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5-Fluorouridine (5-FUrd) is a precursor of the widely used antitumor drug doxifluridine. We have produced 5-FUrd by biotransformation by cloning the gene encoding pyrimidine nucleoside phosphorylase (PyNPase) from Enterobacter aero-genes CMCC (B) 45103 and expression in Escherichia coli BL21 (DE3), resulting in recombinant E. coli BL21 (DE3)/ pET28a-PyNPase. After medium optimization, the PyNPase activity in the fermentation broth was 1613 U mg–1, which was 54-fold that of E. aerogenes. Under optimal conditions (cell concentration, 0.5 g L–1; uridine, 10 mM; 5-fluorouracil, 45 mM; temperature, 50°C; pH, 7.8), more than 90% of uridine was converted to 5-FUrd, suggesting that this is a valuable tool for application in the preparation of antiviral and antitumor drugs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We have evaluated the anti-diabetic effect of a α-glucan (MT-α-glucan) from the fruit body of maitake mushrooms (Grifola frondosa) on KK-Ay mice (a kind of genetical type 2 diabetes animal model). The effects of MT-α-glucan (450 or 150 mg kg −1) on diabetic mice were investigated by observing the changes in body weight, the level of fasting plasma glucose, glycosylated serum protein (GSP), hepatic glycogen, serum insulin, triglycerides, cholesterol, free fatty acid, liver superoxide dismutase (SOD), glutathione peroxidase (GSHpx), reduced glutathione (GSH) and malondialdehyde (MDA). Moreover, the binding capacity of insulin receptors on liver crude plasma membranes was assayed and histopathological changes in the pancreas were observed. Treatment with MT-α-glucan significantly decreased the body weight, level of fasting plasma glucose, GSP, serum insulin, triglycerides, cholesterol, free fatty acid and MDA content in livers. Treatment with MT-α-glucan significantly increased the content of hepatic glycogen, GSH and the activity of SOD and GSHpx. Moreover, the insulin binding capacity to liver crude plasma membranes increased and histopathological changes in the pancreas were ameliorated in the treatment group. These data suggest that MT-α-glucan has an anti-diabetic effect on KK-Ay mice, which might be related to its effect on insulin receptors (i.e., increasing insulin sensitivity and ameliorating insulin resistance of peripheral target tissues). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To understand the mechanisms of liver regeneration better to promote research examining liver diseases and marine biology, normal and regenerative liver tissues of Chiloscyllium plagiosum were harvested 0h and 24 h after partial hepatectomy (PH) and used to isolate small RNAs for miRNA sequencing. In total, 91 known miRNAs and 166 putative candidate (PC) miRNAs were identified for the first time in Chiloscyllium plagiosum. Through target prediction and GO analysis, 46 of 91 known miRNAs were screened specially for cellular proliferation and growth. Differential expression levels of three miRNAs (xtr-miR-125b, fru-miR-204, and hsamiR-142-3p_R-1) related to cellular proliferation and apoptosis were measured in normal and regenerating liver tissues at 0 h, 6 h, 12 h, and 24 h using real-time PCR. The expression of these miRNAs showed a rising trend in regenerative liver tissues at 6 h and 12 h but exhibited a downward trend compared to normal levels at 24 h. Differentially expressed genes were screened in normal and regenerating liver tissues at 24 h by DDRT-PCR, and ten sequences were identified. This study provided information regarding the function of genes related to liver regeneration, deepened the understanding of mechanisms of liver regeneration, and resulted in the addition of a significant number of novel miRNAs sequences to GenBank. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the development of the research on biotechnology and modern pharmacy, the application of enzyme drugs have grown rapidly and enzyme drugs have become an important branch of biopharmaceutics. In this article, some new varieties of therapeutic enzymes, enzyme targets, mechanisms and new technologies of application in therapeutic enzymes were reviewed, and the direction of development of therapeutic enzymes were discussed.

The potential effects of recombinant shark hepatical stimulator analogue (r-sHSA) in liver disease have been revealed in our previous studies. In order to further evaluate its clinic application, we carried out high cell-density fermentation in 5 L fermentor to get enough products. Based on the trials in shaking flask, we optimized the parameters for 5 L fermentor, including medium composition, medium supplement, inducer concentration and induction time, etc. In detail, the improved LB medium (0.97% glycerol, 0.91% yeast extract, 0.72% tryptone, 0.782% KH2PO4, 0.267% K2HPO4.3H2O, 0.062% MgSO4.7H2O, 0.5% NaCl, pH 7.0) is chosen to cultivate the engineering bacteria with the constant fermentation condition (pH 7.0, and the dissolved oxygen concentration is about 25%-30%). When bacterial culture reaches exponential phase, the modified feeding medium (620 g/L glycerol, 94.8 g/L tryptone, 3.3 mL/L trace elements, and 7.5 g/L MgSO4.7H2O) is then supplied through the method of exponential fed-batch mode. After the optical density (OD600) of engineering bacterial culture reaches to 23, the ultimately concentration of 0.5 mmol/L IPTG is added to induce the expression of r-sHSA for 6 h. Results show that the amount of r-sHSA production is (2.662 +/- 0.041) g/L, which is about 13.7 folds of the one optimized before.

