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ISSN 1672-9145                                                   Acta Biochim Biophys Sin 2004, 36(8): 548–552                                                     CN 31-1940/Q


Highly Efficient and Economical Baculovirus Expression System for Preparing Human Papillomavirus Type16 Virus-like Particle

Jin ZHENG, Jun MA, Xiao-Feng YANG, Hong-Li LIU, Hong-Wei CHENG, Lu-Sheng SI, and Yi-Li WANG*

 

The Key Laboratory of Biomedical Information Engineering of Ministry of Education, Institute of Cancer Research, School of Life Science and Technology, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an 710061, China

 

Abstract        To improve the existing human papillomavirus type16 (HPV16) virus-like particle (VLP) preparation, a highly efficient, economical and timesaving system was established. Sf-9 cells were infected with recombinant baculovirus containing the target gene encoding HPV16L1 protein with 6×His tag, and harvested 72 h postinfection (p.i.) at 27 °C. The ProBondTM purification system was used for protein purification. The molecular weight of expressed HPV16L1 protein was 58 kD as revealed by SDS-PAGE, and confirmed by Western blot. The purity of denatured and native HPVL1 proteins that were prepared were 91.9% and 71.5%, respectively, which corresponded to a yield of 2.26 mg denatured protein and 1.84 mg native protein per 2107 cells. The proteins were further analyzed by mouse erythrocyte hemagglutination assay and hemagglutination inhibition assay, and there effects on VLP formation were also visualized by transmission electron microscopy. Results showed that the native protein purified was biologically active as natural HPVL1 protein, inducing the murine erythrocyte agglutination and VLP formation. In addition, the purified recombinant HPV16L1 native protein with 6×His tag could self-assemble into virions in vitro. Hopefully, the present expression and purification system is promising to be convenient, timesaving and economical for preparation of HPV16 VLP vaccine.

 

Key words        human papillomavirus; HPV16L1; protein purification; virus-like particle (VLP)

 

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Received: March 31, 2004        Accepted: June 23, 2004

This study was supported by a grant from the Ministry of Science and Technology of China (No. 2001AA215221)

*Corresponding author: Tel, 86-29-82655499; Fax, 86-29-82655499; E-mail, [email protected]