Patent Application: US-97456110-A

Abstract:
this invention relates to protein fibrils , to methods and kits of producing those protein fibrils comprising a plurality of first peptide monomer units arranged in a first strand and a plurality of second peptide monomer units arranged in a second strand in which said first and second strands form an overlapping staggered heterodimer coiled coil structure , and wherein the amino acid residues on the exposed surface of said first and second strands enable said protein fibril to interact with another protein fibril in a plurality of non - parallel orientations . this invention also relates to bundles of protein fibrils and matrices , in particular , hydrogels produced using those protein fibrils .

Description:
initially , three hsaf designs were investigated : variants hsaf aaa , hsaf qqq and hsaf aaq , as shown in table 1 , where subscripts denote amino acids at b , c and f , respectively . in hsaf aaq , which serve as a control , the pattern of alanine and glutamine residues was the same as for canonical positions in previous saf designs . complementary hsaf peptides were mixed on ice , and either allowed to assemble at this temperature for 30 minutes , or removed after 5 minutes and incubated for 25 minutes at 20 ° c . after these times , to test for gel formation , sample vials were inverted and incubated for a further 30 minutes without changing the temperature ( fig2 ). through this simple test , hsaf aaa and hsaf qqq both formed self - supporting gels . hsaf qqq formed a gel at low temperature , which melted on warming ; whereas , the hsaf aaa appeared to form a weak gel at low temperature that strengthened on warming . moreover , this gel did not melt on heating up to 95 ° c . the control , hsaf aaq did not form gels . to confirm and quantify the gel strengths , the storage ( g ′) and loss ( g ″) moduli were recorded as a function of temperature using both microrheology ( fig3 ) and bulk oscillatory rheology , fig4 a . the results from ptm compared well to those for the bulk rheology , hsaf qqq showed a loss of structure between 13 ° c . and 20 ° c . while hsaf aaa remained a gel at all temperatures ( fig3 ). the value of g ′ for hsaf aaa was higher than the resolution of the ptm technique , and should be viewed as a minimum value rather than an absolute . above 35 ° c ., hsaf qqq reformed into a heterogeneous gel , however , the heterogeneity and increased opacity of the sample made calculation of values for g ′ and g ″ unreliable . as with the bulk rheology , hsaf aaq and the majority of the individual peptides did not form gels , but behaved as viscous fluids . the exception was hsaf aaa - p2 , which , in contrast to the bulk rheology , formed a weak gel detectable by ptm . overall , for both hsaf aaa and hsaf qqq , g ′ was greater than g ″ at low temperatures , confirming gel formation . however , whereas hsaf aaa showed a slight increase in gel strength with temperature , hsaf qqq showed a transition to a liquid state between 16 and 19 ° c ., followed by a switch back to a gel state at higher temperatures . the formation of fibrils within the hydrogels was confirmed by low - temperature field emission scanning electron microscopy ( fig4 b - e ). for both hsaf aaa and hsaf qqq , the samples prepared on ice showed interconnected fibres with polydisperse widths , but without uninterrupted networks ( fig4 b and 4c ). interestingly , on warming to room temperature , hsaf aaa samples showed a homogeneous uninterrupted network of thinner fibers ( fig4 e ). the images for the control peptide , hsaf aaq , revealed no fibrous structures or networks ( fig4 d ), though unconnected fibres were visible by standard , negative - stain transmission electron microscopy of samples prepared at 20 ° c . ( fig5 ). the peptide secondary structure and its packing in the fibril assemblies was probed by circular dichroism ( cd ) spectroscopy and x - ray fibre diffraction ( xrd ), respectively . cd spectra recorded at 4 ° c . and 20 ° c . for both hsaf aaa and hsaf qqq were characteristic of α - helical structure ( fig6 a & amp ; c ). that for the hsaf aaa was the more intense and did not change upon heating to 20 ° c ., while the spectrum for hsaf qqq lost intensity upon heating and demonstrated distortion due to light scattering ( papapostolou et al ., 2008 ). these data are consistent with the gelation experiments described above . xrd was performed on hsaf aaa at 20 ° c . and on hsaf qqq at 4 ° c . ( fig6 b & amp ; d ). in both cases , the diffraction patterns were similar to those presented for the other saf systems ( papapostolou et al ., 2007 ), although the unaligned fibres within the hsaf gels resulted in more - diffuse patterns with strong circular rings from water . hsaf aaa and hsaf qqq gels both gave diffraction patterns with meridional reflections at 5 . 