Biomedical subjects

Cesar Mateo

Publications and source records attributed to Cesar Mateo.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2006

Solid phase proteomics: dramatic reinforcement of very weak protein-protein interactions.

Very weak protein-protein interactions may play a critical role in cell physiology but they are not easily detectable in "in vitro" experiments. To detect these weak interactions, we have developed a strategy that included: (a) design of a rapid and very effective crosslinking of protein-protein complexes with poly-functional reagents; (b) selective adsorption of very large proteins on lowly activated ionic exchangers, based on the need of a multipoint physical adsorption to incorporate the proteins into the matrix; (c) purification by selective adsorption of protein-protein complexes formed by strong protein-protein interactions, via selective adsorption of the complexes on lowly activated ionic exchangers via multi-protein physical adsorption and leaving the non-associated proteins in the solution; (d) reinforcement of very weak protein-protein interactions by selective adsorption of the complex on lowly activated ionic exchange supports via a synergetic cooperation of the weak protein-protein interaction plus the interactions of both proteins with the support enabling the almost full shifting of the equilibrium towards the association position; (e) control of the aggregation state of proteins like BSA, formed by weak protein-protein interactions. In this last case, it seems that the interaction of the protein molecules placed on the borders of the aggregate with the groups on the support partially stabilizes the whole aggregate, although, some molecules of the aggregate cannot interact with the support. The size of the aggregates may be defined by controlling the concentration of ionised groups on the support: the less activated the supports are, the bigger the complexes. In this way, solid-phase proteomics could be a very interesting tool to detect weak protein-protein interactions.

Adsorption↗

PubMed2006

Improvement of the stability of alcohol dehydrogenase by covalent immobilization on glyoxyl-agarose.

Immobilization of alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH) from Horse Liver inside porous supports promotes a dramatic stabilization of the enzyme against inactivation by air bubbles in stirred tank reactors. Moreover, immobilization of ADH on glyoxyl-agarose promotes additional stabilization against any distorting agent (pH, temperature, organic solvents, etc.). Stabilization is higher when using highly activated supports, they are able to immobilize both subunits of the enzyme. The best glyoxyl derivatives are much more stable than conventional ADH derivatives (e.g., immobilized on BrCN activated agarose). For example, glyoxyl immobilized ADH preserved full activity after incubation at pH 5.0 for 20h at room temperature and conventional derivatives (as well as the soluble enzyme) preserved less than 50% of activity after incubation under the same conditions. Moreover, glyoxyl derivatives are more than 10 times more stable than BrCN derivatives when incubated in 50% acetone at pH 7.0. Multipoint covalent immobilization, in addition to multisubunit immobilization, seems to play an important stabilizing role against distorting agents. In spite of these interesting stabilization factors, immobilization hardly promotes losses of catalytic activity (keeping values near to 90%). This immobilized preparation is able to keep good activity using dextran-NAD(+). In this way, ADH glyoxyl immobilized preparation seems to be suitable to be used as cofactor-recycling enzyme-system in interesting NAD(+)-mediated oxidation processes, catalyzed by other immobilized dehydrogenases in stirred tank reactors.

Alcohol Dehydrogenase↗

PubMed2006

Detection of polyclonal antibody against any area of the protein-antigen using immobilized protein-antigens: the critical role of the immobilization protocol.

Antigens immobilized on solid supports may be used to detect or purify their corresponding antibodies (Ab) from serum. Direct immobilization of antigens on support surfaces (through short spacer arms) may promote interesting stabilizing effects on the immobilized antigen. However, the proximity of the support may prevent the interaction of some fractions of polyclonal Ab with some regions of the antigen (those placed in close contact with the support surface). Horseradish peroxidase (HRP) was immobilized on agarose by different protocols of multipoint covalent immobilization involving different regions of the antigen surface. Glyoxyl-agarose, BrCN-agarose, and glutaraldehyde-agarose were used as activated supports. Each HRP-immobilized preparation was much more stable than the soluble enzyme, but it was only able to adsorb up to 60-70% of a mixture of polyclonal anti-HRP antibodies. On the other hand, HRP was also immobilized on agarose through a very long, flexible, and hydrophilic spacer arm (dextran). This immobilized HRP was hardly stabilized, but it was able to adsorb 100% of the polyclonal anti-HRP. The absence of steric hindrances seems to play a critical role favoring the complete recognition of all classes of polyclonal Ab. Another solution to achieve a complete adsorption of polyclonal Ab on immobilized-stabilized antigens has been also reached by using a mixture of the differently immobilized and stabilized HRP-agarose preparations. In this case, an improved storage and operational stabilities of the immobilized antigens can be combined with the complete adsorption of any class of antibody.

