Expression and purification of soluble human programmed death-1 in Escherichia coli

Lihui Xu1, Yi Liu, Xianhui He

  • 1Institute of Bioengineering, College of Life Science and Technology, Jinan University, Guangzhou 510632, China.

Insights

Researchers developed soluble Programmed death-1 (PD-1) from E. coli. This soluble PD-1 effectively binds to PD-L1, showing potential for enhancing anti-viral and anti-tumoral immune responses.

Area of Science:

  • Immunology
  • Molecular Biology
  • Biotechnology

Background:

  • Programmed death-1 (PD-1) negatively regulates T cell receptor signaling via ligands PD-L1/PD-L2.
  • The PD-1/PD-L1 pathway is crucial in adaptive immune responses and is a target for enhancing anti-viral and anti-tumoral immunity.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To express and characterize soluble human PD-1 (sPD-1) from prokaryotic cells.
  • To assess the binding activity of refolded sPD-1 with its ligand PD-L1.

Main Methods:

  • Expression of extracellular human PD-1 with a His-tag in E. coli.
  • On-column refolding and purification using immobilized metal affinity chromatography.
  • Characterization by Western blotting and Scatchard plot analysis for binding affinity.

Main Results:

  • Soluble PD-1 (sPD-1) was successfully expressed as inclusion bodies and refolded.
  • Purified sPD-1 demonstrated high purity and specific binding activity to PD-L1.
  • The dissociation constant (Kd) for sPD-1 and PD-L1 binding was determined to be 0.43 nmol/L.

Conclusions:

  • Refolded sPD-1 from prokaryotic expression systems can be produced with high purity and specific ligand-binding activity.
  • This soluble PD-1 has potential therapeutic applications for enhancing immune responses against viral infections and malignancies.