A simple, economical method of converting gene expression products of insulin into recombinant insulin and its application

A method, by which the gene expression product of recombinant single chain insulin can be converted into insulin by directly digesting with trypsin, has been established. This method has been used in process of porcine insulin precursor (PIP), [B16Ala]PIP and [B26Ala]PIP into (desB30)insulin, (desB30)[B16Ala]insulin and (desB30)[B26Ala]insulin, respectively, and all of them retain full biological activity of that of their corresponding parent, recombinant human insulin, [B16Ala]insulin and [B26Ala]insulin. The results further demonstrate that the C-terminal residue of B chain is not necessary for insulin's biological activity. Compared with the method of transpeptidation, this method is simple, with a high yield, and avoids the use of organic reagents, and in comparison with the trypsin/carboxypeptidase method, it omits the use of carboxylpeptidase. Besides, (desB30)[B16Ala]insulin and (desB30)[B26Ala]insulin still remained without self-association property as that of their parents, which demonstrate that they are monomeric insulin. So they can be used for substituting for monomeric insulin, [B16Ala]insulin and [B26Ala]insulin, in clinical applications.     

人表皮生长因子融合蛋白在大肠杆菌表达的研究

在大肠杆菌中高效表达人表皮生长因子(hEGF)。根据大肠杆菌对密码的偏爱性,构建高效表达EGF融合蛋白的菌株,经离子交换层析和凝胶过滤层析两个步骤使产物得到纯化。融合蛋白表达产量为27%,EGF融合蛋白纯化产物纯度为95%以上,促3T3细胞增殖的活性测定为ED50为4.2ng/mL。在pET 3c:BL21(DE3)大肠杆菌表达系统中,以融合蛋白方式表达人表皮生长因子,表达效率高,纯化路线简单,产量较高,适合产业化生产。     

6个氨基酸小C肽人胰岛素原类似物基因的构建和表达

用片段置换法，从在Ｃ肽两端具有酶切位点的双突人胰岛素原因中，将Ｃ肽基因替换成含Ａｒｇ－Ａｒｇ－Ｇｌｙ－Ｓｅｒ－Ａｒｇ－Ｌｙｓ６个氨基酸小Ｃ肽基因。将这个小Ｃ肽岛素原类似物基因重组到具有Ｔａｃ启动子的质粒中，并与部分牛凝乳酶原基因融合，在Ｅ．ｃｏｌｉ中得到了高效表达。表达的ＢＣ＇Ａ融合蛋白占菌体总蛋白的１６％。表达产物以包含体形式存在，经ＣＮＢｒ裂解及磺酸，再经复性后，具有对胰岛素的放射免疫活性。     

Human preprovasoactive intestinal polypeptide contains a novel PHI-27-like peptide, PHM-27

Vasoactive intestinal polypeptide (VIP), a 28-amino acid peptide originally isolated from porcine duodenum, is present not only in gastrointestinal tissues but also in neural tissues, possibly as a neurotransmitter, and exhibits a wide range of biological actions (for example, relaxation of smooth muscle, stimulation of intestinal water and electrolyte secretion and release of insulin, glucagon and several anterior pituitary hormones). As the structure of porcine and bovine VIP shows several similarities to those of mammalian glucagon, secretin and gastric inhibitory peptide (GIP), VIP is considered to be a member of the glucagon-secretin family. Recently, we have found that VIP is synthesized from a precursor, pro-VIP (molecular weight (Mr) 17,500), in human neuroblastoma cells and that the primary translation product of the mRNA encoding VIP is prepro-VIP (Mr 20,000). In an attempt to elucidate the primary structure of the precursor, we have now cloned the DNA sequence complementary to the mRNA coding for human VIP and analysed the nucleotide sequence. The entire amino acid sequence of the precursor, deduced from the nucleotide sequence, indicates that the precursor protein contains not only VIP but also a novel peptide of 27 amino acids. The peptide, designated PHM-27, differs by only 2 amino acids from PHI-27, a peptide recently isolated from porcine intestine, and is also closely related in sequence to VIP.     

