Construction and characterization of two versions of bifunctional EGFP-sTRAIL fusion proteins.

The extracellular portion (amino acids 95-281 or 114-281) of the human tumor necrosis factor-related apoptosis-inducing ligand (sTRAIL) was genetically linked to the C terminus of the fluoresce-enhanced green fluorescent protein variant (EGFP) to generate two versions of EGFP-sTRAIL fusion proteins, designated EGFP-sTR95 and EGFP-sTR114, respectively. The two versions of EGFP-sTRAIL fusion proteins both induce extensive apoptosis in lymphoid as well as nonlymphoid tumor cell lines. In addition, the two versions of fusion proteins retain similar fluorescence spectra to those of EGFP and have shown the specific binding to TRAIL receptor-positive cells; thus, the stained cells could be analyzed with flow cytometry. Hence, the two versions of fusion proteins represent a readily obtainable source of biologically active sTRAIL that may prove useful in exploit fully the characteristics of both the soluble TRAIL and its receptor system.