"The peptides, shown in Figure 1, were designed and synthesized. MPER (RRRNEQELLELDKWASLWNWFDITNWLWYIRRRR), TT peptide (FNNFTVSFWLRVPKVSASHLE), T10HE peptide (FNNFTVSFWLRVPKVSASHLE-PEG2-LWNWF-S5-ITN-S5-LWYIR-PEG2-KK), and T10E peptide (FNNFTVSFWLRVPKVSASHLEPEG2-LWNWFDITNWLWYIR-PEG2-KK) were purchased from CPC Scientific Inc. (Sunnyvale, CA, USA)."

Abstract

Recent studies have demonstrated that the membrane-proximal external region (MPER) of human immunodeficiency virus 1 (HIV-1) glycoprotein 41 contains a series of epitopes for human monoclonal antibodies, including 2F5, Z13e1, 4E10, and 10E8, which were isolated from HIV-1-infected individuals and show broad neutralizing activities. This suggests that MPER is a good target for the development of effective HIV-1 vaccines. However, many studies have shown that it is difficult to induce antibodies with similar broad neutralizing activities using MPER-based peptide antigens. Here, we report that 10E8-like neutralizing antibodies with effective anti-HIV-1 activity were readily induced using a precisely designed conformational immunogenic peptide containing the 10E8-specific epitope. This immunogenic peptide (designated T10HE) contains a 15-mer MPER-derived 10E8-specific epitope fused to T-helper-cell epitopes from tetanus toxin (tt), which showed a significantly stabilized α-helix structure after a series of modifications, including substitution with an (S)-α-(2′-pentenyl) alanine containing an olefin-bearing tether and ruthenium-catalyzed olefin metathesis, compared with the unmodified T10E peptide. The stabilized α-helix structure of T10HE did not affect its capacity to bind the 10E8 antibody, as evaluated with an enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and surface plasmon resonance binding assay (SPR assay). The efficacies of the T10HE and T10E epitope vaccines were evaluated after a standard vaccination procedure in which the experimental mice were primed with either the T10HE or T10E immunogen and boosted with HIV-1 JRFL pseudoviruses. Higher titers of 10E8-like antibodies were induced by T10HE than that by T10E. More importantly, the antibodies induced by T10HE showed enhanced antiviral potency against HIV-1 strains with both X4 and R5 tropism and a greater degree of broad neutralizing activity than the antibodies induced by T10E. These results indicate that a 10E8-epitope-based structure-specific peptide immunogen can elicit neutralizing antibodies when used as a vaccine prime.

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  • Diao, J., Komura, R., Sano, T., Pantua, H., Storek, K.M., Inaba, H., Ogawa, H., Noland, C.L., Peng, Y., Gloor, S.L. and Yan, D. bioRxiv (2020): 2020-10.

    • Departments of Infectious Diseases, Structural Biology, Biochemical and Cellular Pharmacology, Translational Immunology, Pathology, and Early Discovery Biochemistry, Genentech, South San Francisco, CA 94080 USA

    The standard assay consists of 6 μL reaction mixture with 3 nM Lgt-DDM, 50 μM phosphatidylglycerol (1,2-dipalmitoyl-sn-glycero-3-phospho-(1’-rac-glycerol), Avanti), 12.5 μM Pal-IAAC peptide substrate derived from the Pal lipoprotein (MQLNKVLKGLMIALPVMAIAACSSNKN, synthesized by CPC Scientific)

    October 5th, 2020Citations
  • Pantua, H., Skippington, E., Braun, M.G., Noland, C.L., Diao, J., Peng, Y., Gloor, S.L., Yan, D., Kang, J., Katakam, A.K. and Reeder, J. MBio 11, no. 5 (2020): 10-1128.

    • Departments of Infectious Diseases, OMNI Bioinformatics, Chemistry, Structural Biology, Biochemical and Cellular Pharmacology, Translational Immunology, Pathology, Molecular Biology, Genentech, South San Francisco, California, USA

    MQLNKV-L(U13C6,15N)-KGL(U13C6,15N)MIALPVMAIAA-dipalmitoyl2C-SSNKNGG-K-biotin, which upon cleavage by LspA, yields the product peptide dipalmitoyl2C-SSNKNGG-K-biotin. A product standard [dipalmitoyl2C-SSNKNAAK-(NHCH2CH2NH)-biotin; CPC Scientific] was in the reaction mixture as an internal standard for normalization of product quantitation.

  • Makris, G.; Bandari, R. P.; Kuchuk, M.; Jurisson, S. S.; Smith, C. J.; Hennkens, H. M., Molecular Imaging and Biology, 2021, 23 (1), 52-61.

