Functional expression and purification of recombinant Hepcidin25 production in Escherichia coli using SUMO fusion technology

Hepcidin25 is a small cysteine-rich peptide hormone known as a new class of antimicrobial peptides. The purpose of the present study was to express, purify and investigate the antibacterial properties of recombinant human hepcidin25 protein production in Escherichia coli. Human hepcidin25 gene was optimized and fused to a small ubiquitin-related modifier (SUMO) gene for higher expression. Then SUMO-hepcidin25 was cloned into the pET-32a (+) vector and expressed in E. coli Origami. The fusion protein with a molecular weight of approximately 35 kDa was analyzed on SDS-PAGE gel. The highest expression was observed after 6 h induction and the fusion protein consisted approximately 47% of the total cellular protein. The purified SUMO-hepcidin25 purity was determined to be higher than 95%, with a final yield of 3.9 mg l−1 of media. The recombinant hepcidin25 showed antibacterial activity against both Gram negative (Klebsiella pneumonia) and Gram positive (Staphylococcus aureus and Bacillus cereus) bacteria with minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) of 150 μg ml− 1, 18.7 μg/ml− 1 and 37.5 μg/ml− 1, respectively. These results indicated that thioredoxin and SUMO dual fusion system is an efficient production system for synthesis functional human hepcidin25.