Identification and optimization of peptide inhibitors to block VISTA/PSGL-1 interaction for cancer immunotherapy

Developing new therapeutic agents for cancer immunotherapy is highly demanding due to the low response ratio of PD-1/PD-L1 blockade in cancer patients. Here, we discovered that the novel immune checkpoint VISTA is highly expressed on a variety of tumor-infiltrating immune cells, especially myeloid derived suppressor cells (MDSCs) and CD8+ T cells. Then, peptide C1 with binding affinity to VISTA was developed by phage displayed bio-panning technique, and its mutant peptide VS3 was obtained by molecular docking based mutation. Peptide VS3 could bind VISTA with high affinity and block its interaction with ligand PSGL-1 under acidic condition, and elicit anti-tumor activity in vivo. The peptide DVS3-Pal was further designed by d-amino acid substitution and fatty acid modification, which exhibited strong proteolytic stability and significant anti-tumor activity through enhancing CD8+ T cell function and decreasing MDSCs infiltration. This is the first study to develop peptides to block VISTA/PSGL-1 interaction, which could act as promising candidates for cancer immunotherapy.

Sheep polyclonal antibody to map Haemonchus contortus mimotopes using phage display library / Anticorpo policlonal de ovinos para mapear mimetopos de Haemonchus contortus usando a biblioteca de Phage display

Abstract The aim of this study was to evaluate phage display technology for mapping Haemonchus contortus mimotopes. We screened the PhD-7 Phage Display Peptide Library Kit with a sheep polyclonal antibody against H. contortus. After four rounds of selection, 50 phage peptide clones were selected by biopanning and sequenced. Two clones displaying peptide mimotopes of H. contortus proteins were chosen for sheep immunization: clone 6 - mimotope of glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH) and clone 17 - mimotope of a disorganized muscle family member (Dim 1). Twelve sheep were allocated into 3 groups of 4 animals as follow: G1: control group; G2/GAPDH: immunized with clone 6; and G3/Dim1: immunized with clone 17. Four immunizations were performed at intervals of seven days (0, 7, 14, and 21 days). On day 28 post initial vaccination, all groups were orally challenged with 2500 H. contortus infective larvae. The mimotope peptides selected by phage display were recognized by IgG from sheep naturaly infected with H. contortus. The immunization protocol showed an increasein IgG anti-M13 phage titers, but no effect was observed in IgG-specific for the anti-mimotope peptides. This is the first report of successful use of a phage display library for the identification of mimotopes of H. contortus proteins.

Resumo O objetivo deste estudo foi avaliar a tecnologia de phage display no mapeamento de mimetopos de Haemonchus contortus. Anticorpo policlonal de ovinos anti-H. contortus foi usado para seleção a partir da biblioteca PhD-7 Phage Display Peptide Library Kit (New England BioLabs). Após quatro rodadas, 50 clones de fagos expressando peptídeos foram selecionados e sequenciados. Dois clones que exibiram mimetopos de H. contortus foram escolhidos para imunização de ovinos: clone 6 - mimetopo de gliceraldeído-3-fosfato desidrogenase (GAPDH) e clone 17 - mimetopo da família do músculo desorganizado (Dim 1). Doze ovinos foram alocados em 3 grupos de 4 animais, da seguinte forma: G1: grupo controle, G2/GAPDH: imunizado com o clone 6 e G3/Dim1: imunizado com o clone 17. Quatro imunizações foram realizadas (0, 7, 14 e 21 dias). No dia 28 após a primeira imunização, todos os grupos foram desafiados oralmente com 2500 larvas infectantes de H. contortus . Os peptídeos mimetopos selecionados foram reconhecidos por IgG de ovinos naturalmente infectados por H. contortus. O ensaio de imunização revelou um aument dos títulos de IgG anti-fago M13, mas não ocorreu aumento de IgG anti-peptídeos mimetopos. Este é o primeiro relato de uso bem sucedido da biblioteca de Phage display para a identificação de mimetopos de H. contortus.

Screening and identification of cell-penetrating peptides by display technology / 国际药学研究杂志

Screening and identification of cell-penetrating peptides(CPP)which have different functions by display technolo?gy are hot topics in recent years. Currently the most widely used display technology is phage display and mRNA display technology. This paper describes the principle and application of display technology such as phage display and mRNA display and reviews in detail the advance in study on the screening and identification of CPP by display technology in recent years.

Screening and identification of cell-penetrating peptides by display technology / 国际药学研究杂志

Screening and identification of cell-penetrating peptides, CPP which have different functions by display technology are hot topics in recent years. Currently the most widely used display technology is phage display and mRNA display technology. This paper describes the principle and application of display technology such as phage display and mRNA display and reviews in detail the advance in study on the screening and identification of CPP by display technology in recent years.

A phage display combined with DNA affinity magnetic system can be applied to a screening of DNA binding proteins, such as transcription factors / Un fago pantalla combinado con un sistema de afinidad magnético al ADN se puede aplicar al exámen de las proteínas de unión al ADN, tales como los factores de transcripción

Here we introduce a new approach for the screening of DNA binding proteins, using a phage library based on a phage display technique. In principal, a complementary DNA (cDNA) library based on the recombinant bacteriophage T7 expressing target proteins on its capsid (phage display) is constructed. These phage particles are hybridized with a biotinylated target DNA fragment which is immobilized on the surface of streptavidin paramagnetic particle (SA-PMP). The phage particles are released from the target DNA fragment by a nuclease treatment and the recovered phages are used to the next round of hybridization. These processes are repeated three times to amplify the target phages in the population. This simple method is faster, and more systemic than other current methods (e.g. yeast one hybrid system). As a proof of this principle, we tried to isolate transcription factors which specifically bind to the promoter region of the Arabidopsis thaliana AtGST11 gene. Two obtained candidates, RING zinc finger protein and AtHB6, showed DNA binding activity to the AtGST11 promoter region. We could validate that our new application of phage display is a superior method for isolation of DNA binding proteins with a broad range of potential applications.

