Biomedical subjects

Anthony E G Cass

Publications and source records attributed to Anthony E G Cass.

13 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2006

Construction of a high sensitive Escherichia coli alkaline phosphatase reporter system for screening affinity peptides.

An enzyme-linker-peptide fusion protein reporter system was constructed for sensitive analysis of affinity of peptide ligands to their receptor. An E. coli alkaline phosphatase (EAP) mutant enzyme with high catalytic activity was selected as the reporter protein. Interaction of affinity peptide and streptavidin was applied as demonstration of the method. Three affinity peptides, strep-tag I (SI), strep-tag II (SII) and streptavidin binding peptide (SBP) were genetically fused to the C-terminal of EAP respectively, with an insertion of a flexible linker peptide in between. The enzyme activity of the EAP fusions showed no obvious change. After expression and purification, the EAP-affinity peptide fusions were applied to the streptavidin modified surface. Binding of the fusions to the surface through interaction of affinity peptides to streptavidin was indicated by color generated from conversion of the substrate by EAP. The relative affinity and specificity of each affinity peptides to the immobilized streptavidin were then evaluated with high sensitivity and broad detection range. This method may be used for effective high-throughput screening of high affinity peptide from the peptide pool.

Affinity Labels↗

PubMed2006

Directed evolution of the 5'-untranslated region of the phoA gene in Escherichia coli simultaneously yields a stronger promoter and a stronger Shine-Dalgarno sequence.

Directed evolution has been widely applied for gene improvement through random mutagenesis of coding sequences. Through error-prone PCR both in the coding sequence and the regulatory sequence of E. coli alkaline phosphatase, the cellular enzyme activity has been efficiently enhanced. Sequence analysis revealed that the resultant mutant 34-B12, which showed a sevenfold increased enzyme activity at the cellular level, contains three mutations in the regulatory sequence and another three mutations in the coding sequence. Activity assays of the enzyme containing the corresponding amino acid substitutions proved that the amino acid mutations contribute only to a small portion to the increased cellular enzyme activity. So the mutations in the 5'-untranslated region were analyzed separately and combinationally. The results suggested that one mutation yielded a stronger promoter and the other two mutations both elevated the E. coli alkaline phosphatase expression at the translational level; moreover, a stronger Shine-Dalgarno sequence was generated.

5' Untranslated Regions↗

PubMed2005

Probing the function of Mycobacterium tuberculosis catalase-peroxidase by site-directed mutagenesis.

Catalase-peroxidase is a multi-functional heme-dependent enzyme which is well known for its ability to carry out both catalatic and peroxidatic reactions. Catalase-peroxidase from Mycobacterium tuberculosis(mtCP) is of particular interest because this enzyme activates the pro-antitubercular drug isoniazid. It is estimated that 2 billion people are infected with M. tuberculosis, the principal causative agent of tuberculosis, and that 2 million people die from the disease each year. The rise of drug-resistant strains continues to be of critical concern and it is well documented that mutations which reduce activity or inactivate mtCP lead to increased levels of isoniazid resistance in M. tuberculosis. The recent determination of the crystal structure for M. tuberculosis mtCP has aided the understanding of how the enzyme functions and provides a three-dimensional framework for testing hypotheses about the roles of various residues in the active site. Here we report site-directed mutagenesis studies of three conserved residues located near the heme of mtCP, His-108, Trp-107 and Trp-321 including the construction of the double mutant W107F-W321F. Resulting mutants have been purified and their catalatic and peroxidatic activities have been determined. Data are compared in the context of related studies aimed at dissecting the roles of these residues in the different activities of the enzyme. Analyses of single and double mutants studied here emphasise that the hydrogen bonding network surrounding the heme in the active site appears more important for maintenance of catalatic rather than peroxidatic activity in CP enzymes.

Bacterial Proteins↗

PubMed2004

Improvement of homogeneity of analytical biodevices by gene manipulation.

