Resumen de Desenvolupament d'una nova generació de proteïnes antimicrobianes basades en un format nanoparticulat versàtil i estructures multidomini
For most of human history, pathogens have been a leading cause of death and illness. Although we have attained the ability to treat them easily, thanks to the discovery of antibiotics, the widespread overuse and misuse of antimicrobial drugs have accelerated the appearance of antimicrobial resistances (AMRs). Because AMRs have rendered most antimicrobial drugs ineffective, the development of alternative approaches is more necessary than ever before. Host defense peptides (HDPs) have been proposed as blueprints for the generation of new antimicrobials to fight AMR infections. Despite this, most HDPs are produced by chemical synthesis, which is expensive, unsustainable, and difficult to scale-up. Alternatively, their recombinant production is very appealing but still challenging. HDPs are highly susceptible to degradation and are generally toxic to the recombinant host. However, inclusion bodies (IBs), which are protein aggregates that usually happen during recombinant production, can be used to allow HDP formation inside the host without being harmful. Also, the construction of chimeric proteins could be a strategy for successful recombinant expression of small peptides. In this context, this dissertation explores several new strategies for the recombinant production of HDPs. We tried leucine zippers as potential domains to drive the recombinant production of HDPs to the insoluble fraction and improve IBs protein quality. After that, we developed several antimicrobial multidomain proteins based on the fusion of different peptides and proteins from innate immunity. Because we also used leucine zippers with these constructs, they could be produced effectively – without toxicity to the microbial cell factory. Moreover, when needed, we were able to recover soluble antimicrobials from IBs using a mild, non-denaturing protocol. Overall, we demonstrated that these constructs have a broad-spectrum antimicrobial action against multi-drug resistant (MDR) bacteria, in both the soluble and IB format, and that they could trigger the release of IL-8 within a range of potential immunomodulatory properties. These outcomes invited us to use our constructs in the biofunctionalization of self-assembled monolayers to avoid biofilm formation. We observed that the chimeric proteins could be anchored to these materials and avoid biofilm growth. In sum, these results reinforce multidomain antimicrobial proteins as potential antimicrobial alternatives with immunomodulatory properties and open up the possibility for many applications of this new generation of antimicrobial protein nanoparticles as well as their soluble analogs.
