Increasing the homogeneity, stability and activity of human serum albumin and interferon-α2b fusion protein by linker engineering

Previous studies in our laboratory have shown that when the N-terminus of interferon-α2b (IFN-α2b) was directly fused of to the C-terminus of human serum albumin (HSA), the resultant fusion protein (HSA-IFN-α2b) was heterogeneous (migrated as doublets on non-reducing SDS–PAGE) and unstable (prone to form covalent aggregates). The heterogeneity and instability of HSA-IFN-α2b was ascribed to the structural disturbance between HSA and IFN-α2b. To alleviate such structural disturbance, linkers with different lengths (1, 2, 5, 10 amino acid residues) or different conformation (flexible linker (FL, GGGGS), rigid linker (RL, PAPAP) or helix-forming linker (HL, AEAAAKEAAAKA)) were inserted between HSA and IFN-α2b. It was demonstrated that linker with 5 amino acid residues was sufficient to separated HSA and IFN-α2b effectively, as fusion protein with this linker migrated as single band on non-reducing SDS–PAGE. The fusion proteins with FL, RL and HL linkers were purified to homogeneity with yields of 20%, while the recovery rate of HSA-IFN-α2b was only 10%. Accelerated thermal stress tests showed that in contrast to HSA-IFN-α2b, fusion proteins with FL, RL and HL linkers were free of aggregates after stored at 37 °C for 10 days. Stability tests also revealed that fusion proteins with FL, RL and HL linkers had different susceptibility to hydrolysis, with HSA-RL-IFN-α2b being the least susceptible to hydrolysis at pH 6 and 7. Activity assay revealed that the insertion of FL, RL and HL linkers increased the anti-viral activity of fusion protein by 39%, 68% and 115%, respectively.