Abstract
Acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) affects lymphoblastic cells and is the most common neoplasm during childhood. Among the pharmaceuticals used in the treatment protocols for ALL, Asparaginase (ASNase) from Escherichia coli (EcAII) is an essential biodrug. Meanwhile, the use of EcAII in neoplastic treatments causes several side effects, such as immunological reactions, hepatotoxicity, neurotoxicity, depression, and coagulation abnormalities. Commercial EcAII is expressed as a recombinant protein, similar to novel enzymes from different organisms; in fact, EcAII is a tetrameric enzyme with high molecular weight (140 kDa), and its overexpression in recombinant systems often results in bacterial cell death or the production of aggregated or inactive EcAII protein, which is related to the formation of inclusion bodies. On the other hand, several commercial expression strains have been developed to overcome these expression issues, but no studies on a systematic evaluation of the E. coli strains aiming to express recombinant asparaginases have been performed to date. In this study, we evaluated eleven expression strains at a low temperature (16 °C) with different characteristics to determine which is the most appropriate for asparaginase expression; recombinant wild-type EcAII (rEcAII) was used as a prototype enzyme and the secondary structure content, oligomeric state, aggregation and specific activity of the enzymes were assessed. Structural analysis suggested that a correctly folded tetrameric rEcAII was obtained using ArcticExpress (DE3), a strain that co-express chaperonins, while all other strains produced poorly folded proteins. Additionally, the enzymatic assays showed high specific activity of proteins expressed by ArcticExpress (DE3) when compared to the other strains used in this work.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Amena S, Vishalakshi N, Prabhakar M, Dayanand A, Lingappa K (2010) Production, purification and characterization of l-asparaginase from Streptomyces Gulbargensis. Braz J Microbiol 41:173–178. https://doi.org/10.1590/S1517-838220100001000025
Arjun JK, Aneesh BP, Kavitha T, Harikrishnan K (2018) Characterization of a novel asparaginase from soil metagenomic libraries generated from forest soil. Biotechnol Lett 40:343–348. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10529-017-2470-7
Armstrong JK, Hempel G, Koling S, Chan LS, Fisher T, Meiselman HJ, Garratty G (2007) Antibody against poly(ethylene glycol) adversely affects PEG-asparaginase therapy in acute lymphoblastic leukemia patients. Cancer 110:103–111. https://doi.org/10.1002/cncr.22739
Ausubel FM (1987) Current protocols in molecular biology. Greene Pub. Associates; J. Wiley, Order fulfillment, Brooklyn
Avramis VI (2012) Asparaginases: biochemical pharmacology and modes of drug resistance. Anticancer Res 32:2423–2437
Banerji J (2015) Asparaginase treatment side-effects may be due to genes with homopolymeric Asn codons (Review-Hypothesis). Int J Mol Med 36:607–626. https://doi.org/10.3892/ijmm.2015.2285
Cappelletti D, Chiarelli LR, Pasquetto MV, Stivala S, Valentini G, Scotti C (2008) Helicobacter pylori l-asparaginase: a promising chemotherapeutic agent. Biochem Biophys Res Commun 377:1222–1226. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbrc.2008.10.118
Costa IM et al (2016) Recombinant l-asparaginase 1 from Saccharomyces cerevisiae: an allosteric enzyme with antineoplastic activity. Sci Rep 6:36239. https://doi.org/10.1038/srep36239
Ferrer M, Chernikova TN, Yakimov MM, Golyshin PN, Timmis KN (2003) Chaperonins govern growth of Escherichia coli at low temperatures. Nat Biotechnol 21:1266–1267. https://doi.org/10.1038/nbt1103-1266
Galindo RJ, Yoon J, Devoe C, Myers AK (2016) PEG-asparaginase induced severe hypertriglyceridemia. Arch Endocrinol Metab 60:173–177. https://doi.org/10.1590/2359-3997000000068
Ghasemi A, Asad S, Kabiri M, Dabirmanesh B (2017) Cloning and characterization of Halomonas elongata l-asparaginase, a promising chemotherapeutic agent. Appl Microbiol Biotechnol 101:7227–7238. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00253-017-8456-5
Graham ML (2003) Pegaspargase: a review of clinical studies. Adv Drug Deliv Rev 55:1293–1302. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0169-409x(03)00110-8
Han S, Jung J, Park W (2014) Biochemical characterization of l-asparaginase in NaCl-tolerant Staphylococcus sp. OJ82 isolated from fermented seafood. J Microbiol Biotechnol 24:1096–1104. https://doi.org/10.4014/jmb.1405.05021
Hinze L et al (2019) Synthetic lethality of wnt pathway activation and asparaginase in drug-resistant acute leukemias. Cancer Cell 35(664–676):e667. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ccell.2019.03.004
Huang L, Liu Y, Sun Y, Yan Q, Jiang Z (2014) Biochemical characterization of a novel l-asparaginase with low glutaminase activity from Rhizomucor miehei and its application in food safety and leukemia treatment. Appl Environ Microbiol 80:1561–1569. https://doi.org/10.1128/AEM.03523-13
