The Innate Immune Glycoprotein Lactoferrin Represses the Helicobacter pylori cag Type IV Secretion System

Chronic infection with Helicobacter pylori increases risk of gastric diseases including gastric cancer. Despite development of a robust immune response, H. pylori persists in the gastric niche. Progression of gastric inflammation to serious disease outcomes is associated with infection with H. pylori strains which encode the cag Type IV Secretion System (cag T4SS). The cag T4SS is responsible for translocating the oncogenic protein CagA into host cells and inducing pro-inflammatory and carcinogenic signaling cascades. Our previous work demonstrated that nutrient iron modulates the activity of the T4SS and biogenesis of T4SS pili. In response to H. pylori infection, the host produces a variety of antimicrobial molecules, including the iron-binding glycoprotein, lactoferrin. Our work shows that apo-lactoferrin exerts antimicrobial activity against H. pylori under iron-limited conditions, while holo-lactoferrin enhances bacterial growth. Culturing H. pylori in the presence of holo-lactoferrin prior to co-culture with gastric epithelial cells, results in repression of the cag T4SS activity. Concomitantly, a decrease in biogenesis of cag T4SS pili at the host-pathogen interface was observed under these culture conditions by high-resolution electron microscopy analyses. Taken together, these results indicate that acquisition of alternate sources of nutrient iron plays a role in regulating the pro-inflammatory activity of a bacterial secretion system and present novel therapeutic targets for the treatment of H. pylori-related disease.     

乳铁蛋白纯化和检测方法研究进展

乳铁蛋白是一种具有抗微生物活性的铁离子结合糖蛋白,属于转铁蛋白家族的一员,具有调节炎症反应和激活免疫系统等功能,因此乳铁蛋白被广泛应用于医学和食品领域。本综述汇集了乳铁蛋白纯化和检测方法的研究进展,并比较了各方法之间的优缺点。     

A role for whey-derived lactoferrin and immunoglobulins in the attenuation of obesity-related inflammation and disease

Obesity is a strong predictive factor in the development of chronic disease and has now superseded undernutrition as a major public health issue. Chronic inflammation is one mechanism thought to link excess body weight with disease. Increasingly, the gut and its extensive population of commensal microflora are recognized as playing an important role in the development of obesity-related chronic inflammation. Obesity and a high fat diet are associated with altered commensal microbial communities and increased intestinal permeability which contributes to systemic inflammation as a result of the translocation of lipopolysaccharide into the circulation and metabolic endotoxemia. Various milk proteins are showing promise in the prevention and treatment of obesity and chronic low-grade inflammation via reductions in visceral fat, neutralization of bacteria at the mucosa and reduced intestinal permeability. In this review, we focus on evidence supporting the potential antiobesogenic and anti-inflammatory effects of bovine whey-derived lactoferrin and immunoglobulins.     

乳铁蛋白理化性质及其成骨作用研究进展

乳铁蛋白是一种具有抗菌、免疫调节等多功能性的铁结合糖蛋白,主要存在于哺乳动物乳汁中。近年来,乳铁蛋白在促进骨生长方面的功能逐渐成为研究热点。本文主要综述乳铁蛋白的结构、理化性质及其对成骨细胞、破骨细胞的作用、骨生长的影响及机制等方面的研究进展,并展望乳铁蛋白作为骨效应分子的应用前景及仍需解决的问题。     

Antimicrobial activity of recombinant human lactoferrin from <Emphasis Type="Italic">Aspergillus awamori</Emphasis>, human milk lactoferrin and their hydrolysates

The antibacterial activity of human lactoferrin from milk (hLF), recombinant human lactoferrin from Aspergillus awamori (rhLF) and their hydrolysates obtained with pepsin was investigated against Escherichia coli O157:H7, Salmonella Enteritidis and Listeria monocytogenes. The minimum inhibitory concentrations (MIC) and the minimum bactericidal concentrations (MBC) were determined for all the bacteria and the proteins assayed. Taking into account the MICs found for both lactoferrins studied, we can say that they behave very similarly, except for L. monocytogenes for which rhLF was more active. We studied the effect that heat treatments exerted on the antibacterial activity of the two types of lactoferrin and the only heat treatment that had a negative effect on that activity was 85 °C for 10 min. The activity of hLF and rhLF in UHT milk and whey against E. coli O157:H7 and L. monocytogenes, was also assayed. Our results showed a reduction in the number of viable cells for both microorganisms when were incubated with rhLF or hLF, but this decrease was lower than in broth media.     

