Synthesis of an artificial gene coding for thymosin alpha1 and its expression in Escherichia coli as a hybrid with human tumor necrosis factor

: Chemical-enzymatic synthesis and cloning in Escherichia coli of an artificial gene encoding the immunoactive peptide thymosin alpha 1 have been carried out. Recombinant plasmids were constructed which contain fusion genes coding for hybrids of human tumour necrosis factor (TNF) and thymosin alpha 1 as N- or C-terminal part of the hybrid protein. In the C-terminal hybrid protein, TNF and thymosin alpha 1 are linked through a methionine residue, thus allowing for thymosin alpha 1 to be cleaved off the rest of the hybrid protein with cyanogen bromide. In case of the N-terminal hybrid protein, the linker between the thymosin alpha 1 and TNF sequences is the acid-labile dipeptide Asp-Pro. Expression of the hybrid genes in E. coli and properties of the recombinant proteins were studied. The N-terminal hybrid protein was secreted into periplasmic space, in contrast with the C-terminal hybrid protein, which formed insoluble aggregates inside bacterial cells. Procedures for the isolation of both hybrid proteins were developed. The N-terminal hybrid protein displayed full biological activity in the cytotoxic assay on the mouse fibroblast L-929 whereas the C-terminal hybrid protein proved to be much less active. Treatment of the hybrid protein TNF-thymosin alpha 1 with cyanogen bromide lead to a mixture of two polypeptides, from which thymosin alpha 1 was purified to homogeneity by simple chromatographic procedures.