    "NOTA/NODAGA-6Ahx- DPhe-Gln-Trp-Ala-Val-Gly-His-Sta-Leu-NH2 ; NOTA: 2,2′,2″-(1,4,7-triazacyclononane-1,4,7-triyl)triacetic acid and NODAGA: 2-(4,7-bis( carboxymethyl)-1,4,7-triazonan-1-yl)pentanedioic acid] were purchased from CPC Scientific [..]"

  • Macrocyclization Whitepaper

    Protein-protein and protein-peptide interactions play critical roles in all types of cellular processing. Peptides are natural partners to proteins and, as ligands, bind to proteins with high affinity due to their capacity to adapt to the often flexible protein surface. Despite this, peptides have drawbacks as drug candidates that include low plasma bioavailability, instability from proteolytic enzymes, and poor passive membrane permeability. Some success has been achieved with linear peptides, particularly peptides that maintain α-helical secondary structures. These motifs can be introduced to stabilized α-helical motifs by common “peptide-stapling” approaches, but stapled peptides can suffer from low bioactivity and poor solubility. Another strategy to maintain peptide secondary structure is modification by macrocyclization.

    September 3rd, 2020publications, White Papers
  • SAN JOSE, CA., Sept 3, 2020 /CPCNewswire/ — CPC Scientific Inc. is pleased to announce that the European Commission (EC) has granted the Conditional Marketing Authorization (CMA) for MYR Pharmaceuticals lead compound HEPCLUDEX®. CPC Scientific serves as a supplier and partner to MYR Pharmaceuticals for the development and manufacturing of bulevirtide (Hepcludex). This drug is […]

    September 3rd, 2020Press Releases
  • double stapled peptide COVID-19

    Curreli, Francesca, Sofia MB Victor, Shahad Ahmed, Aleksandra Drelich, Xiaohe Tong, Chien-Te K. Tseng, Christopher D. Hillyer, and Asim K. Debnath. Mbio 11, no. 6 (2020): e02451-20.

    We have synthesized (CPC Scientific, Inc.) four stapled peptides, as depicted in Figure 2. We also synthesized the linear peptide, NYBSP-C, as a control. Besides, we purchased a linear peptide, SBP1, to use as a control, which was reported recently to bind to SARS-CoV-2 RBD with high affinity (KD = 47nM).

  • Abdulganiyyu, I. A.; Kaczmarek, K.; Zabrocki, J.; Nachman, R. J.; Marchal, E.; Schellens, S.; Verlinden, H.; Broeck, J. V.; Marco, H.; Jackson, G. E. Insect Biochemistry and Molecular Biology 2020, 103362.

    A head-to-tail cyclic, octapeptide analog of Locmi-AKH-I, cycloAKH (cyclo[LNFTPNWG]) was synthesized to severely restrict the conformational freedom of the AKH structure.

    August 14th, 2020Citations, Peptide Macrocycles
  • Clairfeuille, T., Buchholz, K.R., Li, Q., Verschueren, E., Liu, P., Sangaraju, D., Park, S., Noland, C.L., Storek, K.M., Nickerson, N.N. and Martin, L. Nature 584, no. 7821 (2020): 479-483.

    • Departments of Structural Biology, Infectious Diseases, Microchemistry, Proteomics & Lipidomics, Drug Metabolism & Pharmacokinetics, Translational Immunology, BioMolecular Resources, Biochemical & Cellular Pharmacology, Bioinformatics & Computational Biology, Discovery Chemistry Departments, Genentech Inc., South San Francisco, CA, USA.

    LAB peptides ([..], CPC Scientific, [..] l, standard solid-phase peptide synthesis) at 10 mM in 50 mM Tris, pH 8, and 100 mM NaCl were diluted in MHB II cation adjusted broth (800 μM top concentration) or LB. Where indicated, EDTA was added to a final concentration of 0.5 mM.

    August 12th, 2020Citations
  • Chan, Leslie W., Melodi N. Anahtar, Ta-Hsuan Ong, Kelsey E. Hern, Roderick R. Kunz, and Sangeeta N. Bhatia. Nature Nanotechnology (2020): 1-9.

    HFA-modifed peptides were synthesized by CPC Scientifc (>95% purity). Briefy, the peptide substrate, Ac-CKKK(Cy5)-PEG4-Nle(O-Bzl)-Met(O)2-Oic-Abu-OH, was synthesized on Fmoc-Abu-CTC resin via standard Fmoc solid phase peptide synthesis.

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