(4-24)-ply(a) and Disease-Models--Animal

Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) shows increasingly enhanced resistance to various antibiotics, and its eradication has become a major problem in medicine. The antimicrobial peptide PGLa-AM1 is a short peptide with 22 amino acids and exhibits strong antibacterial activity. In this study, we investigated whether it has anti-H. pylori activity for the further development of anti-H. pylori drugs to replace existing antibiotics. However, the natural antimicrobial peptide PGLa-AM1 shows a low yield and is difficult to separate, limiting its application. A good strategy to solve this problem is to express the antimicrobial peptide PGLa-AM1 using gene engineering at a high level and low cost. For getting PGLa-AM1 with native structure, in this study, a specific protease cleavage site of tobacco etch virus (TEV) was designed before the PGLa-AM1 peptide. For convenience to purify and identify high-efficiency expression PGLa-AM1, the PGLa-AM1 gene was fused with the polyhedrin gene of Bombyx mori (B. mori), and a 6 × His tag was designed to insert before the amino terminus of the fusion protein. The fusion antibacterial peptide PGLa-AM1 (FAMP) gene codon was optimized, and the gene was synthesized and cloned into the Escherichia coli (E. coli) pET-30a (+) expression vector. The results showed that the FAMP was successfully expressed in E. coli. Its molecular weight was approximately 34 kDa, and its expression level was approximately 30 mg/L. After the FAMP was purified, it was further digested with TEV protease. The acquired recombinant antimicrobial peptide PGLa-AM1 exerted strong anti-H. pylori activity and therapeutic effect in vitro and in vivo.

Topics: Animals; Anti-Bacterial Agents; Antimicrobial Cationic Peptides; Disease Models, Animal; Escherichia coli; Genetic Engineering; Helicobacter Infections; Helicobacter pylori; Mice; Occlusion Body Matrix Proteins; Potyvirus; Protein Conformation; Recombinant Fusion Proteins; Viral Structural Proteins

With over eight million cases of tuberculosis each year there is a pressing need for the development of new vaccines against Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Subunit vaccines consisting of recombinant proteins are an attractive vaccine approach due to their inherent safety compared to attenuated live vaccines and the uniformity of manufacture. Addition of properly formulated TLR agonist-containing adjuvants to recombinant protein vaccines enhances the antigen-specific CD4(+) T cell response characterized by IFN-γ and TNF, both of which are critical for the control of TB. We have developed a clinical stage vaccine candidate consisting of a recombinant fusion protein ID93 adjuvanted with the TLR4 agonist GLA-SE. Here we examine whether ID93+GLA-SE can be improved by the addition of a second TLR agonist. Addition of CpG containing DNA to ID93+GLA-SE enhanced the magnitude of the multi-functional TH1 response against ID93 characterized by co-production of IFN-γ, TNF, and IL-2. Addition of CpG also improved the protective efficacy of ID93+GLA-SE. Finally we demonstrate that this adjuvant synergy between GLA and CpG is independent of TRIF signaling, whereas TRIF is necessary for the adjuvant activity of GLA-SE in the absence of CpG.

Topics: Adaptor Proteins, Vesicular Transport; Adjuvants, Immunologic; Animals; Antigens; Antimicrobial Cationic Peptides; Disease Models, Animal; Female; Mice; Mice, Knockout; Mycobacterium tuberculosis; Signal Transduction; Th1 Cells; Toll-Like Receptors; Tuberculosis; Tuberculosis Vaccines; Vaccines, Synthetic