"...protease activity are focused on functionalizing synthetic peptide substrates with reporters that emit ... In vivo, veiled nanosensors are selectively activated at the ..... sized by CPC Scientific, Inc. (V1: Biotin-PEG(5 kDa)-(KFAM)-..."
Abstract
Proteases play diverse and important roles in physiology and disease, including influencing critical processes in development, immune responses, and malignancies. Both the abundance and activity of these enzymes are tightly regulated and highly contextual; thus, in order to elucidate their specific impact on disease progression, better tools are needed to precisely monitor in situ protease activity. Current strategies for detecting protease activity are focused on functionalizing synthetic peptide substrates with reporters that emit detection signals following peptide cleavage. However, these activity-based probes lack the capacity to be turned on at sites of interest and, therefore, are subject to off-target activation. Here we report a strategy that uses light to precisely control both the location and time of activity-based sensing. We develop photocaged activity-based sensors by conjugating photolabile molecules directly onto peptide substrates, thereby blocking protease cleavage by steric hindrance. At sites of disease, exposure to ultraviolet light unveils the nanosensors to allow proteases to cleave and release a reporter fragment that can be detected remotely. We apply this spatiotemporally controlled system to probe secreted protease activity in vitro and tumor protease activity in vivo. In vitro, we demonstrate the ability to dynamically and spatially measure metalloproteinase activity in a 3D model of colorectal cancer. In vivo, veiled nanosensors are selectively activated at the primary tumor site in colorectal cancer xenografts to capture the tumor microenvironment-enriched protease activity. The ability to remotely control activity-based sensors may offer a valuable complement to existing tools for measuring biological activity.
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Development of a selective, sensitive and robust oxyntomodulin dual monoclonal antibody immunoassay.
Umberger, T.S., Ming, W., Cox, J.M., Konrad, R.J. and Siegel, R.W. Bioanalysis 14, no. 18 (2022): 1229-1239.
- Lilly Research Laboratories, Eli Lilly & Company, Indianapolis, IN46285, USA
Human K2 EDTA and P800 plasma (500 μl) was spiked with proglucagon 33–61, 35–61 and 36–61 stable-isotope-labeled internal standard peptides (CPC Scientific, custom order) and diluted with I buffer (25 mmol/l Tris-HCl, 25 mmol/l HEPES, 300 mmol/l NaCl, 0.1% (v/v) octyl β-D-glucopyranoside, pH 7.5).
Line, J.E.; Seal, B.S.; Garrish, J.K. Appl. Microbiol. 2022, 2, 688–700.
Peptides were synthesized using standard solid-phase(Fmoc) chemistry with a peptide synthesizer (CPC Scientific Inc., Sunnyvale, CA 94089,USA, C12K-2β12 [..]
Kirk, N.S., Chen, Q., Wu, Y.G., Asante, A.L., Hu, H., Espinosa, J.F., Martínez-Olid, F., Margetts, M.B., Mohammed, F.A., Kiselyov, V.V. and Barrett, D.G. Nature Communications 13, no. 1 (2022): 5695.
- Eli Lilly and Company, Lilly Corporate Center, Indianapolis, IN 46285, USA.
Peptides were synthesized under contract by CPC Scientific, except for the N-terminally acetylated version of IM172N22 and the Glu3Arg, Glu3Ala, Glu4Arg, Glu4Ala, Glu5Ala, Glu5Arg, Trp6Ala, Gln8Ala, Ile9Ala, Glu10Ala, Glu10Arg and Tyr14Ala mutants of IM172N22
Coskun, T., Urva, S., Roell, W.C., Qu, H., Loghin, C., Moyers, J.S., O’Farrell, L.S., Briere, D.A., Sloop, K.W., Thomas, M.K. and Pirro, V. Cell Metabolism 34, no. 9 (2022): 1234-1247.
- Eli Lilly and Company, Lilly Corporate Center, Indianapolis, IN 46285, USA
Homologous and heterologous competition experiments were performed with non-radioactive peptide analogues[127I]-Tyr1-GIP(1-42) and [127]-Tyr10-GIP(1-42) to ensure quantification of the high-affinity binding site of the GIPR. Peptide analogues were generated using synthetic [127I]-Tyr amino acid building blocks (CPC Scientific).
Cecil, D.L., Curtis, B., Gad, E., Gormley, M., Timms, A.E., Corulli, L., Bos, R., Damle, R.N., Sepulveda, M.A. and Disis, M.L. Scientific Reports 12, no. 1 (2022): 13618.
- Cancer Vaccine Institute, University of Washington, 850 Republican Street, Brotman Bld., 2nd Floor, Box 358050, Seattle, WA 98195-8050, USA.
- Janssen Research and Development LLC, Spring House, PA, USA.
- Janssen Vaccines and Prevention, Leiden, The Netherlands.
The peptides were constructed and purified by high-performance liquid chromatography (> 90% pure; CPC Scientific).
Zonari, A., Brace, L.E., Alencar-Silva, T., Porto, W.F., Foyt, D., Guiang, M., Cruz, E.A.O., Franco, O.L., Oliveira, C.R., Boroni, M. and Carvalho, J.L. Toxicology Reports 9 (2022): 1632-1638.
Peptide 14 (ETAKHWLKGI) (Sup. Fig. 1) was purchased from CPC Scientific Inc. (USA), which synthesized the peptide by solid phase (Fmoc) on a Rink amide resin, with > 95% purity, in the form of acetate salt.
CPC Scientific Inc., a leading global peptide CRDMO (Contract Research, Development, and Manufacturing Organization) has invested in a new peptide API (Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient) manufacturing site, bringing many new jobs to Rocklin, California. The 41,000 sq ft facility located at 3880 Atherton Rd, Rocklin, CA 95765 will be utilized to manufacture clinical to commercial grade peptide products for increased manufacturing capacity and will diversify CPC Scientific’s supply chain.
CPC Scientific is entering an exciting period of growth and innovation for peptide and oligonucleotide therapeutic development and manufacturing, and we will continue to provide therapeutic APIs to pharmaceutical and biotech companies around the world. We are very pleased to partner with the City of Rocklin, California to bring manufacturing and Life-Science jobs to local American workers,” said Shawn Lee, PhD, CEO.
Ikeda, Z., Kakegawa, K., Kikuchi, F., Itono, S., Oki, H., Yashiro, H., Hiyoshi, H., Tsuchimori, K., Hamagami, K., Watanabe, M. and Sasaki, M. Journal of Medicinal Chemistry 65, no. 12 (2022): 8456-8477.
- Research, Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited, 26-1, Muraokahigashi 2-chome, Fujisawa, Kanagawa 251-8555, Japan
Subsequently, 5FAM–Abu–Gly–Asp–Asp–Asp–Lys–Ile–Val–Gly–Gly–Lys(CPQ2)–Lys–Lys–NH2 (purity: 97.2%, CPC Scientific, Inc.) was diluted with an assay buffer to prepare a 2.1 μM substrate solution.
The transferred energy from a fluorescent donor is converted into molecular vibrations if the acceptor is a non-fluorescent dye (quencher). When the FRET is terminated (by separating donor and acceptor), an increase of donor fluorescence can be detected. The design and synthesis work at CPC for FRET and TR-FRET peptide substrates include modification of sequences, selection of donor/quencher pairs, improvement of FRET substrate solubility and quenching efficiency.