Efficient recombinant production of mouse-derived cryptdin family peptides by a novel facilitation strategy for inclusion body formation

BACKGROUND: A number of antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) hold promise as new drugs owing to their potent bactericidal activity and because they are often refractory to the development of drug resistance. Cryptdins (Crps) are a family of antimicrobial peptides found in the small intestine of mice, comprising six isoforms containing three sets of disulfide bonds. Although Crp4 is actively being investigated, there have been few studies to date on the other Crp isoforms. A prerequisite for detailed characterization of the other Crp isoforms is establishment of efficient sample preparation methods. RESULTS: To avoid degradation during recombinant expression of Crps in E. coli, co-expression of Crps with the aggregation-prone protein human α-lactalbumin (HLA) was used to promote the formation of stable inclusion bodies. Using this method, the production of Crp4 and Crp6 by the BL21 strain was effective, but the expression of other Crp isoforms was not as efficient. The results of a cell-free system study suggested that Crps were degraded, even though a substantial amounts of Crps were synthesized. Therefore, using the Origami™ B strain, we were able to significantly increase the expression efficiency of Crps by promoting the formation of erroneous intermolecular disulfide bonds between HLA and Crps, thereby promoting protein aggregation and inclusion body formation, which prevented degradation. The various Crp isoforms were successfully refolded in vitro and purified using reversed-phase HPLC. In addition, the yield was further improved by deformylation of formyl-Crps. We measured the antibacterial activity of Crps against both Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria. Each Crp isoform exhibited a completely different trend in antimicrobial activity, although conformational analysis by circular dichroism did not reveal any significant steric differences. CONCLUSION: In this study, we established a novel and efficient method for the production of the cryptdin family of cysteine-containing antimicrobial peptides. Additionally, we found that there were notable differences in the antibacterial activities of the various Crp family members. The expression system established in this study is expected to provide new insights regarding the mechanisms underlying the different antibacterial activities of the Crp family of peptides. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12934-023-02016-2.