15 å ( m ), corresponding to the 5 . 4 å helical repeat of an α - helix supercoiled within a coiled coil . the sharper meridional arc ( m2 ) suggested some cross - β structure in the hsaf qqq sample ( blake & amp ; serpell , 1996 ). the inventors posit that this is likely due to the high glutamine content of this sequence , which favours amyloid - like assemblies in other systems ( perutz et al ., 1994 ; sikorski & amp ; atkins , 2005 ). however , cross - β structure normally gives a stronger signal in xrd ; thus , the comparatively weak reflection in fig6 d , together with the predominantly α - helical cd spectrum ( fig6 c ), indicate only very small levels of β - structure in the hsaf qqq hydrogel . regarding the structural organization within the α - helical fibrils of the hsaf aaa and low - temperature hsaf qqq gels , the inventors have reported previously that for the standard , non - gelling safs the equatorial reflections in the xrd ( fig6 b & amp ; d ) relate to the packing of the coiled coils on a hexagonal lattice ( papapostolou et al ., 2007 ). due to overlap of some the reflections in the xrd data for the hsaf gels , however , it was not possible to index these arcs completely . nonetheless , by comparison with our foregoing studies , it was possible to assess the packing distances between coiled coils in the gels . in the standard safs , coiled coils are 18 . 2 å apart ( papapostolou et al ., 2007 ). from the new data for hsaf aaa and hsaf qqq the corresponding separations were 17 . 3 å and 21 . 5 å , respectively . these spacings correlate with the changes to the sequences : for hsaf aaa closer packing is expected because of the shorter alanine side chains ; whereas , in hsaf qqq an increase might be expected because of ( 1 ) the replacement of predominantly alanine residues at b and c with the larger glutamine , and ( 2 ) the likely additional solvation of these hydrophilic residues . cd spectra and xrd patterns , consistent with these assertions were obtained for the hsaf aaq control fibres ( fig7 ). cd spectra recorded for hsaf aaq were typical of α - helical assemblies ( fig7 a ). heating to 20 ° c . resulted in a slight loss of secondary structure ( fig7 a ). xrd of hsaf aaq had a meridional reflection at 5 . 15 å consistent with α - helical assemblies ( labelled m in fig7 b ). although several equatorial reflections were apparent ( labelled e ), they were insufficiently clear to calculate the packing distance between fibrils within the fibres . to probe the utility of the hsaf aaa gels as a substrate for cell growth , the inventors tested for peptide cytotoxicity and cell differentiation using rat adrenal pheochromocytoma ( pc12 ) cells . first , however , the inventors had to further stabilize the fibril - fibril interactions and the resulting gels . this was because , though hsaf aaa gels could be washed and soaked in both phosphate - buffered saline ( pbs ) and standard cell - culture media , they did not persist for sufficient time to allow sustained cell - culture experiments . to stabilize the gels , in each of the hsaf aaa peptides the inventors replaced one of the surface - exposed alanine residues at an f position with the more hydrophobic tryptophan ( table 1 ). this also allowed easy quantification of peptide concentration . in all respects — spectroscopic , microscopic and gel formation — the hsaf aaa - w combination behaved similarly to the parent peptides ( fig8 ). moreover , the new peptides gelled at room temperature and the gels were stable in pbs and cell - culture media at 37 ° c . for more than two weeks , which permitted cell - biology studies as follows . in alamar blue cell - proliferation assays ( hamid et al ., 2004 ), pc12 cells seeded on collagen and then treated with increasing concentrations ( 0 . 5 - 2 . 5 mm , equivalent to 1 . 5 - 7 . 