Recombinant Proteins, Protein Folding and Drug Discovery

Dear Colleagues,

Recombinant proteins are used in diagnosis, therapeutics, and drug discovery, and they pose continuous challenges.

The development of recombinant DNA technology in the early 1970s has revolutionized the field of medicine in both diagnostics and therapeutics, as well in other fields such as agriculture. This technology and its applications are being continuously improved. For example, this technology aided the development of recombinant therapeutic proteins, with recombinant human insulin being the first on the list, in October 1982. This revolutionary product, named Humulin as an alternative to the prevalent animals’ insulin, was developed by Eli Lilly in collaboration with Genentech. The fact that the recombinant human insulin gene was first cloned and constructed for expression earlier in 1978 by a team of scientists led by Herbert Boyer and Arthur Riggs at Genentech reflects the difficulties at the time to produce and isolate an active recombinant protein ready for the clinic and for patients. Currently, there are hundreds of therapeutic recombinant proteins on the market.

The encountered problems are many, including misfolding, aggregation, degradation, and a low yield of recombinant proteins. In addition to therapeutic recombinant proteins and special enzymes, antibodies, and viral antigens for diagnostics, producing a validated protein target for drug discovery.

Solutions for encountered problems include changing the expression host, codon optimization, lowering the expression temperature, and the co-expression of foldases and chaperons. In addition, there was always the option of purifying the misfolded and aggregated protein and solubilizing it in vitro.

In this Special Issue, we will focus on the applications and innovations in this important field of genetic engineering and its further application in medicine. We invite your contributions in the form of an article or a review.

Prof. Dr. Mohamed Raafat El-Gewely
Guest Editor

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• recombinant proteins
• protein folding
• drug discovery
• recombinant dna technology
• insulin
• host of expression
• optimization of codons
• folding enzymes and molecular chaperones
• purification
• dissolution in vitro