Browsing by Author "Cheng, Ta-Chun"

Now showing 1 - 7 of 7

A regularly spaced and self-revealing protein ladder for anti-tag Western blot analysis
(2012-12-01)
Kao, Chien-Han
;
Cheng, Chiu-Min
;
Chuang, Kuo-Hsiang
;
Chuang, Chih-Hung
;
Tzou, Shey-Cherng
We designed a protein ladder (hereafter referred to as "Mega-tag") that contains 14 of the most commonly used epitope tags fused to molecular weight markers. The Mega-tag ladder can be simultaneously visualized when anti-tag antibodies are used to detect epitope-tagged recombinant proteins in Western blots. The logarithm of molecular weights and relative mobility of the Mega-tag protein ladder are highly correlated (R-2 = 0.997 +/- 0.00232), indicating that the dye-free Mega-tag protein ladder is accurate. It can also serve as a positive control for anti-epitope tag immunoblots. The Mega-tag protein ladder should provide a convenient and precise tool for Western blot analysis. (c) 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Development of an Anti-Methoxy Poly(ethylene glycol) (alpha-mPEG) Cell-Based Capture System to Measure mPEG and mPEGylated Molecules
(2014-10-14)
Chuang, Kuo-Hsiang
;
Kao, Chien-Han
;
Roffler, Steve R.
;
Lu, Ssu-Jung
;
Cheng, Ta-Chun
Quantitative pharmacokinetic analysis of methoxy-poly(ethylene glycol) (mPEG) and mPEGylated molecules is important for clinical drug development. Here we developed sensitive sandwich and competitive ELISAs by expressing an anti-mPEG antibody on the surface of fibroblasts for effective capture of mPEG molecules in biological samples. alpha-mPEG sandwich ELISA could quantify the higher-molecular-weight of mPEG (2, 5, and 20 kDa) and mPEGylated molecules. alpha-mPEG cell-based competitive ELISA was developed to measure the lower-molecular-weight of mPEG molecules (559, 750, and 1000 Da) at nanomolar levels. In addition, alpha-mPEG cell-based ELISA was unaffected by the presence of 10% human serum or murine serum. We further demonstrate that the alpha-mPEG cell-based ELISA determined similar pharmacokinetics of mPEG(5K) as traditional gamma counting of I-131-mPEG(5K). The alpha-mPEG cell-based ELISA may provide an accurate, high sensitivity and easy-to-use tool for directly measuring mPEG and mPEGylated molecules in complex biological samples to accelerate the clinical development of mPEG drugs.
Discovery of Akt Kinase Inhibitors through Structure-Based Virtual Screening and Their Evaluation as Potential Anticancer Agents
(2015-02-01)
Chuang, Chih-Hung
;
Cheng, Ta-Chun
;
Leu, Yu-Ling
;
Chuang, Kuo-Hsiang
;
Tzou, Shey-Cherng
Akt acts as a pivotal regulator in the PI3K/Akt signaling pathway and represents a potential drug target for cancer therapy. To search for new inhibitors of Akt kinase, we performed a structure-based virtual screening using the DOCK 4.0 program and the X-ray crystal structure of human Akt kinase. From the virtual screening, 48 compounds were selected and subjected to the Akt kinase inhibition assay. Twenty-six of the test compounds showed more potent inhibitory effects on Akt kinase than the reference compound, H-89. These 26 compounds were further evaluated for their cytotoxicity against HCT-116 human colon cancer cells and HEK-293 normal human embryonic kidney cells. Twelve compounds were found to display more potent or comparable cytotoxic activity compared to compound H-89 against HCT-116 colon cancer cells. The best results were obtained with Compounds a46 and a48 having IC50 values (for HCT-116) of 11.1 and 9.5 mu M, respectively, and selectivity indices (IC50 for HEK-293/IC50 for HCT-116) of 12.5 and 16.1, respectively. Through structure-based virtual screening and biological evaluations, we have successfully identified several new Akt inhibitors that displayed cytotoxic activity against HCT-116 human colon cancer cells. Especially, Compounds a46 and a48 may serve as useful lead compounds for further development of new anticancer agents.
Functional Production of a Soluble and Secreted Single-Chain Antibody by a Bacterial Secretion System
(2014-05-13)
Cheng, Chiu-Min
;
Tzou, Shey-Cherng
;
Zhuang, Ya-Han
;
Huang, Chien-Chiao
;
Kao, Chien-Han
Single-chain variable fragments (scFvs) serve as an alternative to full-length monoclonal antibodies used in research and therapeutic and diagnostic applications. However, when recombinant scFvs are overexpressed in bacteria, they often form inclusion bodies and exhibit loss of function. To overcome this problem, we developed an scFv secretion system in which scFv was fused with osmotically inducible protein Y (osmY), a bacterial secretory carrier protein, for efficient protein secretion. Anti-EGFR scFv (alpha EGFR) was fused with osmY (N- and C-termini) and periplasmic leader sequence (pelB) to generate alpha EGFR-osmY, osmY-alpha EGFR, and pelB-alpha EGFR (control), respectively. In comparison with the control, both the osmY-fused alpha EGFR scFvs were soluble and secreted into the LB medium. Furthermore, the yield of soluble alpha EGFR-osmY was 20-fold higher, and the amount of secreted protein was 250-fold higher than that of osmY-alpha EGFR. In addition, the antigenbinding activity of both the osmY-fused alpha EGFRs was 2-fold higher than that of the refolded pelB-alpha EGFR from inclusion bodies. Similar results were observed with alpha TAG72-osmY and alpha Her2-osmY. These results suggest that the N-terminus of osmY fused with scFv produces a high yield of soluble, functional, and secreted scFv, and the osmY-based bacterial secretion system may be used for the large-scale industrial production of low-cost alpha EGFRprotein.