Adsorption↗

PubMed2006

Stabilization of a formate dehydrogenase by covalent immobilization on highly activated glyoxyl-agarose supports.

Formate dehydrogenase (FDH) is a stable enzyme that may be readily inactivated by the interaction with hydrophobic interfaces (e.g., due to strong stirring). This may be avoided by immobilizing the enzyme on a porous support by any technique. Thus, even if the enzyme is going to be used in an ultra-membrane reactor, the immobilization presents some advantages. Immobilization on supports activated with bromocianogen, polyethylenimine, glutaraldehyde, etc., did not promote any stabilization of the enzyme under thermal inactivation. However, the immobilization of FDH on highly activated glyoxyl agarose has permitted increasing the enzyme stability against any distorting agent: pH, T, organic solvent, etc. The time of support-enzyme reaction, the temperature of immobilization, and the activation of the support need to be optimized to get the optimal stability-activity properties. Optimized biocatalyst retained 50% of the offered activity and became 50 times more stable at high temperature and neutral pH. Moreover, the quaternary structure of this dimeric enzyme becomes stabilized by immobilization under optimized conditions. Thus, at acidic pH (conditions where the subunit dissociation is the first step in the enzyme inactivation), the immobilization of both subunits of the enzyme on glyoxyl-agarose has allowed the enzyme to be stabilized by hundreds of times. Moreover, the optimal temperature of the enzyme has been increased (even by 10 degrees C at pH 4.5). Very interestingly, the activity with NAD(+)-dextran was around 60% of that observed with free cofactor.

Biocompatible Materials↗

PubMed2006

Glutaraldehyde cross-linking of lipases adsorbed on aminated supports in the presence of detergents leads to improved performance.

Lipases from Candida rugosa (CRL) and lipase isoforms A and B from Candida antarctica (CAL-A and CAL-B) were adsorbed on aminated supports in the presence of detergents to have individual lipase molecules. Then, one fraction was washed to eliminate the detergent, and both preparations were treated with glutaraldehyde. The presence of detergent during the cross-linking of the lipases to the support permitted an increase in the recovered activity (in some instances, even by a 10-fold factor). This activity was higher even than that exhibited by the just adsorbed lipases, suggesting that it was not a result of some protective effect of the detergent in the enzyme activity during glutaraldehyde chemical modification. Moreover, the enantioselectivity of the different enzyme preparations was very different if the glutaraldehyde was offered in the presence or in the absence of detergent, in some cases increasing the E value (even by a 7-fold factor in the case of CAL-A in the hydrolysis of (+/-)-2-hydroxy-4-phenylbutyric acid ethyl ester), in other cases even inverting the enantio preference (e.g., in the case of CRL). The irreversible chemical inhibition of the enzyme that was immobilized and cross-linked with glutaraldehyde in the presence of detergents was more rapid than that in the other preparations (by more than a 10-fold factor). This experiment reveals an exposition degree of the active serine in the preparation cross-linked with the support in the presence of detergent that is higher than that in the other preparations. The results suggested that different enzyme structures were "stabilized" by the glutaraldehyde treatment if performed in the presence or in the absence of detergent, and that, in the presence of detergent, a form of the lipase with the serine residue more exposed to the medium and much more active could be obtained. This strategy seems to be of general use to improve the lipase activity to be used in macroaqueous media.

Adsorption↗

PubMed2005

Optimization of the modification of carrier proteins with aminated haptens.