Hunger SP, Mullighan CG (2015) Acute lymphoblastic leukemia in children. N Engl J Med 373:1541–1552. https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJMra1400972
Jarrar M et al (2006) Asparagine depletion after pegylated E. coli asparaginase treatment and induction outcome in children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia in first bone marrow relapse: a Children's Oncology Group study (CCG-1941). Pediatr Blood Cancer 47:141–146. https://doi.org/10.1002/pbc.20713
Kansagra A, Dahiya S, Litzow M (2018) Continuing challenges and current issues in acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Leuk Lymphoma 59:526–541. https://doi.org/10.1080/10428194.2017.1335397
Keating MJ, Holmes R, Lerner S, Ho DH (1993) l-asparaginase and PEG asparaginase–past, present, and future. Leuk Lymphoma 10(Suppl):153–157. https://doi.org/10.3109/10428199309149129
Kotzia GA, Labrou NE (2007) l-asparaginase from Erwinia chrysanthemi 3937: cloning, expression and characterization. J Biotechnol 127:657–669. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbiotec.2006.07.037
Kotzia GA, Lappa K, Labrou NE (2007) Tailoring structure-function properties of l-asparaginase: engineering resistance to trypsin cleavage. Biochem J 404:337–343. https://doi.org/10.1042/BJ20061708
Lopes AM et al (2017) Therapeutic l-asparaginase: upstream, downstream and beyond. Crit Rev Biotechnol 37:82–99. https://doi.org/10.3109/07388551.2015.1120705
Mahajan RV, Kumar V, Rajendran V, Saran S, Ghosh PC, Saxena RK (2014) Purification and characterization of a novel and robust l-asparaginase having low-glutaminase activity from Bacillus licheniformis: in vitro evaluation of anti-cancerous properties. PLoS ONE 9:e99037. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0099037
Meena B, Anburajan L, Vinithkumar NV, Shridhar D, Raghavan RV, Dharani G, Kirubagaran R (2016) Molecular expression of l-asparaginase gene from Nocardiopsis alba NIOT-VKMA08 in Escherichia coli: a prospective recombinant enzyme for leukaemia chemotherapy. Gene 590:220–226. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gene.2016.05.003
Mehta RK et al (2014) Mutations in subunit interface and B-cell epitopes improve antileukemic activities of Escherichia coli asparaginase-II: evaluation of immunogenicity in mice. J Biol Chem 289:3555–3570. https://doi.org/10.1074/jbc.M113.486530
Michalska K, Jaskolski M (2006) Structural aspects of l-asparaginases, their friends and relations. Acta Biochim Pol 53:627–640
Narta UK, Kanwar SS, Azmi W (2007) Pharmacological and clinical evaluation of l-asparaginase in the treatment of leukemia. Crit Rev Oncol Hematol 61:208–221. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.critrevonc.2006.07.009
Nguyen HA et al (2018) A novel l-asparaginase with low L-glutaminase coactivity is highly efficacious against both T- and B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemias in vivo. Cancer Res 78:1549–1560. https://doi.org/10.1158/0008-5472.CAN-17-2106
Oza VP, Parmar PP, Patel DH, Subramanian RB (2011) Cloning, expression and characterization of l-asparaginase from Withania somnifera L. for large scale production. 3 Biotech 1:21–26. doi:10.1007/s13205–011–0003-y
Palm GJ, Lubkowski J, Derst C, Schleper S, Rohm KH, Wlodawer A (1996) A covalently bound catalytic intermediate in Escherichia coli asparaginase: crystal structure of a Thr-89-Val mutant. FEBS Lett 390:211–216. https://doi.org/10.1016/0014-5793(96)00660-6
Patel N et al (2009) A dyad of lymphoblastic lysosomal cysteine proteases degrades the antileukemic drug l-asparaginase. J Clin Invest 119:1964–1973. https://doi.org/10.1172/JCI37977
Pieters R et al (2008) Pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics, efficacy, and safety of a new recombinant asparaginase preparation in children with previously untreated acute lymphoblastic leukemia: a randomized phase 2 clinical trial. Blood 112:4832–4838. https://doi.org/10.1182/blood-2008-04-149443
Pokrovskaya MV et al (2015) Identification of functional regions in the Rhodospirillum rubrum l-asparaginase by site-directed mutagenesis. Mol Biotechnol 57:251–264. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12033-014-9819-0
Pourhossein M, Korbekandi H (2014) Cloning, expression, purification and characterisation of Erwinia carotovora l-asparaginase in Escherichia coli. Adv Biomed Res 3:82. https://doi.org/10.4103/2277-9175.127995
Radha R, Arumugam N, Gummadi SN (2018) Glutaminase free l-asparaginase from Vibrio cholerae: Heterologous expression, purification and biochemical characterization. Int J Biol Macromol 111:129–138. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijbiomac.2017.12.165
Rosano GL, Ceccarelli EA (2014) Recombinant protein expression in Escherichia coli: advances and challenges. Front Microbiol 5:172. https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2014.00172
