Browsing by Author "Sousa, F."
Now showing 1 - 7 of 7
Results Per Page
Sort Options
- Additive Manufacturing Tools to Improve the Performance of Chromatographic ApproachesPublication . Valente, J. F. A.; Sousa, F.; Alves, N.Chromatography is widely applied industrially. However, some limitations are associated with its common supports, and the impossibility to fully control their structural features is particularly restrictive. Additive manufacturing (AM) is emerging as a fast, highly precise, and reproducible technology for producing chromatographic supports that can improve its performance.
- Dilemma on plasmid DNA purification: binding capacity vs selectivityPublication . Valente, J. F. A.; Queiroz, J. A.; Sousa, F.Plasmid DNA chromatography is a powerful field in constant development and evolution. The use of this technique is considered mandatory in the production of an efficient and safe formulation to be applied for plasmid-mediated gene therapy. Concerning this, the search for an ideal chromatographic support/ligand combination motivated scientist to pursue a continuous improvement on the plasmid chromatography performance, looking for a progression on the ligands and supports used. The present review explores the different approaches used over time to purify plasmid DNA, ambitioning both high recovery and high purity levels. Overall, it is presented a critical discussion relying on the relevance of the binding capacity versus selectivity of the supports.
- DoE to improve supercoiled p53-pDNA purification by O-phospho-L-tyrosine chromatographyPublication . Valente, J.F.A.; Sousa, A.; Queiroz, J.A.; Sousa, F.P53 is implicated in various cellular functions and several studies have shown that transfection of cancer cells with wild-type p53-expressing plasmids could directly drive cells into growth arrest and/or apoptosis. In the present work, the 6.07 kbp pcDNA3-FLAG-p53 plasmid, which encodes the p53 tumor suppressor, was produced and recovered from a recombinant cell culture of Escherichia coli DH5α. Following plasmid biosynthesis, the O phospho-L-tyrosine chromatographic matrix was explored to purify the supercoiled p53-encoding plasmid. In order to quickly determine the optimal chromatographic performance and to obtain the required purity degree, maximizing the recovery yield of the supercoiled plasmid DNA, the Composite Central Face design was applied. The model revealed to be statistically significant (p-value < 0.05), with coefficient of determination of 0.9434 for the recovery yield and 0.9581 for purity and the central point was successfully validated. After the chro matographic process optimization by using the design of experiments tool, 49.7% of the supercoiled p53-en coding plasmid was recovered with 98.2% of purity, when a decreasing ammonium sulphate gradient was ap plied. The dynamic binding capacity of the O-phospho-L-tyrosine agarose column was 0.35 ± 0.02 mg pDNA/ mL matrix at 50% of the breakthrough. Finally, the purified sample was analysed to assess the content of en dotoxins, proteins and genomic DNA, showing that all these impurity levels were below the recommendations of the regulatory agencies
- Effect of Chromatographic Conditions on Supercoiled Plasmid DNA Stability and BioactivityPublication . Azevedo, G.M.; Valente, J.F.A.; Sousa, A.; Pedro, A.Q.; Pereira, P.; Sousa, F.; Queiroz, J.A.The dysfunction of the tumor suppressor gene TP53 has been associated with the pathogenesis of the majority of the cases of cancer reported to date, leading the cell to acquire different features known as the cancer hallmarks. In normal situations, the protein p53 protects the cells against tumorigenesis. By detecting metabolic stress or DNA damage in response to stress, p53 can lead the cell to senescence, autophagy, cell cycle arrest, DNA repair, and apoptosis. Thus, in the case of p53 mutations, it is reasonable to assume that the reestablishment of its function, may restrain the proliferation of cancer cells. The concept of cancer gene therapy can be based on this assumption, and suitable biotechnological approaches must be explored to assure the preparation of gene-based biopharmaceuticals. Although numerous procedures have already been established to purify supercoiled plasmid DNA (sc pDNA), the therapeutic application is highly dependent on the biopharmaceutical’s activity, which can be affected by the chromatographic conditions used. Thus, the present work aims at comparing quality and in vitro activity of the supercoiled (sc) isoform of the p53 encoding plasmid purified by three different amino acids-based chromatographic strategies, involving histidine–agarose, arginine–macroporous, and histidine–monolith supports. The B-DNA topology was maintained in all purified pDNA samples, but their bioactivity, related to the induction of protein p53 expression and apoptosis in cancer cells, was higher with arginine–macroporous support, followed by histidine–monolith and histidine–agarose. Despite the purity degree of 92% and recovery yield of 43% obtained with arginine–macroporous, the sc pDNA sample led to a higher expression level of the therapeutic p53 protein (58%) and, consequently, induced a slightly higher apoptotic effect (27%) compared with sc pDNA samples obtained with histidine–monolithic support (26%) and histidine–agarose support (24%). This behavior can be related to the mild chromatographic conditions used with arginine–macroporous support, which includes the use of low salt concentrations, at neutral pH and lower temperatures, when compared to the high ionic strength of ammonium sulfate and acidic pH used with histidine-based supports. These results can contribute to field of biopharmaceutical preparation, emphasizing the need to control several experimental conditions while adapting and selecting the methodologies that enable the use of milder conditions as this can have a significant impact on pDNA stability and biological activity.