In this report we show that succinic groups are far more reactive to amino compounds than the carboxylic groups derived from Asp and Glu on the protein when using coupling via 1-ethyl-3-(3-dimethylaminopropyl) carbodiimide (EDCI) (even by an 8 fold factor). Accordingly, a new carrier-protein was designed where both natural amino and carboxylic moieties were transformed into succinic residues. To prepare this hypersuccinylated carrier, all exposed carboxylic acids were first transformed into amino groups by reaction with ethylendiamine after activation with EDCI. Secondly, all these residues together with the ones from Lys were succinylated to prepare a fully succinylated protein. This was even more relevant considering that the amount of Lysine was 2-4 fold lower than Asp and Glu in most of the proteins. These "hyper-succinylated" proteins (KLH or BSA) offer significant improvements in protein reactivity compared to the native proteins (by a factor of 8-10). The optimization of the reaction, in which the presence of dioxane was found to be influential, permitted further improvements in the modification of the protein. Finally, this new strategy was successfully used to develop antibodies against the commercial anti-tumor molecule, ET-637-NH2. Using native KLH no response was found, whereas 1/64,000 serum dilutions gave very high values in ELISA procedures when immunization was performed using the hyper-succinylated KLH.

Adjuvants, Immunologic↗

PubMed2005

Enzyme stabilization by glutaraldehyde crosslinking of adsorbed proteins on aminated supports.

The stabilization achieved by different immobilization protocols have been compared using three different enzymes (glutaryl acylase (GAC), D-aminoacid oxidase (DAAO), and glucose oxidase (GOX)): adsorption on aminated supports, treatment of this adsorbed enzymes with glutaraldehyde, and immobilization on glutaraldehyde pre-activated supports. In all cases, the treatment of adsorbed enzymes on amino-supports with glutaraldehyde yielded the higher stabilizations: in the case of GOX, a stabilization over 400-fold was achieved. After this treatment, the enzymes could no longer be desorbed from the supports using high ionic strength (suggesting the support-protein reaction). Modification of the enzymes immobilized on supports that did not offer the possibility of react with glutaraldehyde showed the same stability that the non modified preparations demonstrating that the mere chemical modification did not have effect on the enzyme stability. This simple strategy seems to permit very good results in terms of immobilization rate and stability, offering some advantages when compared to the immobilization on glutaraldehyde pre-activated supports.

Adsorption↗

PubMed2005

Detecting minimal traces of DNA using DNA covalently attached to superparamagnetic nanoparticles and direct PCR-ELISA.

A single bond covalent immobilization of aminated DNA probes on magnetic particles suitable for selective molecular hybridization of traces of DNA samples has been developed. Commercial superparamagnetic nanoparticles containing amino groups were activated by coating with a hetero-functional polymer (aldehyde-aspartic-dextran). This new immobilization procedure provides many practical advantages: (a) DNA probes are immobilized far from the support surface preventing steric hindrances; (b) the surface of the nanoparticles cannot adsorb DNA ionically; (c) DNA probes are bound via a very strong covalent bond (a secondary amine) providing very stable immobilized probes (at 100 degrees C, or in 70% formamide, or 0.1N NaOH). Due to the extreme sensitivity of this purification procedure based on DNA hybridization, the detection of hybridized products could be coupled to a PCR-ELISA direct amplification of the DNA bond to the magnetic nanoparticles. As a model system, an aminated DNA probe specific for detecting Hepatitis C Virus cDNA was immobilized according to the optimised procedure described herein. Superparamagnetic nanoparticles containing the immobilized HCV probe were able to give a positive result after PCR-ELISA detection when hybridized with 1 mL of solution containing 10(-18) g/mL of HCV cDNA (two molecules of HCV cDNA). In addition, the detection of HCV cDNA was not impaired by the addition to the sample solution of 2.5 million-fold excess of non-complementary DNA. The experimental data supports the use of magnetic nanoparticles containing DNA probes immobilized by the procedure here described as a convenient and extremely sensitive procedure for purification/detection DNA/RNA from biological samples. The concentration/purification potential of the magnetic nanoparticles, its stability under a wide range of conditions, coupled to the possibility of using the particles directly in amplification by PCR greatly reinforces this methodology as a molecular diagnostic tool.