Screening of tumor mark for the lung cancer by using peptide ZS-6 / 中国药理学通报

Aim To select a potential biomarker for early lung cancer diagnosis and targeted therapy by using the cancer specific bounded peptide ZS-6 which had already been obtained from the laboratory.Methods The peptide ZS-6 marked by biotin was used as a probe to pan out the human lung cancer cDNA phage display library,after 4 rounds of subtraction panning,the specific binding clones of ZS-6 were identified.After amplification and purification,then those DNA sequences were identified and analyzed with bioinformatics.Results 18 phage clones were identified to the specific peptide ZS-6 and the DNA sequence showed one of them was an unknown new gene while the others were known tumor related genes.Conclusion A tumor biomarker selected from human lung cancer cDNA library provides a potential tool for early lung cancer diagnosis and therapy.

Screening and preliminary identification of liver cancer specific peptide from a phage display peptide library / 中华肝胆外科杂志

Objective To obtain short peptides which specifically binds to HepG2 cell line from 12 peptide libraries, and lay foundation for screening and identifying the new liver cancer markers for early diagnosis and treatment of liver cancer. Methods The liver cancer cell line HepG2 was used as the antigen and LO-2 as the absorber cells for subtraction biopanning from a phage display peptide library at 37℃. The positive phage clones were identified by cell enzyme-linked immunosorbentassay (EL1SA), and the identity of DNA sequence and amino acids were analyzed. Results After 3 rounds of screening, 30 phage clones were identified by EL1SA, ZS-9 of them bind to the HepG2 specifically. The amino acid sequence was blast in NCBI and Swiss-Prot, the results show that the sequence has not identity with the known genes and proteins in the database, and the sequence was not reported in literature. All these show that we had discovered several novel liver cancer associated antigen ligand. Conclusion Several candidate peptide binding to liver cancer specifically have been selected by phage display technology, providing the potential uses for early diagnosis of liver cancer or targeted therapy for liver cancer.

Screening the target genes of Schistosoma japonicum related to the naturely resistance of Microtus fortis / 中国血吸虫病防治杂志

Objective To look for the genes of Schistosoma japonicum related to the Schistosoma-resistance of Microtus fortis.Methods The fresh sera of Microtus fortis were used to screen a T7 phage display cDNA library from worms of Schistosoma japonicum established in our lab.The positive clones were sequenced and functionally analysed through bioinformatics.Results The specific phages binding to the sera of Microtus fortis were enriched 857-fold after three rounds of biopanning,and 58 positive clones picked at random were sequenced and 10 ESTs were obtained.BLASTn results showed that 7 ESTs had 99%-100% similarity to the genes of Shistosoma japonicum reported in GenBank and 1 EST had 82% similarity to a zinc finger protein encoden gene from Pan troglodytes.The results of these ESTs function prediction indicated most of them were involved in the regulation of gene expresion of Schistosoma japonicum.Conclusions Several target genes of Schistosoma japonicum related to the Schistosoma-resistance of Microtus fortis are obtained and those would lay foundation to expatiate the native resistance mechnism of Microtus fortis to Schistosoma japonicum.

Screening the peptide high-binding VEGF receptor 3 with phage-displayed random peptide library / 第三军医大学学报

Objective To get a high affinity peptide of vascular endothelial growth factor receptor 3 (VEGFR3) as a potent carrier targeted to lymphangiogenesis of ovarian cancer via the technology of phage display. Methods Solid-phase was panned with direct VEGFR3 extracellular protein coating, then the unbound phage was washed away and the eluted phage was amplified. The positive phage clones were identified by ELISA and sequenced, and the affinity and specialty were identified by competent ELISA. Results After four-round bio-panning, the enriched positive phage clones were identified by ELISA. Eight positive phage clones were sequenced and 5 were consensus (WHGSLKQNLWWY). The short peptide displayed on screened positive phage could bind specifically to VEGFR3, and the binding could be inhibited by natural antibody VEGF-D. Conclusion The phage clone (phage-WHGSLKQNLWWY) obtained via bio-panning of peptide library has a high affinity with VEGF receptor 3. The peptide could be a potent carrier targeted to VEGFR3.

SCREENING AND CHARACTERIZATION OF HUMAN PHAGE ANTIBODY TO HEPATITIS C VIRUS E2 ANTIGEN / 解放军医学杂志

To screen and characterize human phage antibody to hepatitis C virus E2 antigen. The recombinant phages were panned by HCV E2 antigen which was coated in a microwell plate. After three rounds of biopanning, 56 clones specific to HCV E2 antigen were obtained. The specificity of scFv was determined by ELISA method and cross reaction with BSA and competitive inhibition assay. HCV E2 phage antibody had a specific combination character with recombinant hepatitis C virus E2 antigen. The DNA sequence data showed that the scFv coding gene was 771bp in size