Short communication: Determination of lactoferrin in Feta cheese whey with reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography

In the current paper, a method is introduced to determine lactoferrin in sweet whey using reversed-phase HPLC without any pretreatment of the samples or use of a separation technique. As a starting point, the most common HPLC protocols for acid whey, which included pretreatment of the whey along with a sodium dodecyl sulfate-PAGE step, were tested. By skipping the pretreatment and the separation steps while altering the gradient profile, different chromatographs were obtained that proved to be equally efficient to determine lactoferrin. For this novel 1-step reversed-phase HPLC method, repeatability was very high over a wide range of concentrations (1.88% intraday to 5.89% interday). The limit of detection was 35.46 μg/mL [signal:noise ratio (S/N) = 3], whereas the limit of quantification was 50.86 μg/mL (S/N = 10). Omitting the pretreatment step caused a degradation of the column’s lifetime (to approximately 2,000 samples). As a result, the lactoferrin elution time changed, but neither the accuracy nor the separation ability of the method was significantly influenced. We observed that this degradation could be easily avoided or detained by centrifuging the samples to remove fat or by extensive cleaning of the column after every 5 samples.     

乳铁蛋白的最新研究进展

乳铁蛋白（Lactoferrin,简称Lf)主要存在于哺乳动物的各种外分泌物中，乳中的含量最高。Lf不仅具有广谱的力性质，而且还能够增强机体的抗病毒，抗癌能力和免疫能力，防治感染性疾病，作为一种新型的具有抗菌性质的蛋白质。Lf有望作为新一代功能性疗效食品的功能组分。本文主要综述了乳铁蛋白的基本性质，功能特性及其一些最新的研究进展，并对牛初乳中乳铁蛋白的开发利用进行了展望。     

Expression and purification of goat lactoferrin from Pichia pastoris expression system

ABSTRACT:  The recombinant goat lactoferrin (rGLF) was expressed in the methylotropic yeast Pichia pastoris using pGAPZαC vector, GAP as promoter, and Zeocin as the selective marker. After transformation of the GLF-pGAPZαC into Pichia pastoris X-33 expression host, the GLF-pGAPZαC vector was integrated into the GAP promoter locus of Pichia pastoris X-33 chromosome. The rGLF was expressed and secreted into the broth using α-factor preprosequence. SDS-PAGE and PAS staining analysis indicated that the rGLF could be purified to electrophoretic homogeneity by heparin-Sepharose 6 Fast Flow affinity chromatography and glycosylated by the expression host. The yield of purified rGLF was approximately 2.0 mg/L of culture broth. The N-terminal sequence was identical to the native goat lactoferrin (nGLF). The iron-binding behavior, papain-inhibiting property, and thermal stability of the purified rGLF were comparable to nGLF. This is the 1st report of intact goat lactoferrin expression using the P. pastoris system.     

乳铁蛋白和乳铁素的抗菌活性比较

牛乳铁蛋白是从牛乳中提取出来的一种铁结合性糖蛋白，牛乳铁素是从牛乳铁蛋白N-端水解下来的25个氨摹酸残荩。它们具有多种乍物学功能，其中的广谱抗菌性尤为引人注目。本实验以牛初乳中提取的乳铁蛋白及其水解产物乳铁素为研究对象，选取大肠杆菌为实验菌株，进行铁饱和乳铁蛋白和缺铁性乳铁蛋白、乳铁素对大肠杆菌生长抑制的比较研究。研究结果表明：铁饱和乳铁蛋白、缺铁性乳铁蛋白和乳铁索的最小抑菌浓度分别为6mg／ml、3mg／ml和15μg／ml，乳铁素的最小杀菌浓度为30μg／ml。乳铁蛋白水解后，经纯化获得的乳铁素，其抗菌能力较缺铁性乳铁蛋白增加200倍，较铁饱和乳铁蛋白增加400倍。