5 mg / ml , total peptide ) of hsaf aaa - w peptides and gels proliferated , and were statistically no different to controls without peptide . this was in contrast to similarly prepared cells treated with staurosporine , a known inducer of apoptosis , which died ( fig9 ). moreover , pc12 cells seeded on hsaf aaa - w gels ( without collagen ) could be induced to differentiate into neural cells using nerve growth factor at 100 ng / ml medium ( drubin et al ., 1985 ), as judged by the presence of neurite projections from the cell bodies ( fig1 a ). as shown by phase - contrast microscopy ( fig1 a and 10b ), the appearance of cells seeded on the hsaf aaa - w gels was similar to those seeded on the widely used , but more - complex and ex vivo matrigel substrate ( debnath et al ., 2003 ). despite also using ns - 1 cells , which are believed not to form aggregates , many of the induced cells ingressed the gels clustered in three dimensions and both with hsafs and matrigel ; i . e ., achieving 3d cell cultures . n . b . multiple images from the first 10 days of these comparative cell - culture experiments are given in fig1 . to compare cell differentiation within the hsaf and matrigel substrates semi - quantitatively , the inventors followed neurite extension with time ( fig1 c ), and gauged overall differentiation in each culture ( fig1 d ). a cell was defined to have differentiated if it had axodendritic processes longer than 2 - cell body diameters in length , i . e . processes longer than 20 μm ( todoroki et al ., 2004 ). though there was a lag in process growth and , consequently , cell differentiation in hsaf gels compared with matrigel , on both counts the hsaf substrate performed at ˜ 75 % of matrigel by 10 days . in making this comparison , it is important to bear in mind that hsaf is a well - defined de novo substrate without any of natural structural proteins and associated cell - recognition motifs , or growth factors inherently present in matrigel . therefore , the performance of cells on hsafs is particularly encouraging . in principle however , defined functionalities and additional factors could be engineered or added in known and controlled ways in future . the hsaf peptides presented here gel at a peptide concentration of 1 mm (˜ 3 mg / ml ) in each peptide ; that is , they have & gt ; 99 % water content . moreover , as shown above , changing the nature of the outer surfaces of the coiled coils — and , therefore , the inter - fibril interactions — allows temperature - responsive hydrogel properties to be engineered . this interesting and potentially useful behaviour warrants further comment . the hsaf qqq peptides , which have surface polar residues — i . e ., glutamine residues at the f positions of the coiled - coil repeat that have amide side chains and hydrogen - bonding potential — assemble to weak gels at low temperature and melt on warming . this is consistent with the breaking of weak hydrogen - bonded cross - links between fibrils in a wet peptide gel . whereas , hsaf aaa peptides — which present only methyl side chains on their outer surfaces — form gels that become stronger on warming and are stable up to at least 95 ° c . this is consistent with hydrophobic cross - links between peptide fibrils . in contrast , the control peptides , hsaf aaq , in which the chemical symmetry of the outer surfaces is broken , do form fibres , but these do not form uninterrupted inter - fibril interactions and do not gel . the observations of gelation by the hsaf system are fully consistent with the initial design principles for modifying the fibril surfaces , and further demonstrate that the rational design of increasingly complex biomaterial systems is possible through different routes . the demonstration that hsafs support cell growth and differentiation is encouraging for the application of these gels as straightforward , chemically defined and engineerable scaffolds for cell culture and tissue engineering . the hsaf systems also carry the distinct advantage that they have two peptide components , and , therefore , gel only upon mixing . thus , these new designs encompass unprecedented control , and represent an exciting addition to the available arsenal of biomaterials and gels . in addition to using hsafs to form hydrogels and demonstrating that these gels are able to support growth and differentiation of pc12 cells in the presence of ngf , the inventors have also explored if the addition of cell - adhesion motifs would influence cell growth on these synthetic scaffolds . the inventors have described the functionalisation of safs using biorthogonal click chemistry ( mahmoud and woolfson 2010 ), and shown that it is possible to modulate the display of gold nanoparticles and fluorophores on the surface of these fibers . a similar approach is used to add function to the hsafs . the azide group is introduced into hsaf - p1 by replacing the terminal alanine with an azide - derivatized lysine in the fourth heptad repeat . this new peptide hsaf - p1n 3 readily co - assembles with hsaf - p2 to form fibres and gels similar to the parent ( non - decorated ) hsaf . circular