The Locational Impact of Site-Specific PEGylation: Streamlined Screening with Cell-Free Protein Expression and Coarse-Grain Simulation

Although polyethylene glycol (PEG) is commonly used to improve protein stability and therapeutic efficacy, the optimal location for attaching PEG onto proteins is not well understood. Here, we present a cell-free protein synthesis-based screening platform that facilitates site-specific PEGylation and efficient evaluation of PEG attachment efficiency, thermal stability, and activity for different variants of PEGylated T4 lysozyme, including a di-PEGylated variant. We also report developing a computationally efficient coarse-grain simulation model as a potential tool to narrow experimental screening candidates. We use this simulation method as a novel tool to evaluate the locational impact of PEGylation. Using this screen, we also evaluated the predictive impact of PEGylation site solvent accessibility, conjugation site structure, PEG size, and double PEGylation. Our findings indicate that PEGylation efficiency, protein stability, and protein activity varied considerably with PEGylation site, variations that were not well predicted by common PEGylation guidelines. Overall our results suggest current guidelines are insufficiently predictive, highlighting the need for experimental and simulation screening systems such as the one presented here.