Lasso-grafting of macrocyclic peptide pharmacophores yields multi-functional proteins

Nat Commun. 2021 Mar 9;12(1):1543. doi: 10.1038/s41467-021-21875-0.

Abstract

Protein engineering has great potential for devising multifunctional recombinant proteins to serve as next-generation protein therapeutics, but it often requires drastic modifications of the parental protein scaffolds e.g., additional domains at the N/C-terminus or replacement of a domain by another. A discovery platform system, called RaPID (Random non-standard Peptides Integrated Discovery) system, has enabled rapid discovery of small de novo macrocyclic peptides that bind a target protein with high binding specificity and affinity. Capitalizing on the optimized binding properties of the RaPID-derived peptides, here we show that RaPID-derived pharmacophore sequences can be readily implanted into surface-exposed loops on recombinant proteins and maintain both the parental peptide binding function(s) and the host protein function. We refer to this protein engineering method as lasso-grafting and demonstrate that it can endow specific binding capacity toward various receptors into a diverse set of scaffolds that includes IgG, serum albumin, and even capsid proteins of adeno-associated virus, enabling us to rapidly formulate and produce bi-, tri-, and even tetra-specific binder molecules.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Capsid Proteins / chemistry
  • Carrier Proteins / chemistry
  • Cell Line
  • Dependovirus
  • Humans
  • Immunoglobulin G / chemistry
  • Models, Molecular
  • Peptides / chemistry*
  • Peptides / pharmacology*
  • Protein Engineering / methods*
  • Serum Albumin / chemistry
  • Small Molecule Libraries

Substances

  • Capsid Proteins
  • Carrier Proteins
  • Immunoglobulin G
  • Peptides
  • Serum Albumin
  • Small Molecule Libraries