- Effect of Plasmid DNA Size on Chitosan or Polyethyleneimine Polyplexes FormulationPublication . Valente, J. F. A.; Pereira, P.; Sousa, A.; Queiroz, J. A.; Sousa, F.Gene therapy could be simply defined as a strategy for the introduction of a functional copy of desired genes in patients, to correct some specific mutation and potentially treat the respective disorder. However, this straightforward definition hides very complex processes related to the design and preparation of the therapeutic genes, as well as the development of suitable gene delivery systems. Within non-viral vectors, polymeric nanocarriers have offered an ideal platform to be applied as gene delivery systems. Concerning this, the main goal of the study was to do a systematic evaluation on the formulation of pDNA delivery systems based on the complexation of different sized plasmids with chitosan (CH) or polyethyleneimine (PEI) polymers to search for the best option regarding encapsulation efficiency, surface charge, size, and delivery ability. The cytotoxicity and the transfection efficiency of these systems were accessed and, for the best p53 encoding pDNA nanosystems, the ability to promote protein expression was also evaluated. Overall, it was showed that CH polyplexes are more efficient on transfection when compared with the PEI polyplexes, resulting in higher P53 protein expression. Cells transfected with CH/p53-pDNA polyplexes presented an increase of around 54.2% on P53 expression, while the transfection with the PEI/p53-pDNA polyplexes resulted in a 32% increase.
- Purification of supercoiled p53-encoding plasmid using an arginine-modified macroporous supportPublication . Valente, J.F.A.; Sousa, A.; Azevedo, G.A.; Queiroz, J.A.; Sousa, F.p53 is a tumour suppressor gene that has been explored for cancer gene therapy as a possible alter- native to the common treatments. The use of plasmid DNA (pDNA) to carry the therapeutic gene has been considered, but it is requisite to preserve its supercoiled (sc) structure, for eliciting a more effective gene expression and therapeutic action. The purification of the sc pDNA using amino acids-based affinity chromatography has been successfully applied, exploring different amino acids and supports. From these studies, it stood out the selectivity of arginine for the recognition of sc pDNA. However, some limitation on the binding capacity was found in the arginine-agarose support, and in the case of monoliths, some fouling and clogging can limit sequential runs. By using macroporous support modified with arginine it was expected to take advantage of the selectivity of the ligand combined with the flow properties and binding capacity offered by the support. The arginine-modified macroporous support was characterized by SEM, EDX and FTIR also to verify the correct immobilization of arginine, and then used for pDNA pu- rification. The support showed to be effective on the sc p53-pDNA isolation, and the robustness was also achieved by accomplishing the purification of plasmids with different sizes, only by slightly adjusting the experimental conditions. Regarding the dynamic binding capacity of the arginine-modified macrop- orous support, it was achieved an improvement of more than 50% in the pDNA binding capacity when compared with their homologous arginine-agarose commercial matrix, suggesting potential economic fea- sibility in case of scale-up.
- The biological performance of purified supercoiled p53 plasmid DNA in different cancer cell linesPublication . Valente, J.F.A.; Sousa, A.; Gaspar, V.M.; Queiroz, João; Sousa, F.Tumor suppressor p53 remains one of the most interesting therapeutic targets in cancer gene therapy due to its consistent mutation in numerous cancers. Thus, the reinstatement of the p53 expression and function can be seen as an effective alternative for cancer treatment, motivating research in this field. In this study, L-methionine matrix was used to purify the supercoiled topoisoform of a plasmid DNA encoding the p53 protein. This pure biopharmaceutical was conjugated with liposomes to comprehensively analyze its in vitro performance and therapeutic potential in different cancer cell lines, including the lung and cervix models. A different profile of cellular responses was attained after the transfection of these cancer cell lines with the p53-pDNA. Actually, the in vitro transfection with pure sc p53-pDNA resulted in a higher expression of the tumor suppressor protein in cancer cells when compared with the native pDNA samples (oc + sc topoisoforms). Also, wild-type p53 ex pression following transfection was significantly higher in HeLa cervix cancer cells compared to that obtained in A549 lung cancer cells. Overall, our findings emphasize the potential of sc pDNA gene-based therapy, also raising awareness of the need to adjust the therapeutics, considering the feature of high heterogeneity of cancer cells.