Engineering of Recombinant Fortilin for Structure Activity Studies
August 2021
TLDR The research developed new fortilin protein constructs for potential heart disease treatments.
The dissertation focused on engineering recombinant fortilin for structure-activity studies, aiming to develop new treatments for cardiovascular disease (CVD) independent of cholesterol-lowering statins. Fortilin, a protein linked to atherosclerotic plaque formation, was targeted for drug development. The study successfully designed constructs of recombinant fortilin fusion protein, achieving over 85% cleavage of the affinity tag, which enhanced the structural resemblance to the native protein. Structural integrity and activity of the constructs were validated using circular dichroism (CD) and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, with binding studies conducted to explore small molecule inhibitor interactions. This research contributed to the development of novel fortilin constructs and advanced structural studies for potential therapeutic applications.
