Patent Application: US-44462895-A

Abstract:
a truncated mutant of the 92 kda gelatinase is disclosed which is catalytically active comparable to the full - length enzyme but , unlike the full - length enzyme , is essentially inactive against insoluble elastin . the truncated mutant preferably comprises residues 107 - 217 fused to residues 391 - 443 of the parent molecule . the truncated mutant is useful for treatment of disorders requiring the removal of excess connective tissue .

Description:
while the specification concludes with claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter regarded as forming the present invention , it is believed that the invention will be better understood from the following detailed description of preferred embodiments of the invention taken in conjunction with the appended drawings in which : fig1 shows the sds - page of the matrilysin cd , 92 cd , and 72 cd expressed in e . coli . the catalytic domains of matrilysin , the 92 kda gelatinase , and the 72 kda gelatinase were expressed in e . coli and purified as described below in the “ materials and methods ”. the predicted molecular masses are 19 , 297 , 18 , 428 , and 19 , 154 daltons for the matrilysin cd ( lane 1 ), 92 cd ( lane 2 ), and 72 cd ( lane 3 ), respectively . the minor band in lane 3 represents autoprocessing of the 72 cd . fig2 shows the alignment of the peptide sequences of the catalytic domains of matrilysin , the 72 kda gelatinase , and the 92 kda gelatinase . the peptide sequences of the matrilysin , 72 kda gelatinase , and 92 kda gelatinase catalytic domains were aligned using the gene works program ( intelligenetics ). residues of identity amongst the three enzymes are boxed . gaps are indicated by dashes . the met - gly dipeptide ( matrilysin cd and 92 cd ) and the met - ala - ser tripeptide ( 72 cd ) that were introduced to initiate translation of the catalytic domains are not shown . the fibronectin - like type ii repeats located within the 92 cd and 72 cd have been deleted . fig3 shows the digestion of type i gelatin by the 92 cd and 72 cd . the 92 cd and 72 cd ( 1 . 3 μg / ml ) were incubated with 10 μg of gelatin for 20 min ( lanes 1 and 4 ), 40 min ( lanes 2 and 5 ), and 60 min ( lanes 3 and 6 ) as described below under “ materials and methods ”. reaction aliquots were boiled in sample buffer and subject to sds - page . in order to illustrate the invention in further detail , the following specific laboratory examples were carried out with the results as indicated . although specific examples are thus illustrated , it will be understood that the invention is not limited to these specific examples or the details therein . bovine ligament elastin and human leukocyte elastase ( hle ) were obtained from elastin products , owensville , mo . the ligament elastin was radiolabeled with [ 3 h ] sodium borohydride ( dupont - new england nuclear ) to a specific activity of ˜ 1000 cpm / μg ( 22 ). isopropylthio - β - d - galactopyranoside ( iptg ), heparin agarose , aminophenylmercuric acetate ( apma ), 5 , 5 ′- dithio - bis -( 2 - nitrobenzoic acid ) ( dtnb ), trypsin , and soybean trypsin inhibitor ( sbti ) were from sigma chemical , st . louis , mo . ac - pro - leu - gly - s - leu - leu - gly - oet ( thiopeptolide ) was obtained from bachem bioscience , king of prussia , pa . 72 kda gelatinase , recombinantly expressed in vaccinia virus and free of timp - 2 ( 23 ), was kindly provided by w . stetler - stevenson , national cancer institute , bethesda , md . recombinant timp - 1 was purified from the conditioned medium of human skin fibroblast monolayer cell cultures reported previously ( 24 ). bovine dermal type i collagen ( vitrogen 100 ) was from celltrix , palo alto , calif . expression and purification of full - length 92 kda gelatinase and matrilysin . 92 kda gelatinase was expressed in e1a - and 92 kda gelatinase - transfected fibroblasts and purified to homogeneity as previously described ( 25 ). in this system , the 92 kda enzyme is obtained free of timp . the 92 kda progelatinase was activated with stromelysin - 1 as previously reported ( 26 ), or with 1 mm apma . prostromelysin was purified from cultures of il - 1 - stimulated fibroblasts and was activated by sequential exposure to trypsin and sbt1 as previously described ( 27 ). matrilysin was expressed and purified using a baculovirus expression system ( 28 ). a 1 . 