Binding Sites↗

PubMed2005

Stabilization of enzymes by multipoint attachment via reversible immobilization on phenylboronic activated supports.

In this work, we have used supports activated with m-amino-phenylboronic groups to "reversibly" immobilize proteins under very mild conditions. Most of the proteins contained in a crude extract from E. coli could be immobilized on Eupergit C-250 L activated with phenylboronic and then fully desorbed from the support by using mannitol or SDS. This suggested that the immobilization of the proteins on these supports was not only via sugars interaction, but also by other interaction/s, quite unspecific, that might be playing a key role in the immobilization of the proteins. Penicillin acylase from E. coli (PGA) was also immobilized in Eupergit C activated with m-amino-phenylboronic groups. The enzyme could be fully desorbed with mannitol immediately after being immobilized on the support. However, longer incubation times of the immobilized preparation caused a reduction of protein elution from the boronate support in presence of mannitol. Moreover, these immobilized preparations showed a higher stability in the presence of organic solvents than the soluble enzyme; the stability also improved when the incubation time was increased (to a factor of 100). By desorbing the weakest bound enzyme molecules, it was possible to correlate adsorption strength with stabilization; therefore, it seems that this effect was due to the rigidification of the enzyme via multipoint attachment on the support.

Bacterial Proteins↗

PubMed2005

Stabilization of enzymes by multipoint immobilization of thiolated proteins on new epoxy-thiol supports.

The controlled and partial modification of epoxy groups of Eupergit C and EP-Sepabeads with sodium sulfide has permitted the preparation of thiol-epoxy supports. Their use allowed not only the specific immobilization of enzymes through their thiol groups via thiol-disulfide interchange, but also enzyme stabilization via multipoint covalent attachment. Penicillin G acylase (PGA) from Escherichia coli and lipase from Rhizomucor miehei were used as model enzymes. Both enzymes lacked exposed cysteine residues, but were introduced via chemical modification under very mild conditions. In the first moments of the immobilization, a certain percentage of immobilized protein could be released from the support by incubation with DTT; this confirms that the first step was via a thiol-disulfide interchange. Moreover, the promotion of some further epoxy-enzyme bonds was confirmed because no enzyme release was detected after some immobilization time by incubation with DTT. In the case of the heterodimeric PGA, it was possible to demonstrate the formation of at least one epoxy bond per enzyme subunit by analyzing with SDS-PAGE the supernatants obtained after boiling the enzyme derivatives in the presence of mercaptoethanol and SDS. Thermal inactivation studies showed that these multipoint enzyme-support attachments promoted an increase in the stability of the immobilized enzymes. In both cases, the stabilization factor was around 12-15-fold comparing optimal derivatives with their just-thiol immobilized counterparts.

Binding Sites↗

PubMed2005

Preparation of inert magnetic nano-particles for the directed immobilization of antibodies.

Various activated supports (cyanogen bromide, glutaraldehyde, epoxy-chelates, primary amino) were evaluated for the immobilization of IgG anti-horseradish peroxidase. Cyanogen bromide and glutaraldehyde supports greatly reduced the recognition capacity of the antigen, probably due to the incorrect orientation of the antibody on the support. Hetero-functional epoxy-chelate and immobilization by the sugar chain on primary amino groups had little effect on high recognition of the antigen (near to the theoretically expected value). However, the immobilization by the sugar chain resulted in a higher adsorption rate of horseradish peroxidase, possibly due to a favourable orientation on a flexible spacer arm). Antibodies immobilized on aminated surfaces showed two major drawbacks. Firstly, the biological activity of the immobilized antibody sharply decreased over several days when stored at low ionic strength, although this effect could be partially reversed by incubation at high ionic strength. Secondly, a high level of non-specific proteins adsorption on the support surface was observed. Both problems could be successfully resolved by controlling the coating of the support with aldehyde-aspartic-dextran. We propose that the loss of biological activity was related to the ionic adsorption of the immobilized antibody on the support surface, leading to a blocking of the recognition areas. This optimized protocol was applied to the immobilization of IgG anti-horseradish peroxidase from rabbit on magnetic nano-particles. A 10 microg preparation of nano-particles was able to capture more than 75% of the 0.1 microgram of recombinant horseradish peroxidase present in 10 L of crude protein extract (1g/L) from Escherichia coli.

