Expression, purification and enzymatic characterization of Brugia malayi dihydrofolate reductase

•Recombinant B. malayi DHFR was cloned, expressed and purified .•Steady state kinetics of B. malayi DHFR were determined .•Synthetic antifolate agents inhibit enzymatic activity of B. malayi DHFR.

Brugia malayi (B. malayi) is one of the three causative agents of lymphatic filariasis, a neglected parasitic disease. Current literature suggests that dihydrofolate reductase is a potential drug target for the elimination of B. malayi. Here we report the recombinant expression and purification of a ∼20 kDa B. malayi dihydrofolate reductase (BmDHFR). A His6-tagged construct was expressed in E. coli and purified by affinity chromatography to yield active and homogeneous enzyme for steady-state kinetic characterization and inhibition studies. The catalytic activity kcat was found to be 1.4 ± 0.1 s−1, the Michaelis Menten constant KM for dihydrofolate 14.7 ± 3.6 μM, and the equilibrium dissociation constant KD for NADPH 25 ± 24 nM. For BmDHFR, IC50 values for a six DHFR inhibitors were determined to be 3.1 ± 0.2 nM for methotrexate, 32 ± 22 μM for trimethoprim, 109 ± 34 μM for pyrimethamine, 154 ± 46 μM for 2,4-diaminoquinazoline, 771 ± 44 μM for cycloguanil, and >20,000 μM for 2,4-diaminopyrimidine. Our findings suggest that antifolate compounds can serve as inhibitors of BmDHFR.