dichroism spectroscopy showed α - helical fibres with enhanced helicity of the azide - decorated fibrils . transmission electron microscopy revealed long and floppy fibres with 15 - 25 nm diameter size . scanning electron microscopy showed highly porous network of scaffolds . microrheology studies showed gel strength similar to the parent hsaf - aaaw as described above . the cell - adhesion motif rgd was then integrated to the fibres via click chemistry . alkyne was coupled to the n - terminus of the biomimetic peptide , with a spacer in between to facilitate access of the cells to this motif when displayed on the scaffold . next , conditions for click chemistry were optimised by varying ratios of copper , ascorbic acid and alkyne . these conditions were optimised for the hsaf - p1n 3 peptide and subsequently for fibres and gels post - assembly . to confirm that the cyclo - addition of the biomimetic peptide has occurred , the decorated fibres were disassembled with 20 % acetonitrile ( sigma ) and 0 . 1 % trifluoroacetic acid , tfa ( sigma ), and analysed using high pressure liquid chromatography ( hplc ) and matrix - assisted light desorption ionisation ( maldi ) mass spectroscopy . it was found that 2 mm copper , 2 mm ascorbic acid and 2 mm alkyne - peptide were sufficient to give & gt ; 90 % conversion in 24 hours ). when tested on fibres post - assembly , the resultant click product dropped to ˜ 30 %, possibly because majority of the azide handles are buried inside the fibre and not available for functionalisation ( fig1 ). to test if the gels could be functionalised both on the surface and in the inner layers , the gel was prepared in a pasteur pipette with a depth of 40 mm and internal diameter of 4 mm . gels were functionalised with alkyne - rgds under the same conditions used for fibre assembly , then sectioned at 5 mm intervals . hplc analysis of the individual sections shows that the rgds - functionalised peptides can be detected both in the top and lowermost layers , showing that the gels are permeable to the reagents used for functionalisation and can truly be functionalised in 3 - d ( fig1 ). next , the inventors tested various cell responses to these functionalised gels . the inventors used rat pheochromocytoma pc12 cells , rat primary hippocampal cells , and human dermal fibroblasts . to highlight the effect of the biomimetic peptide , the cells were maintained on either low - serum or serum - free media . pc12 cells were induced to differentiate by adding nerve growth factor ( ngf ) at 100 ng / ml . in a 24 - well tissue culture plate , hydrogels were made with one side decorated with the rgds peptide and the other side with plain hsaf ( fig1 and methods ). in brief , a pre - cut cover slip was placed perpendicular in the middle of the well to serve as boundary and the gels were assembled by mixing equimolar concentrations of hsaf - p1n 3 with hsaf - p2 . after the gel had set , the cover slip was removed and the other half of the well was filled with plain hsaf with no azide group . the gels were allowed to set overnight at 37 ° c . which allowed two self - healing gels to merge . the next day , alkyne - rgds in the presence of cuso 4 and ascorbic acid were added as previously described . excess copper was removed from the gels by extensively washing with 10 mm edta , at least 10 times . cells were then seeded on them at concentration of 10 , 000 / ml of media . the inventors found that the cell behaviour was affected by the presence of the rgds motif . pc12 cells grown on decorated gel differentiated 2 days ahead of the control and their neurites were significantly longer ( fig1 b and d ). the hippocampal cells on functionalised gel likewise showed early neurite formation ( fig1 e and 14g ). though rgds does not directly influence neurite growth , it promotes attachment of cells to the scaffold , thus these cells should be able to differentiate and sprout neurites in a shorter time period than cells grown on non - functionalised scaffolds . the fibroblasts on functionalised gel had stretched and spindle - shaped morphologies ( fig1 ). an important factor influencing cell behaviour in the extracellular matrix is gradients of growth factors which cause the cell to polarise , migrate and organise into 3d structure . interestingly , those cells that landed on the interface between the functionalised and non - functionalised gel showed significant outgrowth of axo - dendritic processes towards the side with rgds decoration ( fig1 c and 14f ). debnath , j ., muthuswamy , s . k . & amp ; 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