U.S. researchers are rapidly evolving new molecules in mammalian cells

WASHINGTON, July 6 (Xinhua) -- A U.S. research team has developed a fast and precise "targeted evolution" tool that can produce new functional proteins in mammalian cells, which are expected to become drugs for a variety of diseases.
"targeted evolution" technique artificially accelerates the process of natural evolution, allowing modified DNA (deoxybonucleic acid) sequences to accomplish a specific task and evolve new biomass molecules. In 2018, scientists from the United States and Britain won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for their work on the directional evolution of enzymes. However, the existing evolutionary methods are mainly carried out in bacterial cells, with limitations.
researchers at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine recently published an article in the American journal Cell, demonstrating a fast, simple and versatile tool that can evolve target proteins within mammalian cells in a few days.
the use of the tool, known as "VEGAS" by researchers, the researchers used the Hindbis virus as a vector to carry the gene that would mutate. After infecting cells in a petri dish, the virus carries genes that rapidly mutate, and the researchers then set conditions for only certain mutant genes to grow, allowing them to encode proteins with specified functions within the cells. The researchers say the tool can work in mammalian cells and evolve new proteins that are difficult to produce in bacterial cells.
in a demonstration experiment, researchers used "VEGAS" on a protein called a "cyclin transactivation factor." The protein was originally insulated when it encountered tylutin or strong mycomycin, but the 22 genes in the evolved "new version" mutated and were able to function at high doses of strong mycomycin.Justin Inglis, a postdoctoral and assistant researcher at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine and lead author of the
paper, said the protein had mutated only two genes in four months in previously reported in mammalian cell-directed evolution experiments, producing only partial resistance to strong mycomycin.
Inglis team also used the tool to develop a small molecule called nanoantibodies, which are expected to be developed into drugs to treat mental illnesses in the future.