Monomeric insulins obtained by protein engineering and their medical implications

The use of insulin as an injected therapeutic agent for the treatment of diabetes has been one of the outstanding successes of modern medicine. The therapy has, however, had its associated problems, not least because injection of insulin does not lead to normal diurnal concentrations of insulin in the blood. This is especially true at meal times when absorption from subcutaneous tissue is too slow to mimic the normal rapid increments of insulin in the blood. In the neutral solutions used for therapy, insulin is mostly assembled as zinc-containing hexamers and this self-association, which under normal physiological circumstances functions to facilitate proinsulin transport, conversion and intracellular storage, may limit the rate of absorption. We now report that it is possible, by single amino-acid substitutions, to make insulins which are essentially monomeric at pharmaceutical concentrations (0.6 mM) and which have largely preserved their biological activity. These monomeric insulins are absorbed two to three times faster after subcutaneous injection than the present rapid-acting insulins. They are therefore capable of giving diabetic patients a more physiological plasma insulin profile at the time of meal consumption.     

Prokaryotic expression and characterization of a pea actin isoform （PEAcl） fused to GFP

Actins widely exist in eukaryotic cells and play important roles in many living activities. As there are many kinds of actin isoforms in plant cells,it is difficult to purifyeach actin isoform in sufficient quantities for analysing itsphysicochemical properties. In the present study, apea(pisum Sativum L.)actin isoform (PEAc1)fused to His-tag at its amino terminus and GFP(green fluorescent protein)atits Carboxyl terminus were expressed in E. coli in inclusionbodies. The fusion protein (PEAc1-GFP)was highly purifiedwith the yield of above 2 mg/L culture by dissolving inclu-sions in 8 mol/L urea,renaturing by dialysis in a gradient of urea,and affinity binding to Ni-resin. The purified mono-meric PEAc1-GFP could efficiently bind on DNase I andinhibit the latter抯 enzyme activity. PEAc1-GFP could po-lymerise into green fluorescent filamentous structures(F-PEAc1-GFP),which could be labelled byTRITC-phalloidin,a specific agent for observing microfila-ments. The PEAc1-GFP polymerlzation curve was identicalwith that of chicken skeletal muscle actin. The critical con-centration for PEAc1-Gfp to polymerise into filaments is 0.24 μmol/L.The F-PEAc1-GFP could stimulate myosinMg-ATPase activity in a protein concentration dependantmanner (about 4 folds at 1 mg/mL F-PEAc1-GFP). The re-sults above show that the PEAc1 fused to GFP retained theassembly characteristic of actin, indicating that gene fusion,prokaryotic expression, denaturation and renaturation,andaffinity chromatography is a useful strategy for obtainingplant actin isoform proteins in a large amount.     

Human transforming growth factor-beta complementary DNA sequence and expression in normal and transformed cells

The partial amino-acid sequence of purified human transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-beta) was used to identify a series of cDNA clones encoding the protein. The cDNA sequence indicates that the 112-amino acid monomeric form of the natural TGF-beta homodimer is derived proteolytically from a much longer precursor polypeptide which may be secreted. TGF-beta messenger RNA is synthesized in various normal and transformed cells.     

新型相转移催化剂的合成及其在不对称合成中的应用

烷基化反应被认为是最有用的碳-碳键形成的反应之一．作者以光学纯的联二萘酚为原料经过与三氟甲烷磺酸酐成酯反应，与甲基格氏试剂发生偶联反应，经甲基保护酚羟基后溴代，最后与生物碱反应制备手性相转移催化剂．在二苯甲酮亚胺甘氨酸叔丁酯的不对称烷基化反应中，2mol％催化剂用量，获得较高的产率和27％的对映选择性．     

Intraorganellar calcium and pH control proinsulin cleavage in the pancreatic beta cell via two distinct site-specific endopeptidases

Insulin is produced from an inactive precursor, proinsulin, through initial endoproteolytic cleavage at sites marked by pairs of basic amino-acid residues. We report here that lysates of insulin secretory granules contain two distinct Ca-dependent acidic endoproteases; one (type I) cleaving exclusively on the C-terminal side of Arg 31.Arg 32 (B-chain/C-peptide junction), the other (type II) preferentially on the C-terminal side of Lys 64.Arg 65 of proinsulin (C-peptide/A-chain junction). The Ca and pH requirements of these proteinases suggested that the type-II proteinase would be active in the Golgi apparatus and the secretory granule, whereas type-I activity would be compatible only with the intragranular environment. Kinetic analyses of (pro)insulin conversion intermediates in [35S]methionine-pulsed rat islets support this supposition. Our results suggest a simple mechanism whereby different dibasic sites can be cleaved in different cellular compartments. In conjunction with the regulation of the ionic composition of such compartments and the operation of post-Golgi segregation, our results also suggest how proteolytic conversion of diverse proproteins destined for different cellular sites can occur differentially and in a regulated manner.     

