Development of hybrid human interferon alfa-2 strain-producers and the use of enteropeptidase for production of N-terminal methionine-free interferons

We developed a technique for production of human interferon-α2a (IFN-α2a) and IFN-α2b lacking the N-terminal methionine. First of all, we constructed plasmids containing genes of hybrid IFN-α2 controlled by different promoters; the proximal part of the genes incorporated various sequences encoding the enteropeptidase cleavage site. As a result, four strains of Escherichia coli producing hybrid IFN-α2 were obtained. The protocol for IFN-α2 renaturation, cleavege of its N-terminal part, and chromatographic purification of the N-terminal methionine-free IFN-α2 was developed.