Creative Biostructure has built up the proprietary Mempro™ protein production platform based on years of experience, our scientists can provide high-quality customized integrin production services by employing plant-based expression system.

Mempro™ plant-based protein production platform is the innovative system for membrane protein production. Integrins are a large group of transmembrane receptors that are involved in cell adhesion, thus, which are also called cell adhesion receptors. It is well known that integrins play a crucial role in the lower affinity attachment between cells and extracellular matrix (ECM) or various ligands on other cell surfaces. Intergrins are noncovalent-linkage transmembrane αβ heterodimers, containing more than 18 α and eight β subunit types in human capable of forming twenty-four different heterodimers. Integrins have been identified in a large variety of species, including mammals, chicken, zebrafish, Caenorhabditis elegans and Drosophila melanogaster. Additionally, integrins are also involved in a large variety of other biological functions, such as immune patrolling, cell migration, and binding to cells by certain viruses (e.g. adenovirus, echovirus, hantavirus, and foot and mouth disease viruses).

Figure 1. The basic structure of integrin. (http://www.scq.ubc.ca/the-role-of-integrins-in-wound-healing/)

Our patent Mempro™ plant-based expression system holds a wide range of advantages, including low endotoxin, low protease activity, free of animal components, serum, endotoxins and antibiotics as well as human or animal infectious agents or other endogenous mammalian contamination. Moreover, animal-free recombinant membrane proteins are particularly crucial for customers concerned with experimental variables caused by trace animal components or mammalian pathogens. In addition, post-translational modification such as glycosylation and disulfide bonds can be introduced in plant system.

Creative Biostructure can utilize various types of host plants for membrane protein production services, including Nicotiana benthamiana (tobacco), Medicago rativa (alfalfa), Arabidopsis thaliana (A. thaliana), potato, maize, barley and lettuce. We can perform two different strategies for producing recombinant membrane protein in plants: stable transformation system and transient expression system.

With the Mempro™ plant-based protein production platform, Creative Biostructure is able to express, isolate, purify and crystallize integrins to facilitate the study of their biological functions. Misfolding, aggregation, inactivity, poor stability, high endotoxin and solubility, etc. are the common difficulties encountered in cell-based expression system. These difficulties can be overcomed in the renewed plant-based expression system.

Creative Biostructure can also provide Mempro™ plant-based virus-like particles (VLPs) production services, Mempro™ animal-free recombinant protein production services and Mempro™ membrane protein production services. Please feel free to contact us for a detailed quote.

References:
A. van der Flier and A. Sonnenberg (2001). Function and interactions of integrins. Cell Tissue Res., 305(3): 285-298.
A. Wiktorek-Smagur, et al. (2012). Green way of biomedicine – how to force plants to produce new important proteins. Transgenic Plants-Advances and Limitations, Chapter 3. doi: 10.5772/1409.
C. Brakebusch and R. Fässler. (2003). The integrin-actin connection, an eternal love affair. EMBO J., 22(10):2324-2333.
F. Junge, et al. (2008) Large-scale production of functional membrane proteins. Cellular Mol. Life Sci., 65 (11): 1729-1755.