[Expression and activity analysis of interferonalpha-con and thymosin-alpha1].
Liu. Xianjun X; Liu. Fangxin F; Li. Bo B; Zhou. Huiyun H; Wang. Qinqin Q
Key Findings
- The fusion protein can be produced in E. coli and purified to >96% purity.
- It shows higher antiviral activity than commercial interferon‑alpha drugs in cell assays.
- It promotes lymphocyte proliferation similarly to thymosin‑alpha‑1 and has lower toxicity than a mix of separate IFN‑alpha and thymosin‑alpha‑1.
Practical Outcomes
- For now, the study mainly confirms that combining thymosin‑alpha‑1 with interferon‑alpha can boost antiviral potency and reduce toxicity in vitro. It doesn’t provide a dosage or protocol you can apply, but suggests that future therapies might use a single fused molecule rather than two separate agents.
Summary
Scientists made a combined protein that mixes thymosin‑alpha‑1 with a consensus interferon‑alpha. In lab tests it showed stronger antiviral effects (especially against hepatitis B) and helped immune cells grow, while being less toxic than giving the two proteins separately. However, this work is still at the bacterial‑protein production stage, not a ready‑to‑use supplement or drug for people.
Abstract
This study aimed to obtain recombinant fusion protein of thymosin alphal(TM-alpha1) and consensus IFNalpha (IFNalpha-con) which have bath TM-alpha1 and IFNalpha-con activities. The DNA sequence for the fusion protein was cloned into expression vector of pET-22b (+) and expressed in BL21 (DE3)-Codon plus-RP-X. The expressed product (TM-alpha1-IFN-con) was soluble, and amounted to more than 20% in total proteins of E. coli. By precipitation of (NH4)2SO4, hydrophobic interaction chromatography (HIC, Phenyl Sepharose 6 Fast Flow), anion-exchange chromatography (Q Sepharose Fast Flow), cation-exchange chromatography (SP Sepharose Fast Flow) and gel filtration (Sephadex G-75), it was purified to more than 96% purity. The activity of fusion protein for antivirus was tested by cytopathic-effect inhibition assay and activity for promoting lymphocyte proliferation was tested by cell proliferative assay. The activity for antivirus was higher than commercial IFNalpha1b and IFNalpha2a and activity for promoting lymphocyte proliferation was similar to commercial TM-alpha1. The fusion protein had better effect for anti-HBV in vitro, its effect was stronger than combination of IFNalpha and TM-alpha1 and cell toxicity was less than combination of IFNalpha and TM-alpha1. The above results show that it has effect bath antivirus of IFNalpha and promoting lymphocyte proliferation of the soluble fusion protein expressed in E. coli.
Study Information
pubmed
2008