甘蔗UGPase cDNA的克隆及序列分析

以甘蔗(FN95-1702)为材料,通过RT-PCR,首次克隆得到了甘蔗UGPase cDNA片段.该片段长1 495 bp,其中包含完整的ORF为1 431 bp,共编码476个氨基酸,并含有5个重要的Lys残基位点,分别为Lys257、Lys321、 Lys367、 Lys408、 Lys409,它们对维持UGPase活性及与底物结合方面发挥着重要作用.     

Human insulin receptor and its relationship to the tyrosine kinase family of oncogenes

We have deduced the entire 1,370-amino-acid sequence of the human insulin receptor precursor from a single complementary DNA clone. The precursor starts with a 27-amino-acid signal sequence, followed by the receptor alpha-subunit, a precursor processing enzyme cleavage site, then the beta-subunit containing a single 23-amino-acid transmembrane sequence. There are sequence homologies to human epidermal growth factor receptor and the members of the src family of oncogene products.     

用改良Ikeda手术治疗先天性巨结肠症85例

探讨改良Ｋｋｅｄａ手术治疗小儿先天性巨结肠症的远期效果。方法：回顾１９８２－１９９７年采用改良Ｉｋｅｄａ手术治疗小儿先天性巨结肠８５例，随访４９例手术后１－１０年排便功能，通过临床评分，观察术后疗效。     

高频等位基因HLA-A*1101重链胞外域-BSP融合蛋白原核表达载体的构建及表达鉴定

目的:构建HLA-A*1101重链胞外域羧基端融合生物素化酶B irA底物肽(BSP)的融合蛋白(HLA-A11-BSP)原核表达载体,并在大肠杆菌中表达该融合蛋白。方法:以RT-PCR法扩增并克隆HLA-A*1101重链基因的cDNA,以PCR方法构建HLA-A11-BSP的表达载体,在大肠杆菌BL21(DE3)中诱导表达,并以免疫印迹法进行鉴定。结果:从HLA-A2阴性的供者外周血单个核细胞中克隆到HLA-A*1101重链基因的cDNA,以此cDNA为模板,将编码HLA-A*1101重链胞外域1~276序列与编码BSP的序列融合,构建HLA-A11-BSP融合蛋白表达载体,重组质粒经测序验证。融合蛋白在BL21(DE3)中诱导后获得高效表达,约占菌体总蛋白的20%;其相对分子质量约为35 000,与理论值一致。免疫印迹分析显示表达产物主要存在于包涵体中,上清液中几乎无任何产物存在。结论:成功构建表达HLA-A11-BSP融合蛋白的原核表达载体,该融合蛋白在大肠杆菌中以包涵体形式获得高水平表达。     

重组人血管内皮生长因子165在大肠杆菌中的可溶性表达、纯化与体外活性评价

人血管内皮生长因子165(VEGF165)可有效促进血管新生和增加血管通透性,在伤口愈合方面有重要医疗价值。建立获取高纯度、高活性的优质重组VEGF165蛋白的方法具有重要意义。研究利用带有6组氨酸标签的二硫键形成蛋白A(Dsb A)的E.coli表达系统实现了Dsb A-VEGF165融合蛋白的可溶性表达;诱导过程中添加5%(v/v)的乙醇可显著提高工程菌中可溶性融合蛋白表达水平。融合蛋白通过Ni亲和层析粗纯,并经牛肠激酶酶切去除标签蛋白。随后利用肝素亲和层析精纯获得重组人VEGF165蛋白。非还原及还原SDS-PAGE电泳检测到分子量为约40 k Da的同源二聚体蛋白,促HUVEC细胞增殖实验显示重组蛋白具有较优的活性,EC50为13 ng/m L。研究实现了Dsb A-VEGF165的在E.coli中可溶性表达,建立了经济、高效的纯化方法,获得了高质量、高活性的重组人VEGF165蛋白。     

