Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Medicine, National Autonomous University of Mexico, Mexico City 04510, Mexico.
Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Medicine, National Autonomous University of Mexico, Mexico City 04510, Mexico.
J Biotechnol. 2017 Dec 10;263:55-63. doi: 10.1016/j.jbiotec.2017.09.014. Epub 2017 Sep 19.
Decoration of virus-like particles (VLPs) expands the repertory of functions these particles can display. In the last years, VLPs have successfully been used as scaffolds to present different molecules, frequently through the specific reaction of chemical groups on the surface of the particles, or by protein engineering when the presentation of peptides or proteins is the primary goal. VLPs of parvovirus B19 (B19V), have been previously produced in vitro and its stability and ability to assemble into hybrid particles composed of wild-type and chimeric proteins evidenced their potential as research tools. Herein, we report the presentation of functional proteins on the surface of B19V VLPs, through the fusion of the gene coding for the heterologous protein within the gene coding for the structural protein VP2. Two model proteins were used for the construction of chimeras, a lipase from Bacillus pumilus (BplA) and the enhanced green fluorescent protein (EGFP). Both chimeras were folded and successfully assembled in vitro into VLPs. While the BplA chimera exhibited esterase activity, the chimera of EGFP showed no fluorescence. We replaced the EGFP by its fast-folding derivative "super folder GFP" (sfGFP) flanked by larger linkers to increase its movement freedom, which resulted in fluorescent protein able to assemble fluorescent VLPs. These results expand the toolbox for VLP decoration as well as for the construction of new nanobiomaterials.
病毒样颗粒 (VLP) 的装饰扩展了这些颗粒可以展示的功能范围。在过去的几年中,VLP 已成功用作展示不同分子的支架,通常通过颗粒表面化学基团的特定反应,或通过蛋白质工程实现,当展示肽或蛋白质是主要目标时。细小病毒 B19 (B19V) 的 VLP 已在体外产生,其稳定性和组装成由野生型和嵌合蛋白组成的杂交颗粒的能力证明了它们作为研究工具的潜力。在此,我们通过将编码异源蛋白的基因融合到编码结构蛋白 VP2 的基因中,报告了在 B19V VLP 表面展示功能性蛋白。两种模型蛋白被用于构建嵌合体,一种来自解淀粉芽孢杆菌的脂肪酶(BplA)和增强型绿色荧光蛋白(EGFP)。两种嵌合体都在体外折叠并成功组装成 VLPs。虽然 BplA 嵌合体表现出酯酶活性,但 EGFP 嵌合体没有荧光。我们用其快速折叠衍生物“超级折叠 GFP”(sfGFP)取代 EGFP,并在其两侧添加更大的接头以增加其运动自由度,从而得到能够组装成荧光 VLP 的荧光蛋白。这些结果扩展了 VLP 装饰的工具包,以及用于构建新型纳米生物材料的工具包。