Founded in 1975 as the all Union Research Institute of Applied Enzimology, currently,  the Institute of Biotechnology is mainly involved in research and training in the fields of biotechnology and molecular biology, including research and development of recombinant biomedical proteins, genetic and molecular studies of restriction modification phenomenon, developing of viruses diagnostics, epigenetic study of small RNA, drug design and synthesis, bioinformatics.

Technology development of long-acting recombinant proteins

Spausdinti

Kestutis Sasnauskas, Dalia Gritėnaitė, Linas Antoniukas, Agnė Valinčiūtė, Mindaugas Juozapaitis, Raminta Jonikaitė, Evaldas Čiplys, Gintautas Žvirblis, Rimantas Slibinskas

The project is supported by grant N-07006 of Lithuanian State Science and Studies Foundation.

New project in the area of therapeutic recombinant protein technologies has been started in the July of 2007. Innovative process was proposed for the production of long-acting (prolonged) form of human recombinant proteins such as granulocyte colony stimulating factor (GCSF) and different interferons (IFN). The essential element of this project reports to linear multimeric constructs of recombinant proteins that are produced by genetic engineering technique and expressed in E. coli. This study is continuation of previous research in the area of monomeric recombinant proteins of therapeutic value (Zaveckas et al., 2007).

Expected clearance rate of developed multimeric proteins may be prolonged by more than several times exceeding clearance of homologous monomeric protein. New proteins are expected to compete with recombinant therapeutic proteins possessing prolonged activity in current markets. Linear multimers of the target protein obtained according developed process to highly purified state will be characterized by a set of analytical methods and tested for prolongation effect of their clearance on models in vitro and in vivo. Potential representative of protein multimers will be selected based on preclinical and PK/PD studies. The most potential protein candidates will go through further optimization of their lab-scale technology. It is expected that new technologies will be prepared for patent application procedure, with further licensing-in of the technology and implementation for industrial pharmaceutical production.