1 kb eco ri fragment encoding the human matrilysin cdna ( kindly provided by l . matrisian , vanderbilt ) was subcloned in the baculovirus expression vector pvl1393 ( pharmingen ) and expressed in sf9 insect cells ( atcc crl 1711 ) according to the manufacturer &# 39 ; s instructions . the viral titer of the transfection supernatant was amplified by two additional rounds of infection to obtain a titer of 4 × 10 8 pfu / ml . for large scale production of matrilysin , sf9 cells were seeded in spinner culture at 2 × 10 6 cells / ml in sf - 900 ii serum - free media ( gibco brl ) at a multiplicity of infection of 2 virus particles / cell . media containing ˜ 5 μg / ml matrilysin in the zymogen form was collected at four days post - infection for purification of the secreted enzyme . serum - free collections of media were bound to sp - sepharose in 25 mm tris , ph 7 . 5 , 5 mm cac 1 2 , 30 mm nac 1 and washed in the same buffer . the sample was eluted in this buffer containing 300 mm nacl in a volume of 50 ml and concentrated to 3 ml with a filtron concentrator ( filtron corporation ) prior to gel filtration . 100 μl aliquots were loaded on a superdex - 75 hr 10 / 30 gel filtration column ( waters 650e advanced protein purification system ) previously equilibrated in 50 mm tris , ph 7 . 5 , 5 mm cacl 2 , 200 mm nacl , 0 . 02 % nan 3 . the peak corresponding to the purified enzyme , eluting at 26 minutes , was collected . expression of the matrilysin cd and the 92 kda and 72 kda gelatinase cds lacking the internal fibronectin type ii repeats . matrilysin and 92 kda gelatinase catalytic domain constructs were generated by pcr and subcloned into the pet - 14b expression vector ( novagen , madison , wis .) for expression in e . coli . the forward matrilysin primer ( 5 ′ ggatatccatgggttactcactatttccaaatag3 ′ [ seq . id no : 2 ] contained an nco i site , while the reverse primer ( 5 ′ gccgagatcttgatcaattctgattgtgcaa3 ′) [ seq . id no : 3 ] contained a bgl ii site to facilitate subcloning into the expression vector . for construction of the 92 cd without the fibronectin repeats , the internal fibronectin type ii repeats were deleted by recombinant pcr ( 29 ). the region of the catalytic domain 5 ′ to the fibronectin repeats was amplified with the primers ( 5 ′ ctgtgccatgggattccaaacctttgag3 ′) [ seq . id no : 4 ] and the region 3 ′ to the fibronectin repeats was amplified with the primers ( 5 ′ ccctgggcaagggcgtcggatacagtttgttcctcg3 ′) [ seq . id no : 6 ] and after gel purification of both pcr products , the products were annealed to each other by virtue of the complimentary design of the internal pcr primers , and amplified using the outside primers . the resulting fragment coded for a protein lacking residues 217 - 390 of the parent molecule which encompass the three fibronectin - like repeats . a stop codon was placed after residue 443 in this construct as well , thereby eliminating the collagen type v and hemopexin - like domains . thus , the matrilysin cd contained residues 95 - 267 of the parent molecule , and the 92 cd contained residues 107 - 216 fused to residues 391 - 443 . both the matrilysin and 92 kda gelatinase constructs contained an additional met - gly dipeptide at the n - terminus in order to start translation at this point within the cdna . the resulting matrilysin cd and 92 cd constructs in pet - 14b were transformed into the e . coli bl21 ( de3 ) strain ( novagen ) for expression . colonies were grown in 10 ml lb media containing 50 μg / ml ampicillin to log phase and induced with 0 . 4 mm iptg for four hours . after centrifugation , the pellets were re - suspended in 2 . 5 ml of 50 mm tris , ph 7 . 5 , 10 mm cacl 2 , 30 mm nacl and sonicated 5 × 15 seconds on ice . 8 m deionized urea was added to a final concentration of 6 m and the extract was rocked gently at 4 ° c . overnight , prior to centrifugation at 10 , 000 rpm for 10 minutes in a sorvall ss34 rotor . the samples were dialyzed successively against 4 m , 2 m , and 1 m urea in the same buffer containing 20 μm zncl 2 and 0 . 05 % brij and finally against urea - free buffer . the matrilysin cd was purified over a 1 ml heparin - agarose column and eluted in the same buffer containing 1 m nacl . the sample was redialyzed against the equilibration buffer containing 30 mm nacl . the 92 cd was dialyzed stepwise as described above except that zinc was removed in the final dialysis step containing no urea . this product was purified over a 1 ml zn chelate chromatography column , and bound material was eluted in equilibration buffer containing 0 . 