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  Hyaluronan synthase genes and expression thereof in bacillus hostsRelated Patent Categories: Chemistry: Molecular Biology And Microbiology, Micro-organism, Tissue Cell Culture Or Enzyme Using Process To Synthesize A Desired Chemical Compound Or Composition, Recombinant Dna Technique Included In Method Of Making A Protein Or PolypeptideThe Patent Description & Claims data below is from USPTO Patent Application 20070166793. Brief Patent Description - Full Patent Description - Patent Application Claims
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS [0001] This application is a continuation of U.S. Ser. No. 11/474,663, filed Jun. 26, 2006; which is a continuation of U.S. Ser. No. 10/981,632, filed Nov. 5, 2004, now U.S. Pat. No. 7,091,008, issued Aug. 15, 2006; which is a divisional of U.S. Ser. No. 10/172,527, filed Jun. 13, 2002, now U.S. Pat. No. 6,951,743, issued Oct. 4, 2005; which is a continuation-in-part of U.S. Ser. No. 09/469,200, filed Dec. 21, 1999, now U.S. Pat. No. 6,833,264, issued Dec. 21, 2004; which is a continuation of U.S. Ser. No. 09/178,851, filed Oct. 26, 1998, now abandoned; and which also claims the benefit under 35 U.S.C. 119(e) of U.S. Provisional Application U.S. Ser. No. 60/064,435, filed Oct. 31, 1997. Said U.S. Ser. No. 10/172,527 is also a continuation-in-part of U.S. Ser. No. 09/146,893, filed Sep. 3, 1998, now U.S. Pat. No. 6,455,304, issued Sep. 24, 2002; which is a continuation of U.S. Ser. No. 08/270,581, filed Jul. 1, 1994, now abandoned. The contents of each of the above-references patent applications/issued patents are hereby expressly incorporated herein by reference in their entirety. [0002] Said application U.S. Ser. No. 10/172,527 also claims benefit under 35 U.S.C. 119(e) of provisional applications U.S. Ser. No. 60/297,788, filed Jun. 13, 2001; U.S. Ser. No. 60/297,744, filed Jun. 13, 2001; and U.S. Ser. No. 60/305,285, filed Jul. 13, 2001; the contents of each of which are hereby expressly incorporated herein by reference in their entirety. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0004] 1. Field of the Invention [0005] The present invention relates to a nucleic acid segment having a coding region encoding enzymatically active hyaluronate synthase (HAS), and to the use of this nucleic acid segment in the preparation of recombinant cells which produce hyaluronate synthase and its hyaluronic acid product. Hyaluronate is also known as hyaluronic acid or hyaluronan. [0006] 2. Brief Description of the Related Art [0007] The incidence of streptococcal infections is a major health and economic problem worldwide, particularly in developing countries. One reason for this is due to the ability of Streptococcal bacteria to grow undetected by the body's phagocytic cells, i.e., macrophages and polymorphonuclear cells (PMNs). These cells are responsible for recognizing and engulfing foreign microorganisms. One effective way the bacteria evades surveillance is by coating themselves with polysaccharide capsules, such as a hyaluronic acid (HA) capsule. The structure of HA is identical in both prokaryotes and eukaryotes. [0008] Since HA is generally nonimmunogenic, the encapsulated bacteria do not elicit an immune response and are therefore not targeted for destruction. Moreover, the capsule exerts an antiphagocytic effect on PMNs in vitro and prevents attachment of Streptococcus to macrophages. Precisely because of this, in Group A and Group C Streptococci, the HA capsules are major virulence factors in natural and experimental infections. Group A Streptococcus are responsible for numerous human diseases including pharyngitis, impetigo, deep tissue infections, rheumatic fever and a toxic shock-like syndrome. The Group C Streptococcus equisimilis is responsible for osteomyelitis, pharyngitis, brain abscesses, and pneumonia. [0009] Structurally, HA is a high molecular weight linear polysaccharide of repeating disaccharide units consisting of N-acetylglucosamine (GlcNAc) and glucuronic acid (GlcUA). The number of repeating disaccharides in an HA molecule can exceed 30,000, a M.sub.r>10.sup.7. HA is the only glycosaminogylcan synthesized by both mammalian and bacterial cells, particularly Groups A and C Streptococci and Type A Pasteurella multocida. These strains make HA which is secreted into the medium as well as HA capsules. The mechanism by which these bacteria synthesize HA is of broad interest medicinally since the production of the HA capsule is a very efficient and clever way that Streptococci use to evade surveillance by the immune system. Additionally, organic or inorganic molecules coated with HA have properties allowing them to escape detection and destruction by a host's immune system. [0010] HA is synthesized by mammalian and bacterial cells by the enzyme hyaluronate synthase which has been localized to the plasma membrane. It is believed that