Recombinant C. tetani TeNT Light Chain [His]

Fragment C is a non-toxic 50kDa fragment of tetanus toxin which is a candidate subunit vaccine against tetanus. The AT-rich Clostridium tetani DNA encoding fragment C could not be expressed in Saccharomyces cerevisiae due to the presence of several fortuitous polyadenylation sites which gave rise to truncated mRNAs. The polyadenylation sites were eliminated by chemically synthesising the DNA with increased GC-content (from 29% to 47%). Synthesis of the entire gene (1400 base pairs) was necessary to generate full-length transcripts and for protein production in yeast. Using a GAL1 promoter vector, fragment C was expressed to 2-3% of soluble cell protein. Fragment C could also be secreted using the alpha-factor leader peptide as a secretion signal. The protein was present at 5-10mg/l in the culture medium in two forms: a high molecular mass hyper-glycosylated protein (75-200kDa) and a core-glycosylated protein (65kDa). Intracellular fragment C was as effective in vaccinating mice against tetanus as authentic fragment C. The glycosylated material was inactive, though it was rendered fully active by de-glycosylation.

Secreted virulence factors like bacterial collagenases are conceptually attractive targets for fighting microbial infections. However, previous attempts to develop potent compounds against these metalloproteases failed to achieve selectivity against human matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs). Using a surface plasmon resonance-based screening complemented with enzyme inhibition assays, we discovered an N-aryl mercaptoacetamide-based inhibitor scaffold that showed sub-micromolar affinities toward collagenase H (ColH) from the human pathogen Clostridium histolyticum. Moreover, these inhibitors also efficiently blocked the homologous bacterial collagenases, ColG from C. histolyticum, ColT from C. tetani, and ColQ1 from the Bacillus cereus strain Q1, while showing negligible activity toward human MMPs-1, -2, -3, -7, -8, and -14. The most active compound displayed a more than 1000-fold selectivity over human MMPs. This selectivity can be rationalized by the crystal structure of ColH with this compound, revealing a distinct non-primed binding mode to the active site. The non-primed binding mode presented here paves the way for the development of selective broad-spectrum bacterial collagenase inhibitors with potential therapeutic application in humans.