Patent Application: US-201013514953-A

Abstract:
the invention relates to a modified phage display that allows the specific detection of citrullinated proteins . more specifically , the invention relates to a method for citrullinating proteins displayed by phage , without losing phage infectivity , and the detection of those proteins by biopanning . in a preferred embodiment , the phage is a t7 phage .

Description:
m13 and t7 phage display vectors were used for citrullination and infectivity experiments . for m13 filamentous phage experiments , we made use of m13 pvi - display phagemid vectors , which allow covalent attachment of ( c ) dna insert products to the c - terminal end of minor phage coat protein pvi allowing display of the peptide / protein products at the phage surface ( fig2 , panel a ) ( hufton et al ., 1999 ; jespers et al ., 1995 ). experiments were performed with the pvi phagemid vector without insert ( wild - type ( wt ) m13 displaying pvi containing four arginine amino acids ) as well as with two recombinant phagemid vectors ( m13 clone 1 and m13 clone 2 ). the cdna insert of m13 clone 1 encoded a 28 - amino acid peptide ( pggfrgefmlgkpdpkpegkglgspyie ( seq id no : 1 )), resulting in the display of a recombinant pvi protein containing five arginine amino acids . m13 clone 2 contained a cdna insert encoding a polypeptide of 121 amino acids ( addnfsipegeedlakaiqmaqeqatd teilerktvlpskhavpeviedflcnflikmgmtrtldcfqsewyeliqkgvtelrtvgn vpdvytqimllenenknlkkdlkhykqaaeyvif ( seq id no : 2 )), resulting in the display of a recombinant pvi protein with six arginines ( fig2 , panel a ). the pvi phagemid display system is characterized by monovalent display of the recombinant pvi ( maximally one recombinant protein per phage particle ) with a total of five pvi proteins per phage virion ( hufton et al ., 1999 ). e . coli tg1 was used for m13 phage amplification and infection experiments . for t7 phage display experiments , novagen &# 39 ; s t7select phage display system was employed . in this system , peptides and proteins are displayed as a fusion to t7 major capsid protein 10b ( novagen , nottingham , uk ). citrullination experiments were performed with wild - type t7select415 - 1b vector without insert and a t7select415 - 1b recombinant phage that displays the 15 - amino acid s - tag ™ peptide , containing one arginine amino acid , at high - copy number ( n = 415 ) at its capsid ( fig2 , panel b ). e . coli bl21 bacteria were employed for t7 phage amplification and infection experiments . m13 phage particles were produced and purified as described ( somers et al ., 2005 ; govarts et al ., 2007 ). t7 phage virions were produced according to the manufacturer &# 39 ; s recommendations ( novagen ). phage particles were citrullinated in vitro with rabbit pad enzyme according to the manufacturer &# 39 ; s recommendations ( sigma - aldrich , bornem , belgium ) and previous publications ( pratesi et al ., 2006 ; kinloch et al ., 2005 ). in brief , m13 and t7 phage particles were peg ( polyethylene glycol )- precipitated , after which the phage pellet was resolved in pad buffer ( 0 . 1 m tris - cl , ph 7 . 4 , 10 mm cacl 2 , 5 mm dtt ) at 2 mg / ml . pad enzyme was added at 2 u / mg phage ( approximately 2u / 10 12 cfu m13 phage and 2u / 10 9 pfu t7 phage ) followed by incubation at 50 ° c . for 1 , 2 or 4 hours to allow conversion of arginine amino acids into citrulline amino acids . as a negative control , m13 and t7 phage particles were incubated in pad buffer at 50 ° c . without addition of pad enzyme . citrullination of phage particles was confirmed by application of the anti - citrulline ( modified ) detection kit ( amc kit , upstate , lake placid , n . y .) in an elisa format with coated phage particles . in brief , citrullinated phage particles were peg - precipitated and the phage pellet was dissolved in pbs ( phosphate - buffered saline ). phage particles were coated overnight in pbs at 4 ° c . in a 96 - well plates ( nunc , roskilde , denmark ). for m13 phage , 5 × 10 9 and 5 × 10 10 phage particles ( cfu ) were coated per well . as working titers for t7 phage are 100 to 1000 times lower than m13 phage titers , 10 6 , 10 7 and 10 8 t7 phage ( pfu ) were coated per well . after washing with milliq , elisa plates were blocked with tbs ( tris - buffered saline ) containing 0 . 