the synthesis of HA in these organisms is a multi-step process. Initiation involves binding of an initial precursor, UDP-GlcNAc or UDP-GlcUA. This is followed by elongation which involves alternate addition of the two sugars to the growing oligosaccharide chain. The growing polymer is extruded across the plasma membrane region of the cell and into the extracellular space. Although the HA biosynthetic system was one of the first membrane heteropolysaccharide synthetic pathways studied, the mechanism of HA synthesis is still not well understood. This may be because in vitro systems developed to date are inadequate in that de novo biosynthesis of HA has not been accomplished. [0011] The direction of HA polymer growth is still a matter of disagreement among those of ordinary skill in the art. Addition of the monosaccharides could be to the reducing or nonreducing end of the growing HA chain. Furthermore, questions remain concerning (i) whether nascent chains are linked covalently to a protein, to UDP or to a lipid intermediate, (ii) whether chains are initiated using a primer, and (iii) the mechanism by which the mature polymer is extruded through the plasma membrane of the Streptococcus. Understanding the mechanism of HA biosynthesis may allow development of alternative strategies to control Streptococcal and Pasteurella infections by interfering in the process. [0012] HA has been identified in virtually every tissue in vertebrates and has achieved widespread use in various clinical applications, most notably and appropriately as an intra-articular matrix supplement and in eye surgery. The scientific literature has also shown a transition from the original perception that HA is primarily a passive structural component in the matrix of a few connective tissues and in the capsule of certain strains of bacteria to a recognition that this ubiquitous macromolecule is dynamically involved in many biological processes: from modulating cell migration and differentiation during embryogenesis to regulation of extracellular matrix organization and metabolism to important roles in the complex processes of metastasis, wound healing, and inflammation. Further, it is becoming clear that HA is highly metabolically active and that cells focus much attention on the processes of its synthesis and catabolism. For example, the half-life of HA in tissues ranges from 1 to 3 weeks in cartilage to <1 day in epidermis. HA is also used in numerous technical applications (e.g., lubricating compounds), cosmetics and neutraceuticals. [0013] It is now clear that a single protein utilizes both sugar substrates to synthesize HA, i.e., that HA synthases are single enzymes that have dual catalytic properties. The abbreviation HAS, for HA synthase, has gained widespread support for designating this class of enzymes. Markovitz et al. successfully characterized the HAS activity from Streptococcus pyogenes and discovered the enzymes's membrane localization and its requirements for sugar nucleotide precursors and Mg.sup.2+. Prehm found that elongating HA, made by B6 cells, was digested by hyaluronidase added to the medium and proposed that HAS resides at the plasma membrane. Philipson and Schwartz also showed that HAS activity cofractionated with plasma membrane markers in mouse oligodendroglioma cells. [0014] HAS assembles high M.sub.r HA that is simultaneously extruded through the membrane into the extracellular space (or to make the cell capsule in the case of bacteria) as glycosaminoglycan synthesis proceeds. This mode of biosynthesis is unique among macromolecules since nucleic acids, proteins, and lipids are synthesized in the nucleus, endoplasmic reticulum/Golgi, cytoplasm, or mitochondria. The extrusion of the growing chain into the extracellular space also allows for unconstrained polymer growth, thereby achieving the exceptionally large size of HA, whereas confinement of synthesis within a Golgi or post-Golgi compartment limits the overall amount or length of the polymers formed. High concentrations of HA within a confined lumen may also create a high viscosity environment that might be deleterious for other organelle functions. [0015] Several studies have attempted to solubilize, identify, and purify HAS from strains of Streptococci that make a capsular coat of HA as well as from eukaryotic cells. Although the streptococcal and murine oligodendroglioma enzymes were successfully detergent-solubilized and studied, efforts to purify an active HAS for further study or molecular cloning remained unsuccessful for decades. Prehm and Mausolf used periodate-oxidized UDP-GlcUA or UDP-GlcNAc to affinity label a protein of .about.52 kDa in streptococcal membranes that co-purified with HAS. This led to a report claiming that the Group C streptococcal HAS had been cloned, which was unfortunately erroneous. This study failed to demonstrate expression of an active synthase and may have actually cloned