Dataset Information

Development of IL-15/IL-15Rα sushi domain-IgG4 Fc complexes in Pichia pastoris with potent activities and prolonged half-lives.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Interleukin-15 (IL-15) is a critical cytokine for the development, proliferation, and function of natural killer (NK) cells, NKT cells, and CD8⁺ memory T cells and has become one of the most promising protein molecules for the treatment of cancer and viral diseases. However, there are several limitations in applying IL-15 in therapy, such as its low yield in vitro, limited potency, and short half-life in vivo. To date, there are several recombinant IL-15 agonists based on configurational modifications that are being pursued in the treatment of cancer, such as ALT-803, which are mainly produced from mammalian cells.

Results

In this study, we designed two different forms of the IL-15 complex, which were formed by the noncovalent assembly of IL-15 with dimeric or monomeric sushi domain of IL-15 receptor α (SuIL-15Rα)-IgG4 Fc fusion protein and designated IL-15/SuIL-15Rα-dFc and IL-15/SuIL-15Rα-mFc, respectively. The two IL-15 complexes were expressed in Pichia pastoris (P. pastoris), and their activities and half-lives were evaluated and compared. Pharmacokinetic analysis showed that IL-15/SuIL-15Rα-dFc had a half-life of 14.26 h while IL-15/SuIL-15Rα-mFc had a half-life of 9.16 h in mice, which were much longer than the 0.7-h half-life of commercial recombinant human IL-15 (rhIL-15). Treatment of mice with intravenous injection of the two IL-15 complexes resulted in significant increases in NK cells, NKT cells, and memory CD8⁺ T cells, which were not observed after rhIL-15 treatment. Treatment of human peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) from healthy donors with the two IL-15 complexes yielded enhanced NK and CD8⁺ T cell activation and proliferation, which was comparable to the effect of rhIL-15.

Conclusions

These findings indicate that the IL-15/SuIL-15Rα-dFc and IL-15/SuIL-15Rα-mFc produced in P. pastoris exhibit potent activities and prolonged half-lives and may serve as superagonists for immunotherapy in further research and applications.

SUBMITTER: Xu H

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8190845 | biostudies-literature |

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Project description:Over the past three decades, due to the universal application of Pichia yeast in the fermentation industry as well as the establishment of Pichia pastoris fermentation process for more than 30 years, the technology of the whole process has become very mature and has now reached a stagnated period of growth. However, studies and research conducted on the genomics of the classic fermentation process and the uncovering of the biological phenomena in the fermentation process from the point of view of high-throughput gene or protein is still in its early stages, and there is still insufficient data within this field. First, in collaboration with Agilent Company, we designed and prepared an expression microarray that could be used for the detection of Pichia pastoris transcriptomics. The transcriptomic changes in the five key technology steps (time points), during the fermentation process of Pichia pastoris would then be detected with the aid of an expression microarray. The five key steps of technology described above formed two important biological processes, namely, the limiting carbon source replacement and secondly, the fermentative production of exogenous proteins. The biological phenomena involved in these two processes were displayed and analyzed at the transcriptional level. In addition to this, with regard to the most important function in the fermentation process of Pichia pastoris, oxid-reduction, the metabolic drift process was analyzed and the important genes that might dominate the changes in the metabolic flux were discovered creatively by using the function tree method in this paper. This study was undertaken from the point of view of the transcriptome and the biological phenomena in the fermemntation process of Pichia pastoris. Both of which, were thoroughly explained during this study. The hope is for many more researchers to optimize the strain fermentation process, to produce proteins at the genetic level, as well as providing and obtaining new perspectives and detailed scientific data for the continued development within this field.