1 % ovalbumin followed by incubating the phage - coated plate with 4 % paraformaldehyde . next , the citrulline residues were modified by overnight incubation ( at 37 ° c .) with a strong acid solution containing 2 , 3 butanedione monoxime and antipyrine ( 0 . 25 % 2 , 3 - butanedione monoxime , 0 . 125 % antipyrine , 0 . 25 m acetic acid , 0 . 0125 % fecl 3 , 24 . 5 % h 2 so 4 , 17 % h 3 po 4 ), to form ureido group adducts . this modification ensures the detection of citrulline - containing proteins regardless of the neighboring amino acid sequences . after washing with milliq and blocking with 3 % milk powder in tbs ( m - tbs ), the wells were incubated with polyclonal rabbit anti - citrulline ( modified ) antibody ( 1 / 1000 in m - tbs ) for 3 hours at room temperature . citrulline residues were detected by addition of goat anti - rabbit igg conjugated to hrp for 1 hour at room temperature ( 1 / 5000 in m - tbs ), followed by color development with tmb substrate ( 3 , 3 ′, 5 , 5 ′ tetramethylbenzidine ) ( sigma - aldrich ). the reaction was stopped by addition of 2m h2so 4 and color development was read at 450 nm . background reactivity was accounted for by measuring od450 of coated non - citrullinated phage ( 0 hours ). a ratio of od450 ( citrullinated phage ) to od450 ( non - citrullinated phage ) above 1 . 5 was considered a positive signal for citrullination . the viability and infectivity of citrullinated phage were determined by counting the number of virions that were able to infect e . coli bacteria after citrullination , resulting in colony or plaque formation ( expressed in pfu / ml or cfu / ml ). efficiency of infectivity was compared between non - citrullinated phage ( in pad buffer for 2 hours at 50 ° c . without pad enzyme ) and phage that were citrullinated for different time periods ( 1 , 2 and 4 hours ). serial dilutions of citrullinated and non - citrullinated m13 phage particles were allowed to infect exponentially growing tg1 bacteria ( od600 = 0 . 5 ) for 30 minutes at 37 ° c . bacteria were plated on 2 × yt agar plates with selective antibiotic ( ampicillin , 100 μg / ml ) and resulting colonies were counted for m13 phage titer determination . for determination of the infectivity of citrullinated t7 phage , e . coli bl21 bacteria were mixed with serial dilutions of citrullinated and non - citrullinated t7 phage ( in lb medium with supplements 1 × m9 salts , 0 . 4 % glucose and 1 mm mgso 4 ) followed by plating onto lb agar plates in lb topagar . resulting plaques were counted for t7 phage titer determination . wild - type and recombinant t7 and m13 phage particles can be citrullinated in vitro wild - type and recombinant t7 and m13 phage were citrullinated in vitro by incubation with pad enzyme for different time periods ( 1 , 2 and 4 hours ). these citrullinated phage were used in a citrulline - detection elisa approach with the amc detection kit to confirm citrullination of the phage particles and peptides displayed by the phage virions ( fig3 and 4 ). for both t7 ( fig3 ) and m13 phage ( fig4 ), citrullination of phage particles by incubation with pad enzyme could be confirmed : for at least one of the tested coating concentrations , a ratio of od450 ( citrullinated phage ) to od450 ( non - citrullinated phage ) of more than 1 . 5 was detected ( fig3 , panels b and d , fig4 , panels b , d and f ). for both m13 and t7 phage systems , it was shown that already after 1 hour , the pad enzyme reached its maximum citrullination level indicated by the absence of an increase in citrullination after an additional incubation period of 1 or 3 hours ( fig3 and 4 ). for the recombinant t7 s - tag phage , citrullination could already be easily detected for 107 coated phage virions ( fig3 , panels a and b ). for the wt t7 on the other hand , the presence of citrulline amino acids was only measurable when coating 10 8 phage ( fig3 , panel c ). the level of citrullination ( od450 ratio around 5 . 