An inhibitor of collagen-stimulated platelet activation from the salivary glands of the Haementeria officinalis leech. II. Cloning of the cDNA and expression.

Salivary glands of the leech Haementeria officinalis contain a protein, leech antiplatelet protein (LAPP), that specifically blocks collagen-mediated platelet aggregation (Connolly, T. M., Jacobs, J. W., and Condra, C. (1992) J. Biol. Chem. 267, 6893-6898). Degenerate oligonucleotides whose sequences were derived from two short peptides from V8 digests of the native LAPP were used as primers to generate a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) product which contains the cDNA region coding for the sequence between these two peptides. Using this PCR product as a hybridization probe, phage containing cDNA clones were isolated containing the entire deduced amino acid sequence for LAPP. Computer analysis of the amino acid sequence predicts a peptidase cleavage site between a 21-residue pre-peptide and a mature protein of 126 amino acids. A DNA insert to express the predicted mature LAPP protein was generated by PCR amplification using phage-derived cDNA clones as a substrate. This insert encoded a fusion protein with the leader sequence of the yeast alpha mating factor and the mature LAPP cDNA. These PCR products were cloned into the yeast expression vector pKH4 alpha 2. A KEX 2 Lys-Arg endopeptidase cleavage site was placed NH2-terminal to the predicted mature protein. This vector transfected into the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae directs expression of a secreted mature protein at levels up to 200 mg of LAPP/liter of culture medium. The recombinant protein was comparable to native LAPP in its electrophoretic mobility, its reactivity with anti-LAPP antisera, and its biological activity including inhibition of collagen-stimulated platelet aggregation and the adhesion of platelets to collagen. Availability of significant quantities of recombinant LAPP opens the way to further biochemical structure/function studies and to studies on the effects of an inhibitor of collagen-stimulated platelet aggregation in vivo.