Homogeneity is proposed for evaluation of the quality of analytical biodevices, such as biosensors and biochips. As a demonstration, glucose oxidase (GOx) was modified at its C-terminal with a linker peptide with a cysteine residue at the end. The fusion structure (GOx-linker-cysteine) enables the enzyme to immobilize on gold surfaces with a Cys-S-Au bond or to immobilize on a silanized glass surface via disulfide chemistry. With this fusion structure, the enzyme can be anchored onto the substrate with well-controlled orientation, thus forming a homogeneous biological layer on biodevices. The linker peptide between GOx and the cysteine acts as a spacer to reduce the steric hindrance caused by the bulky body of the enzyme. Biochemistry experiments showed that this genetically modified glucose oxidase (shortened to GOxm) retained most of its catalytic characteristics, with K(m) and K(cat) similar to those of the wild-type GOx. Electrochemistry experiments showed that GOxm-modified electrode gave higher and more stable current responses than the electrode modified with GOx which has no free -SH on its surface. The coefficients of variation (used for evaluation of the interchangeability of the enzyme device from the same batch preparation) were 9.5% for the GOxm gold electrode and 20.0% for the GOx gold electrode and the GOxm oxygen electrode. The relative errors (used for evaluation of the precision of the individual enzyme device) were 2.9% for the GOxm gold electrode, 12.0% for the GOx gold electrode, and 11.2% for the GOxm oxygen electrode. Atomic force microscopy images revealed that GOxm formed a self-assembled monolayer in a hexagonal-like lattice packing arrangement on the gold surface, while GOx formed multilayer assembling or aggregated particles. The homogeneity of the protein chips, the GOxm array that was prepared through -S-S- formation, and the GOx array that was prepared through nonspecific adsorption was evaluated. The coefficients of variation, calculated with the signal level of all dots, were 5.4% for the GOxm array and 81.8% for the GOx array. All experimental results pointed to the fact that the homogeneity of the analytical biodevices could be considerably improved by using the proposed method.

Aspergillus niger↗

PubMed2003

Design and construction of glutamine binding proteins with a self-adhering capability to unmodified hydrophobic surfaces as reagentless fluorescence sensing devices.

The chemically and genetically remodeling of proteins with ligand binding specificities can be utilized to synthesize various protein-based microsensors for detecting single biomolecules. Here, we describe the construction and characterization of fluorophore-labeled glutamine binding proteins (QBP) and derivatives coupled to the independently designed hydrophobic polypeptide (E12) that can adhere onto solid surfaces via hydrophobic interactions. The single cysteine mutant (N160C QBP) modified with the three environmentally sensitive fluorescent dyes (IAANS, acrylodan, and IANBD ester) showed increased changes in fluorescence intensity induced by glutamine binding. The use of these conjugates as reagentless fluorescence sensors enables us to determine the glutamine concentrations (0.1-50 microM) in homogeneous solution. The fusion of N160C QBP with E12, (Gly4-Ser)n spacers (GSn), and IANBD resulted in the novel fluorescence sensing elements having an adhering capability to hydrophobic surfaces of unmodified microplates. In ELISA and fluorescence experiments for the microplates treated with a series of the conjugates, IANBD-labeled N160C QBP-GS1-E12 displayed the best reproducibility in adhesion onto the hydrophobic surfaces and the precise correlation between fluorescence changes and glutamine concentrations. The performance of the biosensor-attached microplate for glutamine titrations demonstrated that the hydrophobic interaction of E12 with solid surfaces is useful for effective immobilization of proteins that need specific conformational movements in recognizing particular biomolecules. Therefore, the technique using E12 as a surface-linking domain for protein adhesion onto unmodified substrates could be applied effectively to prepare microplates/arrays for a wide variety of high-throughput assays on chemical and biological samples.

Biosensing Techniques↗

PubMed2003

Fluorescent peptide probes for high-throughput measurement of protein phosphatases.

A homogeneous microplate assay for the serine/threonine protein phosphatases PP1 and PP2A, employing fluorescent-labeled phosphopeptides, has been developed. Phosphopeptides derived from a phosphoacceptor site in myelin basic protein were designed with a cysteine adjacent to the phosphoresidue, allowing site-selective labeling with dyes. The fluorescence emission from the environmentally sensitive fluorophore 7-fluorobenz-2-oxa-1,3-diazole-4-sulfonamide was found to be sensitive to the phosphorylation status of an adjacent threonine residue. Upon complete dephosphorylation of the dye-labeled phosphopeptide, a 56% decrease in fluorescence intensity was observed. The change in fluorescence was correlated with the release of inorganic phosphate from the phosphopeptide as measured using the malachite green assay. Conjugation of the fluorophore to the phosphopeptide was found to have no adverse effect on catalysis. A series of four phosphopeptide substrates were developed and characterized to probe PP1 and PP2A activity. The optimum phosphopeptides were then used to determine inhibition parameters for three natural protein phosphatase inhibitors. The use of a peptide-based approach has introduced a degree of specificity not observed with many conventional phosphatase substrates, while retaining the advantages of a real-time homogeneous fluorescence-based format, making the assay ideal for high-density screening.

Enzyme Inhibitors↗

PubMed2002

Genetic modification of glucose oxidase for improving performance of an amperometric glucose biosensor.

