Cloning and expression of the human asialoglycoprotein receptor H1 subunit and preliminary application

Abstract

Objective To clone and express the human asialoglycoprotein receptor(ASGPR) H1 subunit, purify and identify the immunoreactivity of the recombinant protein, and establish the enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) to detect anti-ASGPR antibodies in diagnosis of autoimmune hepatitis. Methods The CRDHI cDNA (435 bp) was subcloned into eukaryotic vector PEGH, and the recombinant protein expression was induced by D (+)-Galactose. The recombinant CRDH1 was purified with Glutathione Sepharose 4B, and its immunoreactivity was identified by SDS-PAGE and western blot as well as MALDI-TOF. ELISA was established to detect the anti-ASGPR antibodies in serum samples of 45 patients with AIH, 30 patients with SLE, 30 patients with RA, 10 patients with SS and 30 normal controls. Results The sequencing of recombinant plasmid showed the CRDH1 gene was successfully inserted to the eukaryotic expression vector with correct sequence and open reading frame. The fusion protein showed a molecular weight of 42 500 Da on SDS-PAGE gel and confirmed to be the human ASGPR by MALDI-MS through peptide mass fingerprint analysis with Mascot in human protein database. It shared 98. 34% homology with ASGPR H1 subunit. Western blot analysis showed that the fusion protein had the same immunoreactivity as human ASGPR. The results of ELISA indicated that the positive rate of anti-ASGPR was 35.6% ( 16/45 ), but the ELISA was negative in other control. There was significant difference of positivity of the autoantibodies between AIH and non-AIH controls (χ2 = 31.85,P < 0. 01 ). Conclusions The human plasmid containing ASGPR is successfully clone into Saccharomyces cerevisiae Y258. The recombinant autoantigen owns good antigenicity and specificity. ELISA established with the purified protein shows good specificity for diagnosis of AIH. Key words: Hepatitis, autoimmune; Asialoglycoprotein receptor; Autoantigens; Enzymelinked immunosorbent assay