Antibodies↗

PubMed2005

Purification, stabilization, and concentration of very weak protein-protein complexes: Shifting the association equilibrium via complex selective adsorption on lowly activated supports.

Very weak protein-protein interactions are very difficult to detect because these complexes could be under the detection limit or they tend to dissociate. Here, using as a model the antibody-antigen interaction weaken by the presence of dioxane, we have shown a strategy for the protein complexes purification by selective adsorption of the associated proteins. This strategy is based on the use of poorly activated anionic exchanger supports to selectively adsorb large complexes. This selective adsorption of the associated proteins shifted the association equilibrium of the soluble proteins toward the associated form. Thus, in the presence of 15% v/v dioxane, a concentration that is able to almost fully break the immunocomplex (less that 3% of the immunocomplex appeared associated when soluble antigen-antibody mixture was cross-linked with aldehyde-dextran), we can obtain more than 90% of the fully pure immunocomplex from the non-associated protein, adsorbed on anionic exchanger supports having a very low activation. This simple strategy may be a very useful tool to solve one of the most relevant challenges in the modern proteomics, the detection of very weak protein-protein interactions.

Adsorption↗

PubMed2004

Detection and purification of two antibody-antigen complexes via selective adsorption on lowly activated anion exchangers.

Taken advantage of the mechanism of adsorption of macro-molecules on ionic exchangers, (a multipoint interaction between the protein and the support), it is possible to selectively adsorb large proteins leaving small ones in the supernatant. Associated proteins should present a significant difference in its size as compared to the non-associated forms. Thus, the protein complexes may have much larger surfaces to interact with the support. Here, by selecting the support with the highest activation degree that was unable to adsorb the non-associated proteins, we have shown the simple and selective adsorption of immuno complexes (as a model), while antibodies and antigens remained in the supernatant. Therefore, it was possible to selectively adsorb on lowly activated supports (e.g., agarose 4BCL having only 1 micromol of amino groups per g of support) rabbit IgG/anti-rabbit immunoglobulins (immuno complex), while these supports were unable to adsorb the individual immunoglobulines. Similarly, horseradish peroxidase (HRP)/anti-HRP were selectively adsorbed on lowly activated supports, while the individual proteins were not adsorbed at all. Afterwards, the adsorbed associated proteins (purified at least from the non-associated counterparts and concentrated by the adsorption on the support) may be cross-linked with aldehyde-dextran and be desorbed from the matrix for their analysis. This strategy may permit very simple experiments to detect the presence of protein-protein complexes. Finally, we have shown the advantages of this technique compared to the use of one of the proteins previous immobilized on a support.

Adsorption↗

PubMed2004

Selective and mild adsorption of large proteins on lowly activated immobilized metal ion affinity chromatography matrices. Purification of multimeric thermophilic enzymes overexpressed in Escherichia coli.

A strategy to selectively adsorb large proteins on immobilized metal ion affinity chromatography supports is presented. It is based on the fact that large proteins have a large surface that permits the long distance interaction with groups placed quite far apart (very dispersed onto the support surface) in the support, therefore, even using lowly activated supports, these proteins may be able to yield multiple interactions with the support, which is not possible for smaller proteins. This has been shown using a crude extract from Escherichia coli, where only large proteins were adsorbed on supports having 0.25 micromol of metallic groups/g of support. Then, these lowly activated supports have been used for purifying multimeric enzymes from thermophilic organisms (alpha- and beta-galactosidases from Thermus sp. strain T2) cloned and over-expressed in mesophilic ones. A previous heating step of the crude extract destroyed the quaternary structure of all multimeric enzymes from the host (E. coli). Thus, the only large protein remaining in the supernatant of this heated extract are the cloned multimeric thermophilic enzymes, permitting their very simple purification by using only one chromatographic step.

Adsorption↗

PubMed2004

Optimization of an industrial biocatalyst of glutaryl acylase: stabilization of the enzyme by multipoint covalent attachment onto new amino-epoxy Sepabeads.