5 ) ( fig3 , panel d ) was markedly lower compared to the citrullination level of t7 s - tag phage ( od450 ratio around 13 ) ( fig3 , panel b ), indicating a lower intrinsic citrullination level of wt t7 phage . as the only difference between wt t7 phage and recombinant t7 s - tag phage is the presence of 415 copies of a peptide containing one arginine at the capsid of the recombinant phage , this large difference in citrullination signal can only be accounted for by the signal generated by the displayed peptide . the difference in citrullination signal between wt and recombinant t7 phage provides definite evidence that peptides displayed at the t7 phage surface can be efficiently citrullinated . when comparing the citrullination efficiencies of all three m13 phage clones , no od450 differences could be discerned between wt phage ( four arginines ), m13 clone 1 ( five arginines ) and m13 clone 2 ( six arginines ) ( fig4 ). the equal citrullination levels between recombinant and wt m13 can be explained by the copy - number of phage - displayed peptides : the t7 s - tag protein displays 415 copies of the s - tag protein on its surface , while the number of m13 - phage - displayed peptides is maximally one per phage virion . t7 phage virions remain infective after citrullination , while m13 phage virions become less infective whether phage particles retain viability and infectivity after post - translational modification by citrullinating enzymes is the most important prerequisite for the possibility to apply this approach in phage display applications . after confirmation of citrullination , citrullinated and non - citrullinated phage were allowed to infect susceptible bacteria and titers of infecting phage virions were determined based on the number of resulting colonies or plaques ( fig5 ). for t7 phage , citrullination did not have an effect on phage infectivity or viability as the titers of citrullinated and non - citrullinated phage were the same ( fig5 , panel a ). if citrullinated and non - citrullinated phage can evenly infect efficiently , and thus no growth bias is introduced by in vitro citrullination , this in vitro modification can be applied in t7 phage display biopanning experiments . on the other hand , for both recombinant and wt m13 phage , the infecting phage titer decreased at least five - fold upon citrullination ( fig5 , panel b ). the decrease in infectivity was comparable for wt m13 and both recombinant m13 clones . this clearly indicates a negative effect of phage coat protein citrullination on m13 phage infectivity . the difference in effect of in vitro citrullination on m13 and t7 phage infection efficiency can be explained by the fact that both phage have completely different bacterial infection mechanisms . t7 phage use their tail fiber proteins to bind and infect bacteria , while m13 phage rely on m13 minor coat protein piii for efficient infection . if the conversion of present arginine residues into citrulline abrogates the interactions between these phage infection proteins and their binding targets on bacterial cells , infection efficiency is diminished . indeed , when looking into the amino acid sequence of m13 coat protein piii ( 406 amino acids ), nine arginine residues are detected . it is thought that the n - terminal region between amino acid 53 and 196 of piii is essential for successful bacterial infection . as this region contains three arginine amino acids , it is possible that conversion of one or more of these arginines into citrulline has a negative effect on m13 infection efficiency . as the major structural m13 capsid protein pviii that makes up almost the entire m13 virion capsid except for the ends does not contain an arginine , it is unlikely that citrullination affects phage stability and viability . mutation experiments in which the essential piii arginines are replaced by other amino acids to retain infectivity can be performed to allow the application of citrullination in m13 phage display systems . as the decrease of phage infectivity was already maximal after 1 hour of citrullination , this again indicates that 1 hour is sufficient for pad to citrullinate the present arginines . alberts b ., a . johnson , j . lewis , m . raff , k . roberts , and p . walter . molecular biology of the cell . garland science , taylor & amp ; francis group , 2008 . anderton s . m . post - 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