Glucose oxidase (GOD) was genetically modified by adding a poly-lysine chain at the C-terminal with a peptide linker inserted between the enzyme and poly-lysine chain. The poly-lysine chain was added in order to anchor more electron transfer mediator, ferrocenecarboxylic acid, to GOD for the purpose of improving sensitivity and stability of glucose biosensors. The modified GOD had similar K(m) and K(cat) to those of the wild type enzyme. After interacted with the electron transfer mediator, the modified enzyme retained 90.01% of its native activity, while the commercial GOD and the wild type GOD (Aspergillus niger) retained only 22.43 and 22.17%, respectively. Screen-printed electrodes coated with the modified GOD, wild type yeast-derived GOD or the commercial GOD were tested in glucose solution of different concentrations. Experimental results showed that the biosensor based on the modified GOD gave the largest signal among the three. In addition, the linear range of the biosensor prepared by the modified GOD could extend to 45 mM, while they were about 20 mM for the biosensors based on the wild type yeast-derived enzyme and the commercial enzyme.

Biosensing Techniques↗

PubMed2002

A method for the determination of enzyme mass loading on an electrode surface through radioisotope labelling.

A direct method has been developed for the quantitation of the amount of immobilised enzymes on biosensor surfaces. This quantity is of key importance in establishing the activity, kinetics and optimal immobilisation conditions in the construction of both amperometric and optical biosensors. Recombinant L-lactate dehydrogenase incorporating both a biosynthetically introduced radiolabel, 3H-leucine, and a hexahistidine peptide tag was immobilised on a poly(aniline) composite film and then quantitated by liquid scintillation counting. It was found that enzyme mass loading was proportional to the concentration of LDH in solution, and also depended on the morphology of the composite film. The LDH mass loading on the composite film doubled when a surface cysteine containing variant was used, possibly due to the covalent attachment of the cysteine to the diiminoquinoid rings of the poly(aniline).

Aniline Compounds↗

PubMed2002

Immobilisation of enzymes on poly(aniline)-poly(anion) composite films. Preparation of bioanodes for biofuel cell applications.

Immobilisation of enzymes is important for applications such as biosensors or biofuel cells. A poly(histidine) tag had been introduced on the C terminus of a lactate dehydrogenase enzyme. This mutant enzyme was then immobilised onto poly(aniline) (PANi)-poly(anion) composite films, PANi-poly(vinylsulfonate) (PVS) or PANi-poly(acrylate) (PAA). The NADH produced by the immobilised enzyme in the presence of beta-nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD(+)) and lactate is oxidised at the poly(aniline)-coated electrode at 0.05 to 0.1 V vs. saturated calomel electrode (SCE) at 35 degrees C.

Aniline Compounds↗

PubMed2002

The design of dehydrogenase enzymes for use in a biofuel cell: the role of genetically introduced peptide tags in enzyme immobilization on electrodes.

The immobilization of the mutants of L-lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) on poly(aniline) (PANi) composite films has been investigated. Mutants possessing peptide tags of varying charge and nucleophilicity were created to probe the nature of the interaction between the protein and PANi. These results are significant for the development of a 'generic' approach to the immobilization of enzymes and other proteins.

Bioelectric Energy Sources↗

PubMed2002

[Current researches on molecular enzyme engineering].

The developments of recombinant DNA technology and structural biology make it possible to modify enzyme in molecular level. Scientists show growing interests in the evolution or functional fusion of enzymes. Recent advances and applications of the molecular enzyme engineering are reviewed and discussed in this article.

Enzymes↗

PubMed2002

[High expression and identification of DNA mismatch repair gene mutS in Escherichia coli].

DNA mismatch repair gene mutS (2.56 kb) was PCR modified and cloned into a secretive prokaryotic expression vector pET32a (+) which carries a N-terminal His.tag + and thioredoxin sequence. MutS protein was expressed with high level after IPTG induction using the strain E. coli AD494(DE3). SDS-PAGE revealed that the expected protein with a molecular weight of 108 kD which is about 35% of the total bacterial proteins is almost soluble. The expected protein was purified directly by immobilized metal (Ni2+) chelation affinity chromatography and the purity is over 90%. MutS protein activity verified using mismatch DNA showed that the expression product can recognize and bind to base-pair mismatch specifically.

Adenosine Triphosphatases↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Kinetic study of site directed and randomly immobilized his-tag alkaline phosphatase by flow injection chemiluminescence.

We immobilized his-tag alkaline phosphatase (ALP) randomly and with the desirable orientation (site directed) to compare the effects of the enzyme activity on the beads. The chemiluminescence was employed to increase the sensitivity of enzyme labelled assays. Flow injection was also carried out for the detection of chemical and biological molecules in flow solutions. The Vmax of randomly immobilized his-tag ALP was 1.2 and the Vmax of site directed immobilized his-tag ALP was 1.5. In other words, the activity of site directed immobilized his-tag ALP was about 1.3-folds increased. The detection limit was detected to be 6 x 10(-6) M for the flow injection system.

Alkaline Phosphatase↗