Glutaryl-7-aminocephalosporanic acid acylase (GA), an industrially relevant enzyme, has been immobilized onto very different supports, including glyoxyl agarose, heterofunctional epoxy Sepabeads, glutaraldehyde and cyanogen bromide (CNBr) activated supports. Immobilization onto amino-epoxy Sepabeads rendered the most thermo stable preparation of GA, with a half-life time eight times higher than the soluble enzyme, keeping 80% of the enzyme activity. Several parameters that affect the enzyme-support interaction (pH and incubation time) were studied. It was found that after immobilization onto amino-epoxy Sepabeads, incubation at alkaline pH and low temperature exerted dramatic stabilizing effects, increasing the half-life time of the derivative 130 times with respect to the soluble enzyme, while keeping unaltered its intrinsic activity. The loading capacity of the amino-epoxy Sepabeads proved to be very good with a maximum load of 62 mg of protein per g of support with 85 IU/g at 25 degrees C and 200 IU/g at 37 degrees C which makes it a biocatalyst of possible industrial application.

Adsorption↗

PubMed2004

A new, mild cross-linking methodology to prepare cross-linked enzyme aggregates.

Cross-linked enzyme aggregates (CLEAs) were prepared from several enzymes (penicillin G acylase, hydroxynitrile lyase, alcohol dehydrogenase, and two different nitrilases) by precipitation and subsequent cross-linking using dextran polyaldehyde. In most cases, higher immobilization yields were obtained using the latter cross-linker as compared with the commonly used glutaraldehyde. Active site titration of penicillin acylase CLEAs showed that the higher activity originated from a significantly lower loss in active sites using dextran polyaldehyde as a cross-linking agent. It is proposed that macromolecular cross-linkers are too large to penetrate the protein active site and react with catalytically essential amino acid residues.

Binding Sites↗

PubMed2004

Determination of protein-protein interactions through aldehyde-dextran intermolecular cross-linking.

A very simple strategy, based on the intermolecular cross-linking of associated proteins by using aldehyde-dextrans, has been proposed to detect protein-protein interactions. Aldehyde-dextran was able to cross-link different enzymes composed of several polypeptide chains (e.g., trypsin and penicillin G acylase), proteolyzated proteins (e.g., extracts from porcine pancreas) and finally, an immunocomplex (horseradish peroxidase/anti-horseradish peroxidase). This cross-linked immunocomplex could be selectively adsorbed on immobilized anti-rabbit IgG. The presence of unspecific covalent attachment between unrelated protein molecules was not detected. Thus, this strategy permits the cross-linking of different protein components and avoids the formation of nonspecific protein-protein associations.

Aldehydes↗

PubMed2003

Enzymatic transformations. Immobilized A. niger epoxide hydrolase as a novel biocatalytic tool for repeated-batch hydrolytic kinetic resolution of epoxides.

Studies aimed at immobilization of the Aspergillus niger epoxide hydrolase were performed. The use of conventional approaches, i.e. of commercially available supports and classical methodologies, only led to low stabilisation and unsatisfactory enzymatic activity recovery. Therefore, a new strategy based on the use of a "second generation" type of epoxy-activated supports allowing multi-point covalent immobilization, i.e. Eupergit C, partially modified with ethylene diamine (Eupergit C/EDA), and of an adequate experimental procedure was set up. This allowed us to prepare an immobilized biocatalyst with 70%, retention of the initial enzymatic activity and a stabilisation factor of about 30. Interestingly, this biocatalyst also led to a noticeable increase of the E value for the resolution of two test substrates, styrene oxide 1 and p-chlorostyrene oxide 2. This was improved from about 25 to 56 and from 40 to 100, respectively. A typical repeated batch experiment indicated that the thus immobilized enzyme could be re-used for over 12 cycles without any noticeable loss of enzymatic activity or change in enantioselectivity. This therefore opens the way for the use of an 'heterogeneous catalysis' methodology for achieving the preparation of various enantiopure epoxides via biocatalysed hydrolytic kinetic resolution.

Aspergillus niger↗