Saeed H et al (2018) Molecular cloning, structural modeling and production of recombinant Aspergillus terreus l-asparaginase in Escherichia coli. Int J Biol Macromol 106:1041–1051. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijbiomac.2017.08.110
San-Miguel T, Perez-Bermudez P, Gavidia I (2013) Production of soluble eukaryotic recombinant proteins in E. coli is favoured in early log-phase cultures induced at low temperature. Springerplus 2:89. https://doi.org/10.1186/2193-1801-2-89
Sanches M, Barbosa JA, de Oliveira RT, Abrahao Neto J, Polikarpov I (2003) Structural comparison of Escherichia coli l-asparaginase in two monoclinic space groups. Acta Crystallogr D 59:416–422. https://doi.org/10.1107/s0907444902021200
Santos J et al (2017) Heterologous expression and purification of active l-asparaginase I of Saccharomyces cerevisiae in Escherichia coli host. Biotechnol Prog 33:416–424. https://doi.org/10.1002/btpr.2410
Schalk AM, Lavie A (2014) Structural and kinetic characterization of guinea pig l-asparaginase type III. Biochemistry 53:2318–2328. https://doi.org/10.1021/bi401692v
Sindhu R, Manonmani HK (2018) Expression and characterization of recombinant l-asparaginase from Pseudomonas fluorescens. Protein Expr Purif 143:83–91. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pep.2017.09.009
Singh A, Upadhyay V, Singh A, Panda AK (2020) Structure-function relationship of inclusion bodies of a multimeric protein. Front Microbiol 11:876. https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2020.00876
Story MD, Voehringer DW, Stephens LC, Meyn RE (1993) l-asparaginase kills lymphoma cells by apoptosis. Cancer Chemother Pharmacol 32:129–133. https://doi.org/10.1007/bf00685615
Swain AL, Jaskolski M, Housset D, Rao JK, Wlodawer A (1993) Crystal structure of Escherichia coli l-asparaginase, an enzyme used in cancer therapy. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 90:1474–1478. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.90.4.1474
Tairum CA et al (2016) Catalytic Thr or Ser residue modulates structural switches in 2-Cys peroxiredoxin by distinct mechanisms. Sci Rep 6:33133. https://doi.org/10.1038/srep33133
Upadhyay AK, Murmu A, Singh A, Panda AK (2012) Kinetics of inclusion body formation and its correlation with the characteristics of protein aggregates in Escherichia coli. PLoS ONE 7:e33951. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0033951
Upadhyay AK, Singh A, Mukherjee KJ, Panda AK (2014) Refolding and purification of recombinant l-asparaginase from inclusion bodies of E. coli into active tetrameric protein. Front Microbiol 5:486. https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2014.00486
van der Sluis I et al (2013) Pediatric acute lymphoblastic leukemia: efficacy and safety of recombinant E. coli-asparaginase in infants (less than one year of age) with acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Haematologica 98:1697–1701. https://doi.org/10.3324/haematol.2013.090563
Voller S, Pichlmeier U, Zens A, Hempel G (2018) Pharmacokinetics of recombinant asparaginase in children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Cancer Chemother Pharmacol 81:305–314. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00280-017-3492-5
Wolthers BO et al (2017) Asparaginase-associated pancreatitis in childhood acute lymphoblastic leukaemia: an observational Ponte di Legno Toxicity Working Group study. Lancet Oncol 18:1238–1248. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1470-2045(17)30424-2
Yasukawa T, Kanei-Ishii C, Maekawa T, Fujimoto J, Yamamoto T, Ishii S (1995) Increase of solubility of foreign proteins in Escherichia coli by coproduction of the bacterial thioredoxin. J Biol Chem 270:25328–25331. https://doi.org/10.1074/jbc.270.43.25328
Acknowledgements
This work was supported by grants from the Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP) (Grant Numbers: 2011/13500-6, 2013/08617-7, 2014/22039-9, 2016/19245-1, 2017/19942‐7, 2017/20291‐0, 2017/25272-4 and 2019/04054-4).
Supporting information
Supplementary Fig. 1—SDS-PAGE containing the rEcAII purification expressed in BL21 (DE3), Tuner (DE3) and C43 (DE3) strains at 37ºC.
Supplementary Fig. 2—SDS-PAGE containing the rEcAII purification expressed in different strains of Escherichia coli at 16ºC.
Supplementary Fig. 3—Normalized rEcAII concentrations after IMAC purification shown by SDS-PAGE.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Electronic supplementary material
Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
de Moura, W.A.F., Schultz, L., Breyer, C.A. et al. Functional and structural evaluation of the antileukaemic enzyme l-asparaginase II expressed at low temperature by different Escherichia coli strains. Biotechnol Lett 42, 2333–2344 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10529-020-02955-5
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10529-020-02955-5