Measurement of Poly(ethylene glycol) by Cell-Based Anti-poly(ethylene glycol) ELISA
(2010-03-15)
Chuang, Kuo-Hsiang
;
Tzou, Shey-Cherng
;
Cheng, Ta-Chun
;
Kao, Chien-Han
;
Tseng, Wei-Lung
Poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) is increasingly used in clinical and experimental medicine. However, quantification of PEG and PEGylated small molecules remains laborious and unsatisfactory. In this report, we stably expressed a functional anti-PEG antibody on the surface of BALB 3T3 cells (3T3/alpha PEG cells) to develop a competitive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for PEG quantification. The alpha-PEG cell-coated plate bound biotinylated PEG(5K) (CH(3)-PEG(5K)-biotin) and CH(3)-PEG(5K)-(131)I more effectively than did a traditional anti-PEG antibody-coated plate. Competitive binding between PEG (2, 5, 10, or 20 kDa) and a known amount of CH(3)-PEG(5K)-biotin allowed construction of a reproducible competition curve. The alpha PEG cell-based competition ELISA measured small molecules derivatized by PEG(2K), PEG(5K), PEG(10K), PEG(20K), and PEG(5K) at concentrations as low as 58.6, 14.6, 3.7, 3.7, and 14.6 ng/mL respectively. Notably, the presence of serum or bovine serum albumin enhanced PEG measurement by the alpha PEG cell-based competition ELISA. Finally, we show here that the alpha PEG cell-based competition ELISA accurately delineated the pharmacokinetics of PEG(5K), comparable to those determined by direct measurement of radioactivity in blood after intravenous injection of CH(3)-PEG(5K)-(131)I into mice. This quantitative strategy may provide a simple and sensitive method for quantifying PEG and PEGylated small molecules in vivo.
Selective antibody activation through protease-activated pro-antibodies that mask binding sites with inhibitory domains
(2017-09-14)
Chen, I-Ju
;
Chuang, Chih-Hung
;
Hsieh, Yuan-Chin
;
Lu, Yun-Chi
;
Lin, Wen-Wei
Systemic injection of therapeutic antibodies may cause serious adverse effects due to on-target toxicity to the antigens expressed in normal tissues. To improve the targeting selectivity to the region of disease sites, we developed protease-activated pro-antibodies by masking the binding sites of antibodies with inhibitory domains that can be removed by proteases that are highly expressed at the disease sites. The latency-associated peptide (LAP), C2b or CBa of complement factor 2/B were linked, through a substrate peptide of matrix metalloproteinase-2 (MMP-2), to an anti-epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) antibody and an anti-tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha) antibody. Results showed that all the inhibitory domains could be removed by MMP-2 to restore the binding activities of the antibodies. LAP substantially reduced (53.8%) the binding activity of the anti-EGFR antibody on EGFR-expressing cells, whereas C2b and CBa were ineffective (21% and 9.3% reduction, respectively). Similarly, LAP also blocked 53.9% of the binding activity of the anti-TNF-alpha antibody. Finally, molecular dynamic simulation showed that the masking efficiency of LAP, C2b and CBa was 33.7%, 10.3% and -5.4%, respectively, over the binding sites of the antibodies. This strategy may aid in designing new protease-activated pro-antibodies that attain high therapeutic potency yet reduced systemic on-target toxicity.
Sensitivity of PEGylated Interferon Detection by Anti-Polyethylene Glycol (PEG) Antibodies Depends on PEG Length
(2013-08-01)
Cheng, Ta-Chun
;
Chuang, Kuo-Hsiang
;
Chen, Michael
;
Wang, Hsin-Ell
;
Tzou, Shey-Cherng
Attachment of poly(ethylene glycol) to proteins can mask immune epitopes to increase serum half-life, reduce immunogenicity, and enhance in vivo biological efficacy. However, PEGylation mediated epitope-masking may also limit sensitivity and accuracy of traditional ELISA. We previously described an anti-PEG-based sandwich ELISA for universal assay of PEGylated molecules. Here, we compared the quantitative assessment of PEGylated interferons by anti-PEG and traditional anti-interferon sandwich ELISA. The detection limits for PEG-Intron (12k-PEG) and Pegasys (40k-PEG) were 1.9 and 0.03 ng/mL for anti-PEG ELISA compared to 0.18 and 0.42 ng/mL for traditional anti-interferon sandwich ELISA. These results indicate that the anti-PEG sandwich ELISA was insensitive to PEGylation mediated epitope-masking and the sensitivity increased in proportion to the length of PEG. By contrast, PEG-masking interfered with detection by traditional anti-interferon sandwich ELISA. Human and mouse serum did not affect the sensitivity of anti-PEG ELISA but impeded traditional anti-interferon sandwich ELISA. The anti-PEG sandwich ELISA was comparable to anti-interferon sandwich ELISA and radioassay of I-131-Pegasys in pharmacokinetic studies in mice. The anti-PEG sandwich ELISA provides a sensitive, accurate, and convenient quantitative measurement of PEGylated protein drugs.