1m imidazole . imidazole was removed by further dialysis against equilibration buffer . the 72 cd was expressed in e . coli , as recently described ( 20 ). briefly , a synthetic gene coding for the 72 cd ( lacking the fibronectin repeats ) was generated by pcr , inserted into the vector pgemex - 1 , and used to transform the e . coli strain bl21 ( de3 ) plyss ( novagen , madison , wis .). the synthetic gene included restriction sites for nhe i at the 5 ′ end and hind iii at the 3 ′ end of the gene . this construct contained an additional met - ala - ser tripeptide at the amino - terminus to initiate translation of the synthetic gene , and the methionine was removed during e . coli expression . the resulting protein contained residues 110 - 213 of the parent molecule fused to residues 387 - 444 . the authenticity of the expressed 72 cd was confirmed by n - terminal amino acid sequencing . elastase activity : elastase activity was determined by quantifying the solubilization of insoluble 3 h - labeled elastin ( 22 ). reactions were carried out at 37 ° c . in 50 mm tris hcl ( ph 7 . 5 ), 10 mm cacl 2 , 150 mm nacl , 0 . 02 % brij , in a final volume of 100 μl with an excess of elastin (˜ 70 μg ). following centrifugation , radioactivity released into the supernatant was collected and counted . buffer blanks were subtracted to determine net values . initial velocities were calculated in ranges which were linear over time and enzyme concentration . when assaying 92 kda gelatinase , blanks also contained stromelysin - 1 which was used to activate the gelatinase . the activity of the stromelysin was negligible in these assays . for assays of 72 cd , the buffer included 1 μm zncl 2 ( 20 ). hydrolysis of ac - pro - leu - gly - s - leu - leu - gly - oet ( thiopeptolide ): hydrolysis of the thiopeptolide substrate was determined as previously described ( 30 ). accordingly , 7 mg of the thiopeptolide substrate was dissolved in 50 μl methanol and brought to 1 ml by the addition of 950 μl of assay buffer ( 0 . 05 m hepes , ph 7 . 0 , 0 . 01 m cacl 2 ). dtnb , 40 mg , was dissolved in 2 ml ethanol and brought up to 10 ml with assay buffer . reaction mixtures contained 100 μl each of enzyme solution and dtnb and 10 μl of the thiopetiolide substrate in a total volume of 1 ml . reactions were run at room temperature and monitored at 410 nanometers ( a410 ) ( gilford response ) for the first five minutes after the addition of enzyme . znc 1 2 was added to a final concentration of 1 μm to ensure activity when assaying the 72 cd . hydrolysis of gelatin : type i collagen was dialyzed against 400 mm nacl and then denatured by heating at 60 ° c . for 15 min . to determine the gelatinolytic activity of the full - length 92 kda and 72 kda gelatinases and their catalytic domains , enzymes were incubated at 37 ° c . for periods up to 60 minutes with 10 μg of gelatin in a final volume of 60 μl containing 50 mm tris ; hcl ( ph 7 . 5 ), 10 mm cacl 2 , 400 mm nacl , 0 . 001 mm zncl 2 . aliquots of the reaction mixtures were mixed with sample buffer and dithiothreitol and subjected to sds - page , after which gels were stained with coomassie blue . binding of full - length 92 kda and 72 kda gelatinases , the 92 cd , and the 72 cd to insoluble elastin : to determine binding to elastin , full - length enzymes or catalytic domain mutants were mixed with 63 μg of insoluble elastin for 10 min at room temperature , after which the mixture was centrifuged for 30 sec and the supernatant removed and analyzed for activity against the thiopeptolide substrate as described above . the thiopeptolide activity was compared to control reaction mixtures in which the full - length gelatinase or cd was not exposed to insoluble elastin . binding to elastin was expressed as the percent reduction in thiopeptolide activity produced by incubation with elastin . expression and purification of the matrilysin cd , 92 cd , and 72 cd : the expressed matrilysin cd , 92 cd , and 72 cd are shown in fig1 . purification as described under materials and methods yielded a single electrophoretic band for each species of m r ˜ 20 , 000 . the amino acid sequences of the matrilysin cd and the gelatinase cds ( with the fibronectin repeats deleted ) are shown in fig2 . while all three parent molecules are elastolytic , the catalytic domains of each share no more homology with each other ( 43 - 60 %) than they do to fibroblast