Random Copolymers of Lysine and Isoleucine for Efficient mRNA Delivery

Messenger RNA (mRNA) is currently of great interest as a new category of therapeutic agent, which could be used for prevention or treatment of various diseases. For this mRNA requires effective delivery systems that will protect it from degradation, as well as allow cellular uptake and mRNA release. Random poly(lysine-co-isoleucine) polypeptides were synthesized and investigated as possible carriers for mRNA delivery. The polypeptides obtained under lysine:isoleucine monomer ratio equal to 80/20 were shown to give polyplexes with smaller size, positive ζ-potential and more than 90% encapsulation efficacy. The phase inversion method was proposed as best way for encapsulation of mRNA into polyplexes, which are based on obtained amphiphilic copolymers. These copolymers showed efficacy in protection of bound mRNA towards ribonuclease and lower toxicity as compared to lysine homopolymer. The poly(lysine-co-isoleucine) polypeptides showed greater than poly(ethyleneimine) efficacy as vectors for transfection of cells with green fluorescent protein and firefly luciferase encoding mRNAs. This allows us to consider obtained copolymers as promising candidates for mRNA delivery applications.     

A Recombinant Collagen–mRNA Platform for Controllable Protein Synthesis

We have developed a collagen–mRNA platform for controllable protein production that is intended to be less prone to the problems associated with commonly used mRNA therapy as well as with collagen skin‐healing procedures. A collagen mimic was constructed according to a recombinant method and was used as scaffold for translating mRNA chains into proteins. Cysteines were genetically inserted into the collagen chain at positions allowing efficient ribosome translation activity while minimizing mRNA misfolding and degradation. Enhanced green fluorescence protein (eGFP) mRNA bound to collagen was successfully translated by cell‐free Escherichia coli ribosomes. This system enabled an accurate control of specific protein synthesis by monitoring expression time and level. Luciferase–mRNA was also translated on collagen scaffold by eukaryotic cell extracts. Thus we have demonstrated the feasibility of controllable protein synthesis on collagen scaffolds by ribosomal machinery.     

新型狂犬病病毒中和抗体检测方法的建立

目的建立一种安全、快速、经济的新型狂犬病病毒中和抗体的检测方法。方法在狂犬病病毒弱毒株HEP-Flury基因组Ψ区插入增强型绿色荧光蛋白(enhanced green fluorescent protein eGFP)基因,利用反向遗传技术,拯救重组病毒rHEP-eGFP,分别采用荧光显微镜观察、直接免疫荧光染色鉴定及电镜观察等方法对rHEP-eGFP病毒进行鉴定;分别绘制rHEP-eGFP和亲本毒株HEP-Flury的生长动力学曲线;将rHEP-eGFP在BHK-21细胞中连续传代9次,测定各代次rHEP-eGFP的滴度,荧光显微镜下观察eGFP的表达;采用TCID50法检测狂犬病病毒标准攻击毒株CVS-11和rHEP-eGFP的毒力;以rHEP-eGFP病毒为抗原,建立新型荧光抗体病毒中和试验(fluorescent antibodyvirus neutralization,FAVN)-eGFP,对25份犬血清的抗体效价进行测定,并与标准FAVN检测结果进行比较。结果经荧光显微镜观察、直接免疫荧光染色鉴定和电镜观察表明,成功拯救出rHEP-eGFP病毒;重组病毒rHEP-eGFP与亲本病毒HEP-Flury的生长特性相似;rHEP-eGFP连续传代9次,均能稳定表达eGFP;CVS-11的毒力为108TCID50/ml,rHEP-eGFP的毒力为107.3TCID50/ml;FAVN-eGFP与FAVN测定25份犬血清抗体效价的结果具有良好的一致性。结论建立的新型狂犬病病毒中和抗体检测方法(FAVN-eGFP)准确度高,特异性好。     

5-Ethynyluridine: A Bio-orthogonal Uridine Variant for mRNA-Based Therapies and Vaccines

The identification of pseudo- and N¹-methylpseudo-uridine (Ψ and mΨ, respectively) as immunosilent uridine analogues has propelled the development of mRNA-based vaccines and therapeutics. Here, we have characterised another uridine analogue, 5-ethynyluridine (EU), which has an ethynyl moiety. We show that this uridine analogue does not cause immune activation in human macrophages, as it does not induce interleukin-6 secretion or expression of the inflammatory and antiviral genes MX1, PKR, and TAP2. Moreover, EU allows for prolonged expression, as shown with mRNA coding for yellow fluorescent protein (YFP). Side-by-side comparisons of EU with unmodified, Ψ, and mΨ revealed that EU-modified mRNA is expressed at lower levels, but confers similar stability and low immunogenicity to the other uridine analogues. Furthermore, structure analysis of modified mRNAs suggests that the observed phenotype is largely independent of RNA folding. Thus, EU is a potential candidate for RNA-based vaccines and therapeutics.     

