Cellular signaling via receptor for advanced glycation end products (RAGE) results in pro-inflammatory responses. RAGE-mediated inflammation has been implicated in inflammatory diseases including diabetes, atherosclerosis, and Alzheimers disease. The spliced or proteolytically cleaved form of RAGE is referred as soluble RAGE (sRAGE), which functions as a natural decoy counter-effecting RAGE signaling. It has been demonstrated in animal models that administration of sRAGE blocks atherogenesis, and stabilizes existing plaques on the vessel wall. In addition, sRAGE also prevents the formation of neointima prompted by vascular injuries and hence inhibits restenosis. We have developed Chinese Hamster Ovary (CHO) cell lines that stably express sRAGE, and the accompanied affinity purification strategies that produce homogenous sRAGE. Systemic studies of sRAGE application in restenosis animal models have been completed, and data have been analyzed. Our results showed that sRAGE produced in our laboratory exhibits 1000 x higher potency than that of previously reported. In addition to blocking restenosis, we also tested sRAGE blockage on infarct animal models and obtained promising preliminary results. We also performed studies to explore the molecular basis of the observed high potency of sRAGE and found that N-glycan structure in sRAGE contributes to its bioactivity. To further develop sRAGE as an effective therapeutic product, we used GeneOptimizer algorithm from Invitrogen to optimize T7-sRAGE----this tool removes sequence repeat, killer motifs, splice sites and RNA secondary structures in the cDNA sequence and optimize codon usage (for CHO cell) and GC content without changing protein sequence. We plan to test whether the new sRAGE cDNA has a higher level of expression and compare to native sequence. This step should enhance future sRAGE scale-up production. To overcome technical hurdles for expression and detection of sRAGE, we also developed a set of expression modules that facilitate subcloning, cell-surface expression. and epitope tagging of mammalian membrane proteins. U.S. Provisional Patent (No. 61/142,531) has been awarded to this invention, and NIH is currently advertising the invention. R&D Status: Pre-clinical in vitro.