The antigenicity of L-asaparaginase (L-ASP) has been problematic for the treatment of leukemia for many years. In order to establish a relationship between the antigenic epitope of L-asparaginase and its antigenicity, several L-asparaginase mutants (mL-ASPs) are constructed and expressed. To effectively purify these enzyme mutants for further investigation, a native preparative polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis is developed. The simplicity and reproducibility of this approach permits the purification of different mutants from the crude enzyme extracts, with a sufficient activity to perform immunological and biological studies. Furthermore, the newly developed method is efficient and cost-effective compared with other methods, such as column chromatography and affinity chromatography. As a result, the enzyme mutants with specific activity of 300 approximately 400 U/mg are obtained by the single-step purification with a high degree of purity.

Interleukin 21 (IL-21) is a novel type I cytokine that is significantly homologous to IL-2, IL-4 and IL-15. Its receptor complex contains gammac chain which is also a component of receptors for IL-2, IL-4, IL-7, IL-9 and IL-15, so there may be overlapping or relevancies in their biological functions. IL-21 is capable of co-stimulating mature T cells, B cells, NK cells, and of stimulating CD16 expression on the surface of NK cells to induce ADCC in innate immune response. It can also strengthen the anti-tumor effect of the cellular immunity, especially via enhancing the activities of NK and antigen specific CTL cells. Thus, IL-21 is a potential useful therapeutic molecule for immunotherapy of malignancies, by eliciting innate and adaptive anti-tumor responses in tumor-bearing hosts. In order to study the biological functions of IL-21, we constructed a mIL-21 prokaryotic expression plasmid and expressed the recombinant mIL-21 protein in E. coli in present study. The recombinant plasmid pET28a/mIL-21 with a carboxyl terminal His-tag was subcloned from the pcDNA3.1/mIL-21 and expressed in E. coli. The induced protein was detected by SDS-PAGE, and identified by Western-blot assay with anti-mIL-21 antibody. The recombinant protein was purified via Ni+ affinity chromatography, and renatured with GSH/GSSG system. Our mouse T cell proliferation experiment showed that the recombinant mIL-21 protein could enhance the mouse T cell proliferation either by itself alone or in the presence of Con A.

This study was intended to establish a method of preparation of recombinant human insulin, with (His)6-Arg-Arg-human proinsulin (RRhPI) expressed by Escherichia coli. After DEAE-Sepharose Fast Flow ion-exchange chromatography, Sephadex G-25 chromatography and refolding, enzyme cleavage and Superdex 75 size exclusion chromatography,the RRhPI expressed by Escherichia coli in inclusion body form was converted to human insulin. The obtained recombinant human insulin was analyzed by SDS-PAGE, HPLC, amino acid composition analysis and bioidentity test (mouse convulsion test). The results indicate that our obtained preparation is highly purified, active recombinant human insulin.

A uridine phosphorylase(UPase) was isolation from Enterobacter aerogenes EAM-Z1 and purified by means of ammonium sulfate precipitation, DEAE-cellulose, Phenyl-Sepharose, DEAE-Sepharose, FPLC ion exchange, and Sephacryl S-200 column chromatography. The purified UPase showed homogeneity on the native polacrylamide gel electrophoresis. The UPase is a trimer of 43 kD subunits. Fifteen residues from the amino terminal end of UPase were identified as MRMVDLIATKRDGGE. The isoelectric point was pH 4.46. Michaelis constant for uridine was 0.29 mmol/L. The UPase has a maximal activity at a pH value of 7.8 and 50 degrees C. The UPase could catalyses the phosphorolysis of uridine, thymidine, 5-Fluorouridine, 5-Fluoro-2'-deoxyuridine, uracil-beta-D-arbinofuranoside, and could also catalyse the synthesis of 5-Fluorouridine, a better prodrug form of the anticancer drug 5-fluorouracil, from 5-fluorouracil and uridine, and 47% uridine was converted to 5-Fluoro-uridine.

Conditions for biotransformation and purification of FUR were investigated. The result showed that when the cell concentration of E. aerogenes was 10% (w/v), the temperature and pH were 7.8 and 60 degrees C respectively, 59.7% UR was converted to FUR. It also demonstrated that the ideal procedure for the purification of FUR is silica gel column chromatography by two elution systems (S1:CHCl3:CH3OH:H2O = 61:13:1, and S2; CH3COOCH2CH3:CH3OH:CH3COOH:H2O = 12:3:3:2) with the purity and yield of 98.0% and 86.0% respectively.