Recombinant production of pharmaceutical proteins is crucial, not only for personalized medicine. While most biopharmaceuticals are currently produced in mammalian cell culture, plant-made pharmaceuticals gain momentum. Post-translational modifications in plants are similar to those in humans, however, existing differences may affect quality, safety and efficacy of the products. A frequent modification in higher eukaryotes is prolyl-4-hydroxylase (P4H)-catalysed prolyl-hydroxylation. P4H sequence recognition sites on target proteins differ between humans and plants leading to non-human posttranslational modifications of recombinant human proteins produced in plants. The resulting hydroxyprolines display the anchor for plant-specific O-glycosylation, which bears immunogenic potential for patients. Here we describe the identification of a plant gene responsible for non-human prolyl-hydroxylation of human erythropoietin (hEPO) recombinantly produced in plant (moss) bioreactors. Targeted ablation of this gene abolished undesired prolyl-hydroxylation of hEPO and thus paves the way for plant-made pharmaceuticals humanized via glyco-engineering in moss bioreactors.

Background: Wnt signalling regulates multiple aspects of brain development in vertebrate embryos. A large number of Wnts are expressed in the embryonic forebrain; however, it is poorly understood which specific Wnt performs which function and how they interact. Wnts are able to activate different intracellular pathways, but which of these pathways become activated in different brain subdivisions also remains enigmatic.

Metastatic renal cell carcinoma (RCC) is a molecularly heterogeneous disease that is intrinsically resistant to chemotherapy and radiotherapy. While VEGF and mTOR targeted therapies have shown clinical activity, their effects are variable and short-lived, underscoring the need for improved treatment strategies for RCC. Here, we used quantitative phosphoproteomics and immunohistochemical profiling of 346 RCC specimens to determine that Src kinase signaling is elevated in RCC cells that retain wild type (WT) von Hippel-Lindau (VHL) protein expression. Correspondingly, VHL-WT RCC cell lines and xenografts were sensitized to the Src inhibitor dasatinib compared to VHL null cells. Forced expression of hypoxia inducible factor (HIF) in VHL-WT RCC cells diminished Src signaling output by repressing transcription of the Src activator protein tyrosine phosphatase 1B (PTP1B) and conferred resistance to dasatinib. Our results suggest that a HIF-regulated VHL-PTP1B-Src signaling axis determines sensitivity of RCC to Src inhibitors and that stratification of RCC patients using antibody-based biomarker profiling may identify patients likely to respond to Src inhibitors in RCC clinical trials.

p63 is up-regulated in melanoma and prevents nuclear accumulation of p53.