a peptide transporter. Triscoft and van de Rijn used digitonin to solubilize HAS from streptococcal membranes in an active form. Van de Rijn and Drake selectively radiolabeled three streptococcal membrane proteins of 42, 33, and 27 kDa with 5-azido-UDP-GlcUA and suggested that the 33-kDa protein was HAS. As shown later, however, HAS actually turned out to be the 42-kDa protein. [0016] Despite these efforts, progress in understanding the regulation and mechanisms of HA synthesis was essentially stalled, since there were no molecular probes for HAS mRNA or HAS protein. A major breakthrough occurred in 1993 when DeAngelis et al. reported the molecular cloning and characterization of the Group A streptococcal gene encoding the protein HasA. This gene was known to be part of an operon required for bacterial HA synthesis, although the function of this protein, which is now designated as spHAS (the S. pyogenes HAS), was unknown. spHAS was subsequently proven to be responsible for HA elongation and was the first glycosaminoglycan synthase identified and cloned and then successfully expressed. The S. pyogenes HA synthesis operon encodes two other proteins. HasB is a UDP-glucose dehydrogenase, which is required to convert UDP-glucose to UDP-GlcUA, one of the substrates for HA synthesis. HasC is a UDP-glucose pyrophosphorylase, which is required to convert glucose 1-phosphate and UTP to UDP-glucose. Co-transfection of both hasA and hasB genes into either acapsular Streptococcus strains or Enteroccus faecalis conferred them with the ability to synthesize HA and form a capsule. This provided the first strong evidence that spHAS (hasA) was an HA synthase. [0017] The elusive HA synthase gene was finally cloned by a transposon mutagenesis approach, in which an acapsular mutant Group A strain was created containing a transposon interruption of the HA synthesis operon. Known sequences of the transposon allowed the region of the junction with streptococcal DNA to be identified and then cloned from wild-type cells. The encoded spHAS was 5-10% identical to a family of yeast chitin synthases and 30% identical to the Xenopus laevis protein DG42 (developmentally expressed during gastrulation), whose function was unknown at the time. DeAngelis and Weigel expressed the active recombinant spHAS in Escherichia coli and showed that this single purified gene product synthesizes high M, HA when incubated in vitro with UDP-GlcUA and UDP-GlcNAc, thereby showing that both glycosyltransferase activities required for HA synthesis are catalyzed by the same protein, as first proposed in 1959. Utilizing the knowledge that (i) spHAS was a dual action single enzyme, and (ii) the areas of sequence homology between the spHAS, chitin synthase, and DG42, the almost simultaneous identification of eukaryotic HAS cDNAs in 1996 by four laboratories, further strengthened the inventor's protein hypothesis that HAS is a multigene family encoding distinct isozymes. Two genes (HAS1 and HAS2) were quickly discovered in mammals, and a third gene HAS3 was later discovered. A second streptococcal seHAS or Streptococcus equisimilis hyaluronate synthase, was identified and is disclosed in detail in U.S. Ser. No. 09/469,200, filed Dec. 21, 1999, the contents of which are expressly incorporated herein in their entirety by reference. The seHAS protein has a high level of identity (approximately 70 percent) to the spHAS enzyme. This identity, however, is interesting because the seHAS gene does not cross-hybridize to the spHAS gene. [0018] Membranes prepared from E. coli expressing recombinant seHAS synthesize HA when both substrates are provided. The results confirm that the earlier report of Lansing et al., claiming to have cloned the Group C HAS was wrong. Unfortunately, several studies have employed antibodies to this uncharacterized 52-kDa streptococcal protein to investigate what was believed to be eukaryotic HAS. [0019] Itano and Kimata used expression cloning in a mutant mouse mammary carcinoma cell line, unable to synthesize HA, to clone the first putative mammalian HAS cDNA (mmHAS1). Subclones defective in HA synthesis fell into three separate classes that were complementary for HA synthesis in somatic cell fusion experiments, suggesting that at least three proteins are required. Two of these classes maintained some HA synthetic activity, whereas one showed none. The latter cell line was used in transient transfection experiments with cDNA prepared from the parental cells to identify a single protein that restored HA synthetic activity. Sequence analyses revealed a deduced primary structure for a protein of .about.65 kDa with a predicted membrane topology similar to that of spHAS. mmHAS1 is 30% identical to spHAS and 55% identical to DG42. The same month this report appeared, three other groups submitted papers describing cDNAs encoding what was initially thought to be the same mouse and human