Bioscavenging of organophosphate (OP) by human proteins is emerging as a promising medical interventionfor prophylaxis and post-exposure treatment against chemical warfare nerve agents. The best-studiedbioscavengers (BSCs) to date, meeting considerable success in pre-clinical research, are humancholinesterases (ChEs). However, ChEs, which are highly efficient in binding and sequestering OPs, are alsoinactivated by the toxins and therefore administration of large amounts of protein is necessary for fullprotection, raising the question of the practicality of this approach. However the development of a newgeneration of BSCs that can catalytically degrade OPs may address this concern.The proposed effort offers a novel means to biomanufacture recombinant catalytic BSCs based on thehuman proteins butyrylcholinesterase and paraoxonase 1. Through efforts of other projects participating inthe Center, the capacity of these proteins to hydrolyze OPs will be improved by subjecting their genes toeither random in vitro evolution or rational mutagenesis. Concomitantly to the protein engineering research,the ASU team in this Project 5 will utilize tobacco plants to first produce research-scale quantities of BSCenzyme, but also provide a sustainable large-scale production platform. At present, purification of BChE fromoutdated blood-banked human plasma enables research on how bioscavenger therapy can be used. But thisstop-gap measure cannot be practically implemented to allow for a sustained supply of that enzyme, and isnot applicable for the new recombinant catalytic BSCs that will be developed by the Center. If it will bedecided that such scavengers should be a component of the medical arsenal of the Departments of Defense,Homeland Security and Health and Human Services, it is vital that a reliable, safe, non supply-limited andinexpensive source of such enzymes be identified and developed. The primary significance of the proposedwork is that it translates basic studies on the first generation ChE-based BSCs into novel biomanufacturingtechnology leading to clinical product development of the second generation catalytic BSCs.
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