离子交换介质内蛋白置换行为的观测与解析

以肌醇六磷酸钠(PAS)为置换剂研究了绿色荧光蛋白(eGFP)在Q Sepharose HP离子交换色谱(IEC)介质上的置换行为。置换色谱结果表明,不同浓度PAS下eGFP均可形成稳定的置换列并成功分离。利用共聚焦激光扫描显微镜(CLSM)技术对eGFP在离子交换色谱介质内吸附动力学的观测发现,eGFP在IEC介质内的吸附是由表面扩散和孔扩散共同作用的复杂行为。置换过程中不同时刻的CLSM图像显示,eGFP置换不仅取决于置换剂的亲和力,也与置换剂与介质的结合过程相关;介质内荧光强度的分析表明,eGFP置换首先发生在介质的外层,PAS浓度的降低导致置换速率下降。这与置换色谱的结果相吻合。CLSM不仅为蛋白置换动力学的研究提供了一种直观观测技术,CLSM结果也确认了蛋白质置换过程的复杂性。     

快速纯化在大肠杆菌中表达的增强型绿色荧光蛋白

As an excellent reporter molecule, enhanced green fluorescent protein （eGFP） was widely used for gene expression and regulation and was generally expressed in Escherichia coli strain. A rapid procedure consisting of ammonium sulfate precipitation, size exclusion chromatography, and anion exchange chromatography was developed for the purification of eGFP. Based on the proposed procedure, recombinant eGFP with an electrophoretic purity was achieved in combination with an overall yield of 66% and a purification factor of 17.9. The fluorescent spectrometry of purified eGFP and lysate from E. coli strain expressing eGFP exhibited the same wavelength of excitation and emission maxima, indicating that the purification procedure did not influence the construct and fluorescent characteristics of desired protein. The procedure mentioned was easy to scale up for the purification of large quantities of eGFP.     

Enzymatic Assays to Explore Viral mRNA Capping Machinery

In eukaryotes, mRNA is modified by the addition of the 7-methylguanosine (m⁷G) 5′ cap to protect mRNA from premature degradation, thereby enhancing translation and enabling differentiation between self (endogenous) and non-self RNAs (e. g., viral ones). Viruses often develop their own mRNA capping pathways to augment the expression of their proteins and escape host innate immune response. Insights into this capping system may provide new ideas for therapeutic interventions and facilitate drug discovery, e. g., against viruses that cause pandemic outbreaks, such as beta-coronaviruses SARS-CoV (2002), MARS-CoV (2012), and the most recent SARS-CoV-2. Thus, proper methods for the screening of large compound libraries are required to identify lead structures that could serve as a basis for rational antiviral drug design. This review summarizes the methods that allow the monitoring of the activity and inhibition of enzymes involved in mRNA capping.     

G-Quadruplex Regulation of VEGFA mRNA Translation by RBM4

In eukaryotes, mRNAs translation is mainly mediated in a cap-dependent or cap-independent manner. The latter is primarily initiated at the internal ribosome entry site (IRES) in the 5′-UTR of mRNAs. It has been reported that the G-quadruplex structure (G4) in the IRES elements could regulate the IRES activity. We previously confirmed RBM4 (also known as LARK) as a G4-binding protein in human. In this study, to investigate whether RBM4 is involved in the regulation of the IRES activity by binding with the G4 structure within the IRES element, the IRES-A element in the 5′-UTR of vascular endothelial growth factor A (VEGFA) was constructed into a dicistronic reporter vector, psiCHECK2, and the effect of RBM4 on the IRES activity was tested in 293T cells. The results showed that the IRES insertion significantly increased the FLuc expression activity, indicating that this G4-containing IRES was active in 293T cells. When the G4 structure in the IRES was disrupted by base mutation, the IRES activity was significantly decreased. The IRES activity was notably increased when the cells were treated with G4 stabilizer PDS. EMSA results showed that RBM4 specifically bound the G4 structure in the IRES element. The knockdown of RBM4 substantially reduced the IRES activity, whereas over-expressing RBM4 increased the IRES activity. Taking all results together, we demonstrated that RBM4 promoted the mRNA translation of VEGFA gene by binding to the G4 structure in the IRES.     