HLA-A*0207重链胞外区原核表达载体的构建及表达

目的：克隆HLA-A*0207(A2)重链基因，构建在羧基端融合生物索化酶BirA底物肽(BirA substrate peptide，BSP)的A2重链胞外区原核表达载体，在大肠杆菌中进行表达。方法：以RT-PCR方法从HLA-A2^ 供白细胞中克隆A2基因并进行DNA测序，并以PCR方法构建在羧基端融合BSP的A2重链胞外区表达载体，在大肠杆菌B121(ED3)中进行表达。结果：从31名HLA-A2^ 供白细胞中克隆到的基因经DNA测序显示，只有从供2得到的基因是HLA-A*0207。将编码该基因编码重链胞外区1-275的序列和编码BSP的序列融合，构建融合蛋白表达载体，并以测序验证。融合蛋白在B121(ED3)中获得高效表达，产物相对分子质量为35000，约占菌体总蛋白的30％，主要存在于包涵体中，对包涵体进行洗涤后得到纯度为80％的重组蛋白。结论：成功克隆HLA-A*0207基因，构建了其胞外区和BSP融合蛋白表达载体并在大肠杆菌中获得高效表达。     

Gene silencing: trans-histone regulatory pathway in chromatin

The fundamental unit of eukaryotic chromatin, the nucleosome, consists of genomic DNA wrapped around the conserved histone proteins H3, H2B, H2A and H4, all of which are variously modified at their amino- and carboxy-terminal tails to influence the dynamics of chromatin structure and function -- for example, conjugation of histone H2B with ubiquitin controls the outcome of methylation at a specific lysine residue (Lys 4) on histone H3, which regulates gene silencing in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Here we show that ubiquitination of H2B is also necessary for the methylation of Lys 79 in H3, the only modification known to occur away from the histone tails, but that not all methylated lysines in H3 are regulated by this 'trans-histone' pathway because the methylation of Lys 36 in H3 is unaffected. Given that gene silencing is regulated by the methylation of Lys 4 and Lys 79 in histone H3, we suggest that H2B ubiquitination acts as a master switch that controls the site-selective histone methylation patterns responsible for this silencing.     

人胰岛素原类似物（B-Arg-Arg-A）基因的构建和表达

用聚合酶链反应（PCR）法将C肽为6个氨基酸残基的胰岛素原类似物基因删除突变成C肽仅为2个精氨酸残基的胰岛素原类似物（BArg-Arg-A）基因,即把pUC18BC'A改建为pUC18BR₂A。再将pUC18BR₂A与pJG105重组为表达质粒pJG107,使B-Arg-Arg-A与pJG105编码的一种多肽构成融合蛋白在大肠杆菌体系中表达。融合蛋白占细菌蛋白总量的58%。表达产物具有人胰岛素放射免疫活性。     

不同物种间胰岛素及其编码mRNA,DNA序列比较与分析

通过PSI-BLAST搜索与人类胰岛素原(含有86个氨基酸)相似的蛋白质序列，并进行比对，计算比对矩阵的相似得分和期望值，同时运用ClustalW算法对不同物种编码前胰岛素原mRNA及其翻译的蛋白质和DNA序列进行多重比对．结果发现，脊椎动物的胰岛素蛋白质一级结构(A链和B链)和mRNA非常相似，但部分动物C肽的部分序列有差异；系统进化分析表明，人和猴、小鼠和大鼠编码胰岛素的mRNA在进化上关系相近．各物种间编码相同氨基酸的核苷酸序列（CDS)相同，但编码胰岛素的DNA序列不同．各物种胰岛素原蛋白质序列中，A链和B链序列保守，C肽有一定的差异；DNA序列差异较大．     

Generation of transgenic cucumbers with expression of a ten-tandem repeat long-acting GLP-1 analogue and their biological function on diabetic rats

Glucagon-like peptide-1 （GLP-1） is a 30-amino acid peptide hormone, which has the regulatory function of stimulating the secretion of insulin to balance blood glucose levels. In this study, marker-free expression vector pX6 with a fusion gene of ten tandem repeated GLP-1 analog （[Ser8, Gln26 and Asp34]-GLP-1） genes was constructed and transformed into cucumbers by Agrobacterium tumefaciens-mediated transformation method. Four transgenic lines were obtained by PCR and Southern blotting analysis and two transgenic lines successfully expressed the fusion protein （named GLP-T）, which was revealed by Western blotting analysis. The biological activity test results showed that the serum glucose level of diabetic rats was significantly decreased after oral administration of the fusion protein GLP-T extracted from the transgenic cucumber fruitage. These results suggest that this may provide a brand-new strategy to prevent and cure the diabetes with no pain.