could protect skin cells against oxidative stress- and ultraviolet radiation-induced cell death. Collectively, our data demonstrated the protective roles of MsrA in skin cells and, moreover, may raise a concern of protein truncation caused by fusion of PEP-1 about the general use of this peptide for protein transduction.

• BMB Reports
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• v.30 no.5
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• pp.303-307
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• 1997

Grb2, which is composed of a Src homology 2 (SH2) domain and two Src homology 3 (SH3) domains, is known to serve as an adaptor protein in signaling for Ras activation. Thus, a blocker of the Grb2 interactions with other proteins can be a potential candidate for an anticancer drug. In this study, we have developed a high throughput screening method for SH3 domain binding ligands and blockers. Firstly, we made and purified the glutathione S-transferase (GST)-fusion proteins with the Grb2 SH2 and SH3 domains, and the entire Grb2. This method measures the binding of a biotin-labeled oligopeptide, derived from a Grb2/SH3 binding motif in the hSos, to the GST-fusion proteins, which are precoated as glutathione S-transferase fusion protein on a solid phase. When $1\;{\mu}g$ of each fusion protein was used to coat the wells, both N- and C- terminal SH3 the domains as well as the whole of Grb2 were able to interact with the biotin-conjugated ligand peptide, while the SH2 domain and GST alone showed no binding affinity. Although N- and C- terminal SH3 domains showed an increase of binding to the ligand peptide in proportion to the amount of peptide, the GST fusion protein with Grb2 demonstrated much higher binding affinity. GST-Grb2 coating on the solid phase showed a saturation curve; 66 and 84% of the maximal binding was observed at 100 and 300 ng/$100\;{\mu}l$, respectively. This binding assay system was peptide sequence-specific, showing a dose-dependent inhibition with the unlabeled peptide of SH3 binding motif. Several other peptides, such as SH2 domain binding motifs and PTB domain binding motif, were ineffective to inhibit the binding to the biotin-conjugated ligand peptide. These results suggest that our method may be useful to screen for new anticancer drug candidates which can block the signaling pathways mediated by SH3 domain binding.