Direct Injection of CRISPR/Cas9-Related mRNA into Cytoplasm of Parthenogenetically Activated Porcine Oocytes Causes Frequent Mosaicism for Indel Mutations

Some reports demonstrated successful genome editing in pigs by one-step zygote microinjection of mRNA of CRISPR/Cas9-related components. Given the relatively long gestation periods and the high cost of housing, the establishment of a single blastocyst-based assay for rapid optimization of the above system is required. As a proof-of-concept, we attempted to disrupt a gene (GGTA1) encoding the α-1,3-galactosyltransferase that synthesizes the α-Gal epitope using parthenogenetically activated porcine oocytes. The lack of α-Gal epitope expression can be monitored by staining with fluorescently labeled isolectin BS-I-B₄ (IB4), which binds specifically to the α-Gal epitope. When oocytes were injected with guide RNA specific to GGTA1 together with enhanced green fluorescent protein (EGFP) and human Cas9 mRNAs, 65% (24/37) of the developing blastocysts exhibited green fluorescence, although almost all (96%, 23/24) showed a mosaic fluorescent pattern. Staining with IB4 revealed that the green fluorescent area often had a reduced binding activity to IB4. Of the 16 samples tested, six (five fluorescent and one non-fluorescent blastocysts) had indel mutations, suggesting a correlation between EGFP expression and mutation induction. Furthermore, it is suggested that zygote microinjection of mRNAs might lead to the production of piglets with cells harboring various mutation types.     

Application of Modified mRNA in Somatic Reprogramming to Pluripotency and Directed Conversion of Cell Fate

Modified mRNA (modRNA)-based somatic reprogramming is an effective and safe approach that overcomes the genomic mutation risk caused by viral integrative methods. It has improved the disadvantages of conventional mRNA and has better stability and immunogenicity. The modRNA molecules encoding multiple pluripotent factors have been applied successfully in reprogramming somatic cells such as fibroblasts, mesenchymal stem cells, and amniotic fluid stem cells to generate pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs). Moreover, it also can be directly used in the terminal differentiation of stem cells and fibroblasts into functional therapeutic cells, which exhibit great promise in disease modeling, drug screening, cell transplantation therapy, and regenerative medicine. In this review, we summarized the reprogramming applications of modified mRNA in iPSC generation and therapeutic applications of functionally differentiated cells.     

Affinity Purification of Binding miRNAs for Messenger RNA Fused with a Common Tag

Prediction of microRNA–mRNA interaction typically relies on bioinformatic methods, but these methods only suggest the possibility of microRNA binding and may miss important interactions as well as falsely predict others. A major obstacle to the miRNA research has been the lack of experimental procedures for the identification of miRNA–mRNA interactions. Recently, a few studies have attempted to explore experimental methods to isolate and identify miRNA targets or miRNAs targeting a single gene. Here, we developed an more convenient experimental approach for the isolation and identification of miRNAs targeting a single gene by applying short biotinylated DNA anti-sense oligonucleotides mix to enhanced green fluorescent protein (EGFP) mRNA which was fused to target gene mRNA. This method does not require a design of different anti-sense oligonucleotides to any mRNA. This is a simple and an efficient method to potentially identify miRNAs targeting specific gene mRNA combined with chip screen.     

Ctr1基因mRNA转录水平与细胞内铜离子浓度的相关性

目的分析铜特异性转运蛋白(Ctr1)基因mRNA转录水平与细胞内铜离子浓度的相关性。方法从猪传代肾细胞PK15中扩增Ctr1基因,克隆并测序;采用半定量RT-PCR法检测不同浓度铜离子(0、7.8、15.6、31.2和62.5μmol/L)对PK15细胞中Ctr1基因mRNA转录水平的影响,以β-actin为内参;采用原子吸收光谱分析法检测细胞内铜离子的浓度。结果所扩增的Ctr1基因与GenBank公布的序列同源性达到98%;PK15细胞Ctr1基因mRNA的转录水平在铜添加量在7.8～62.5μmol/L范围内呈双相反应,各试验组Ctr1基因转录水平均低于0μmol/L;而细胞内铜离子浓度均高于0μmol/L,以Ⅳ组含量最高,且与其他各组差异有统计学意义。结论 Ctr1基因mRNA的转录水平与细胞内铜离子浓度呈负相关。