Thymopentin 5 is a synthetic immunomodulary peptide derived from the thymic hormone known as thymopoietin. It has been demonstrated that thymopentin 5 can be used to enhance immune response to vaccinations and cancers, rectify immune system imbalances, and increase the production of an important cytokine called interleukin-2. Organic peptide synthesis is the current method used to produce thymopentin 5, which is a time-consuming and expensive process that does not always result in a functional protein product. If thymopentin 5 can instead be produced using genetic engineering the peptide can be synthesized in a faster and less costly manner with a higher degree of folding accuracy. Previous work has already been performed to insert the DNA for thymopentin 5 in to the pETFVA vector. This research will attempt to transfect this vector in to COS monkey kidney cells and determine whether a functional thymopentin 5 protein product is produced. This will be done by performing an ELISA to determine whether there is an increase in interleukin-2 production in the transfected cells compared to the non-transfected COS cells. Thymopentin 5 has the potential to be used in clinical settings as an immune enhancing therapy; however, it is not naturally produced in the human body. In this project thymopentin 5 will be transfected in to COS cells and a functional protein product will be produced, which therefore could possibly be a new therapy for combating immune deficiencies.

Extraction and functional assay of cloned thymopentin 5

249th National Meeting (2015)

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