enzyme. However, through an extraordinary circumstance, each of the four laboratories had discovered a separate HAS isozyme in both species. [0020] Using a similar functional cloning approach to that of Itano and Kimata, Shyjan et al. identified the human homolog of HAS 1. A mesenteric lymph node cDNA library was used to transfect murine mucosal T lymphocytes that were then screened for their ability to adhere in a rosette assay. Adhesion of one transfectant was inhibited by antisera to CD44, a known cell surface HA-binding protein, and was abrogated directly by pretreatment with hyaluronidase. Thus, rosetting by this transfectant required synthesis of HA. Cloning and sequencing of the responsible cDNA identified hsHAS1. Itano and Kimata also reported a human HAS1 cDNA isolated from a fetal brain library. The hsHAS1 cDNAs reported by the two groups, however, differ in length; they encode a 578 or a 543 amino acid protein. HAS activity has only been demonstrated for the longer form. [0021] Based on the molecular identification of spHAS as an authentic HA synthase and regions of near identity among DG42, spHAS, and NodC (a .beta.-GlcNAc transferase nodulation factor in Rhizobium), Spicer et al. used a degenerate RT-PCR approach to clone a mouse embryo cDNA encoding a second distinct enzyme, which is designated mmHAS2. Transfection of mmHAS2 cDNA into COS cells directed de novo production of an HA cell coat detected by a particle exclusion assay, thereby providing strong evidence that the HAS2 protein can synthesize HA. Using a similar approach, Watanabe and Yamaguchi screened a human fetal brain cDNA library to identify hsHAS2. Fulop et al. independently used a similar strategy to identify mmHAS2 in RNA isolated from ovarian cumulus cells actively synthesizing HA, a critical process for normal cumulus oophorus expansion in the pre-ovulatory follicle. Cumulus cell-oocyte complexes were isolated from mice immediately after initiating an ovulatory cycle, before HA synthesis begins, and at later times when HA synthesis is just beginning (3 h) or already apparent (4 h). RT-PCR showed that HAS2 mRNA was absent initially but expressed at high levels 34 h later suggesting that transcription of HAS2 regulates HA synthesis in this process. Both hsHAS2 are 552 amino acids in length and are 98% identical. mmHAS1 is 583 amino acids long and 95% identical to hsHAS1, which is 578 amino acids long. [0022] Most recently Spicer et al. used a PCR approach to identify a third HAS gene in mammals. The mmHAS3 protein is 554 amino acids long and 71, 56, and 28% identical, respectively, to mmHAS1, mmHAS2, DG42, and spHAS. Spicer et al. have also localized the three human and mouse genes to three different chromosomes (HAS1 to hsChr 19/mmChr 17; HAS2 to hsChr 8/mmChr 15; HAS3 to hsChr 16/mmChr 8). Localization of the three HAS genes on different chromosomes and the appearance of HA throughout the vertebrate class suggest that this gene family is ancient and that isozymes appeared by duplication early in the evolution of vertebrates. The high identity (.about.30%) between the bacterial and eukaryotic HASs also suggests that the two had a common ancestral gene. Perhaps primitive bacteria usurped the HAS gene from an early vertebrate ancestor before the eukaryotic gene products became larger and more complex. Alternatively, the bacteria could have obtained a larger vertebrate HAS gene and deleted regulatory sequences nonessential for enzyme activity. [0023] The discovery of X. laevis DG42 by Dawid and co-workers played a significant role in these recent developments, even though this protein was not known to be an HA synthase. Nonetheless, that DG42 and spHAS were 30% identical was critical for designing oligonucleotides that allowed identification of mammalian HAS2. Ironically, definitive evidence that DG42 is a bona fide HA synthase was reported only after the discoveries of the Mammalian isozymes, when DeAngelis and Achyuthan expressed the recombinant protein in yeast (an organism that cannot synthesize HA) and showed that it synthesizes HA when isolated membranes are provided with the two substrates. Meyer and Kreil also showed that lysates from cells transfected with cDNA for DG42 synthesize elevated levels of HA. Now that its function is known, DG42 can, therefore, be designated XIHAS. Continue reading... Full patent description for Hyaluronan synthase genes and expression thereof in bacillus hosts Brief Patent Description - Full Patent Description - Patent Application Claims Click on the above for other options relating to this Hyaluronan synthase genes and expression thereof in bacillus hosts patent application. ###  How KEYWORD MONITOR works... a FREE service from FreshPatents1. Sign up (takes 30 seconds). 2. Fill in the keywords to be monitored. 3. Each week you receive an email with patent applications related to your keywords. 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