collagenase , a nonelastolytic matrix metalloproteinase . consequently , regions which might be involved in elastin - degrading functions are not obvious by inspection of these sequences . catalytic activities of full - length matrilysin , 92 kda and 72 kda gelatinases versus their respective catalytic domains : table 1 below presents the activities of full - length matrilysin , the 92 kda and 72 kda gelatinases and the respective catalytic domains of these molecules against both insoluble elastin and a synthetic thiopeptolide substrate . activity against the thiopeptolide substrate was used to assess the general catalytic competence of native and mutant enzymes . as seen in the table , each catalytic domain possessed comparable specific activity to its respective full - length parent against this thiopeptolide substrate . however , this was clearly not the case when capacity to cleave insoluble elastin was measured . as would be expected , the matrilysin cd exhibited identical elastolytic activity to its apma - activated parent , since they are indeed the same . in contrast , whereas the full - length 92 kda and 72 kda gelatinases exhibited substantial ability to cleave insoluble elastin , the 92 cd and 72 cd unexpectedly had little to no elastolytic activity . even very high molar concentrations of the 92 cd and 72 cds ( in excess of 500 μg / ml ) produced only barely detectable activity against elastin . however , inability of the 92 cd and 72 cd to degrade elastin did not extend to other proteins , as both domains digested gelatin ( fig3 ). binding of the 92 cd and 72 cd to elastin : to determine whether the relative inabilities of the 92 cd and 72 cd to degrade elastin related to their capacity to bind to this substrate , elastin binding was assayed , again in comparison to the full - length parent molecules . as shown in table ii below , the full - length 92 kda and 72 kda gelatinases demonstrated substantial binding to insoluble elastin . in sharp contrast , the 92 cd and 72 cd showed virtually no binding to elastin . it is concluded that the failure of the 92 and 72 cds to degrade elastin is most likely a result of their failure to bind effectively to this substrate . results represent the mean of three or more separate assays . for assays with elastin , enzyme concentrations were 1 μg / ml ( 1 - 5 × 10 − 8 m ). the minimal to absent levels of elastolytic activity of the 92 cd and 72 cd at 10 − 8 m were confirmed at domain concentrations of 10 − 6 m and 10 − 7 m . for thiopeptolide assays , enzymes and domains were used at 5 × 10 − 8 m . elastin assays were for one hour and thiopeptolide assays for five minutes . enzymes ( 10 − 8 m ) were incubated for 10 minutes at room temperature in the presence or absence of 63 μg of insoluble elastin . after centrifugation , the supernatants were assayed for activity against the thiopeptolide substrate . the percent of enzyme bound to elastin was determined using the formula % bound =[ 1 -( supernatant + elastin / supernatant − elastin )]× 100 . 1 ) mecham . r . p . & amp ; heuser , j . e . 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( 1985 ) j . biol . chem . 260 : 1052 - 1059 . phe gln thr phe glu gly asp leu lys trp his his his asn ile thr tyr trp ile gln asn tyr ser glu asp leu pro arg ala val ile asp his phe asp asp asp glu leu trp ser leu gly lys gly val gly tyr asp his ser ser val pro glu ala leu met tyr pro met tyr arg phe thr glu gly pro pro leu his lys asp asp val asn gly ile arg his arg leu val ser lys ala leu asn met tyr gly lys glu ile pro leu his phe arg lys val val trp gly thr ala asp ile met ile gly phe his phe asp glu asp glu arg trp thr asp gly ser ser leu gly ile asn phe leu tyr ala ala thr his glu leu gly his ser leu gly met gly his ser ser asp pro asn ala val met tyr pro thr tyr gly asn tyr asn phe phe pro arg lys pro lys trp asp lys asn gln ile thr asp ala phe ala arg ala phe gln val trp ser asp val thr pro leu arg phe ser arg ile his asp gly glu ala asp ile met ile asn phe his phe asp asp asp glu leu trp gly phe cys pro asp gln gly tyr glu his ser gln asp pro gly ala leu met ala pro ile tyr thr tyr thr lys asn phe arg leu ser gln asp asp ile lys gly ile gln glu various other examples will be apparent to the person skilled in the art after reading the present disclosure without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention . it is intended that all such other examples be included within the claims appended hereto .