Class A β-Lactamases as Versatile Scaffolds to Create Hybrid Enzymes: Applications from Basic Research to Medicine

• Published in: BioMed research international 2013-01, Vol.2013 (2013), p.1-16
• Main Authors: Galleni, Moreno, Matagne, André, Filée, Patrice, Huynen, Céline, Dumoulin, Mireille
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Antibodies; Antibodies - genetics; Antibodies - immunology; antigen display; beta-Lactamases - chemistry; beta-Lactamases - genetics; Biochemistry, biophysics & molecular biology; Biochimie, biophysique & biologie moléculaire; class A beta-lactamases; de novo antigen; difficult to express protein; epitope mapping; Epitopes - genetics; Epitopes - immunology; Humans; hybrid enzymes; immunodetection; Life sciences; phage display; polyglutamine model protein; Protein Engineering; Protein Structure, Tertiary; Recombinant Fusion Proteins - chemistry; Recombinant Fusion Proteins - genetics; Review; Sciences du vivant
• ISSN: 2314-6133; 2314-6141; 2314-6141
• DOI: 10.1155/2013/827621

Designing hybrid proteins is a major aspect of protein engineering and covers a very wide range of applications from basic research to medical applications. This review focuses on the use of class A β-lactamases as versatile scaffolds to design hybrid enzymes (referred to as β-lactamase hybrid proteins, BHPs) in which an exogenous peptide, protein or fragment thereof is inserted at various permissive positions. We discuss how BHPs can be specifically designed to create bifunctional proteins, to produce and to characterize proteins that are otherwise difficult to express, to determine the epitope of specific antibodies, to generate antibodies against nonimmunogenic epitopes, and to better understand the structure/function relationship of proteins.