Description:
Anti-cancer and other drug therapies are affected by the multi-drug resistant protein P-glycoprotein (PGP). Research of the drug is critical to determine its role in allowing anti-cancer drugs and other drug therapies to target diseases in the body. PGP is a plasma-membrane protein that actively extrude anti-cancer agents from the cell interior, decreasing drug accumulation and thus allowing the multidrug-resistant cells to survive in the presence of toxic levels of chemotherapeutic agents. This invention is a better way to produce high volutmes of high quality PGP for conducting research on drug effectiveness.
This process for creating higher yields of pure PGP uses codon optimization, a technique for improving the protein expression in living organisms by manipulating its genes. The result is a three-fold higher yield of pure protein from the optimized P-glycoprotein (Opti-Pgp) with a quality similar to or better than wild-type P-glycoprotein.
Pichia Pastoris yeast is the medium used to grow the protein. P Pastoris is a cost-effective expression system that provides a high biomass of yeast cells in fermentor cultures and, thus, greater amounts of protein per culture volume than any other expression system. The significantly higher yields of protein in the native folded state, its higher purity, and improved functional capacity establish the value of using highly expressed genes in the yeast P. pastoris; and provide a basis to improve production of other membrane proteins.
Reference Number: D-0825
Market Applications:
- Multi-drug resistance cancer research
- HIV, Epilepsy, and various psychiatric illness research
Features, Benefits, and Advantages:
- P-glycoprotein prevents the accumulation of many drugs in cells. The ability to produce PGP is important in drug research.
- The large-scale production of the fully functional protein is essential for these endeavors.
- New production process results in a three-fold higher yield of the protein with similar to better quality than the wild type PGP.
Intellectual Property:
A U.S. utility application, 13/539,367 was filed on 06/30/12.
Development Stage:
This system has been produced and tested and the researcher is producing the PGP in her laboratory.
Researchers:
Ina Urbatsch, Department of Cell Biology, School of Medicine, Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, Lubbock, Texas
Key Words: P-glycoprotein, Drug Resistance