Chem. J. Chinese Universities ›› 2025, Vol. 46 ›› Issue (4): 20240479.doi: 10.7503/cjcu20240479

• Chemical Biology • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Analysis of Glycosylation Modification of Human Erythropoietin Expressed in Pernyi Pupae

LIU Xiaoli1, LIU Yubo1,2, LI Xuechen3, CHEN Qiushi3,4, FAN Qi5, ZHANG Jianing1, LI Wenli1()   

  1. 1.School of Life and Pharmaceutical Sciences,Dalian University of Technology,Panjin 124221,China
    2.Key Laboratory of Bio?Intelligent Manufacturing,Ministry of Education,Dalian University of Technology,Dalian 116023,China
    3.Department of Chemistry,State Key Laboratory of Synthetic Chemistry,the University of Hong Kong,Hong Kong SAR 999077,China
    4.Laboratory for Synthetic Chemistry and Chemical Biology Limited,Hong Kong Science Park,Hong Kong SAR 999077,China
    5.Liaoning Ocean and Fisheries Science Research Institute,Dalian 116023,China
  • Received:2024-10-23 Online:2025-04-10 Published:2024-12-31
  • Contact: LI Wenli E-mail:biolwl@dlut.edu.cn
  • Supported by:
    the National Natural Science Foundation of China(32171282);the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities, China(DUT23YG114)

Abstract:

Recombinant human erythropoietin(rhEPO) was expressed in pernyi pupae using DNA recombination technology and gel purified. The purified components were separated by SDS-PAGE(sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis), and the rhEPO gel strips were cut and its glycosylation modification was detected by electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry(ESI-MS/MS). The mass spectrometry results showed that the glycosylation modification sites of rhEPO expressed in pernyi silkworm pupae were consistent with EPO expressed in humans, with three N-glycosylation sites and one O-glycosy-lation site. Although the specific sugar chains at the glycosylation sites cannot be determined based on ESI-MS/MS, its results combined with lectin experiments can help determine the specific sugar chains at the glycosylation modification sites. According to the results, the overall sugar chain lacks sialic acid modification. The results of cell experiments showed that rhEPO expressed by pernyi pupae had certain biological activity, with a specific activity of 1190 U/μg. Therefore, pernyi pupae can express rhEPO without sialic acid modification with certain biological activity, and low sialylated EPO can play an important role in the treatment of central nervous system diseases after nasal administration. The results provide a basis for further studying the glycosylation and biological activity of exogenous proteins after expression in the pernyi pupae-Anthraea pernyi nucleopolyhedrorirus(ApNPV) host vector expression system.

Key words: Electrospray ionization mass spectrometry(ESI-MS/MS), Erythropoietin, Pernyi pupae, Glycosylation

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