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Virus-Like Particles Derived from HIV-1 for Delivery of Nuclear Proteins: Improvement of Production and Activity by Protein Engineering

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Abstract

Virus-like particles (VLPs) derived from retroviruses and lentiviruses can be used to deliver recombinant proteins without the fear of causing insertional mutagenesis to the host cell genome. In this study we evaluate the potential of an inducible lentiviral vector packaging cell line for VLP production. The Gag gene from HIV-1 was fused to a gene encoding a selected protein and it was transfected into the packaging cells. Three proteins served as model: the green fluorescent protein and two transcription factors—the cumate transactivator (cTA) of the inducible CR5 promoter and the human Krüppel-like factor 4 (KLF4). The sizes of the VLPs were 120–150 nm in diameter and they were resistant to freeze/thaw cycles. Protein delivery by the VLPs reached up to 100% efficacy in human cells and was well tolerated. Gag-cTA triggered up to 1100-fold gene activation of the reporter gene in comparison to the negative control. Protein engineering was required to detect Gag-KLF4 activity. Thus, insertion of the VP16 transactivation domain increased the activity of the VLPs by eightfold. An additional 2.4-fold enhancement was obtained by inserting nuclear export signal. In conclusion, our platform produced VLPs capable of efficient protein transfer, and it was shown that protein engineering can be used to improve the activity of the delivered proteins as well as VLP production.

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Acknowledgements

This work was funded by a NSERC/CIHR jointed grant #315642. M.-A.R. was supported by grants from ThéCell and PROTÉO networks. The authors declare no conflict of interests.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Département de génie chimique, Université Laval, 1065 Avenue de la Médecine, Québec, QC, G1V 0A6, Canada

    Marc-André Robert & Bruno Gaillet

  2. National Research Council Canada, 6100 Avenue Royalmount, Montréal, QC, H4P 2R2, Canada

    Marc-André Robert, Viktoria Lytvyn, Francis Deforet & Rénald Gilbert

  3. Regroupement québécois de recherche sur la fonction, l’ingénierie et les applications des protéines, PROTEO, Québec, QC, Canada

    Marc-André Robert & Bruno Gaillet

  4. Réseau de thérapie cellulaire et tissulaire du FRQS, ThéCell, Québec, QC, Canada

    Marc-André Robert, Rénald Gilbert & Bruno Gaillet

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  1. Marc-André Robert
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  2. Viktoria Lytvyn
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  3. Francis Deforet
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Correspondence to Bruno Gaillet.

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Robert, MA., Lytvyn, V., Deforet, F. et al. Virus-Like Particles Derived from HIV-1 for Delivery of Nuclear Proteins: Improvement of Production and Activity by Protein Engineering. Mol Biotechnol 59, 9–23 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12033-016-9987-1

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