Drug Delivery & Targeting (Track)
Effects of nutritional and environmental factors on the expression of truncated Newcastle disease virus NP protein as a carrier molecule
Norazizah Shafee
Dept. of Microbiology
Fac. of Biotechnology
Universiti Putra, Malaysia
Abstract:
Newcastle disease virus (NDV) capsid has a potential to be used a carrier molecule for protein and drug delivery. In the present study, we investigated the effects of environmental and nutritional culture conditions on the properties of the expressed protein carrier fused to different antigens. To achieve this, we cloned three fragments of the Enterovirus 71 VP1 gene as fusions to the carrier gene. Expression of the fusion carrier NP protein fused to the different antigens was performed in various culture conditions. The properties of the expressed fusion protein were tested using immunoblot and ELISA. Recombinant NDV capsid gene fused with different sections of the EV71 gene was successfully expressed. The proteins however were mostly found in the insoluble fractions. Variation in culture conditions improved the solubility problems tremendously. Specific culture conditions were found to be optimal to increase the solubility of the proteins. Findings from this study showed that culture conditions affected the properties and therefore the potential of the NDV capsid protein as an effective carrier molecule. Further studies to modify the protein and render it more soluble are currently ongoing.
