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Mutagenesis Essay

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RESULTS
3.1 Cloning, expression and purification of the mutants engineered for rice chitinase allergen: Two residues in each epitope were selected by DNAstar (antigenic index profile) for mutations namely [epitope R1 - arginine18 → tryptophan, aspartic acid22 → methionine; epitope R2 - asparagine35→ methionine, proline41 → isoleucine; epitope R3 - arginine146 → tryptophan, arginine152 → alanine] (Figure 1). Following site-directed mutagenesis, the recombinant clones (per mutant) were sequenced to confirm the mutations. Only the clones with expected mutations were selected for further studies. The mutants were expressed in E. coli cells as fusion proteins with N-terminal 6x histidine tag and were purified to homogeneity yielding …show more content…

Mutants RC1, RC2 & RC3 & RC123 showed inhibition of 53%, 58%, 43% & 61%, respectively, at 1000ng inhibitor concentration, with chitinase positive pooled patients’ sera (Figure 4).

3.4 Evaluating the hypoallergenicity of the mutants in vivo
3.4.1 Estimation of Immunoglobulins: Chitinase and mutant proteins (RC1, RC2, RC3, RC123) specific antibody (IgE, IgG1 and IgG2a) levels were measured in the sera of mice by ELISA (Figure 5a, b, c). Mice sensitized and challenged with rice chitinase showed high specific IgE levels. There was significant reduction in the IgE levels, in the sera of mice sensitized and challenged with the hypoallergenic proteins as compared to chitinase (p<0.01). Lowest IgE titer was observed in the sera of mice sensitized with RC123 and displayed a threefold decrease as compared to chitinase sensitized/challenged mice (Figure 5a). Similar pattern was observed for IgG1 levels (p<0.01) (Figure 5b). A twofold decrease was observed for mutant RC123 & RC2 immunized mice, in serum IgG1 levels compared to chitinase sensitized/challenged group (p<0.05). While the IgG2a levels showed an increase in case of all the four hypoallergens, mutant RC123 displayed significant increase compared to chitinase (p<0.05) (Figure 5c).

3.4.2 Cytokines in BALF supernatant:
IL-4 & IL-5 (Th2 cytokines) levels were analyzed in the BALF samples of mice by ELISA. IL-4 levels were significantly high for chitinase sensitized/challenged groups (Figure 6a) and

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