蛋白质组学中磷酸化肽的常用富集方法

磷酸化作用是最重要的蛋白质翻译后修饰方式之一,它是蛋白质组学的一个重要分支,在细胞识别、细胞信息传递、基因表达和新陈代谢等方面发挥着重要作用。采用适当方法对磷酸化肽进行分析有助于我们更好地了解生理病理机制。但是直接进行质谱分析时磷酸化肽的信号强度会受到无机盐以及大量非磷酸化肽的抑制,选择性差。为解决这一难题,在质谱分析前要对磷酸化肽进行选择性富集。本文回顾了几种常用的磷酸化肽富集方法,介绍了每种方法的发展状况和常用材料,其中包括固定金属离子亲和色谱法、金属氧化物富集法、强阴阳离子交换色谱法和MALDI靶板富集法。最后总结了各种富集方法的优缺点,对有效的磷酸化肽富集策略进行了前景展望。     

蛋白质组衍生肽段文库用于鉴定酪蛋白激酶2的底物模体

模体是蛋白质二级结构上的一种特征序列,激酶底物通常具有一类特征性的模体,识别底物模体对鉴定激酶底物具有重要意义。为了快速鉴定激酶底物模体,将全细胞蛋白质酶解液作为肽段文库的来源,采用碱性磷酸酶去除肽段的固有磷酸化后构建了用于筛选激酶底物模体的肽段文库。该肽段文库是大量非磷酸化肽段的混合物,将此混合肽段与酪蛋白激酶2和三磷酸腺苷作用30 min后,通过固定化金属离子亲和色谱法富集磷酸化肽段,采用反相液相色谱-串联质谱分析,成功地鉴定到472条非冗余底物肽段,包含451个非冗余磷酸化位点,并由此得到底物模体S/T-D/E-x-D/E。该法能够快速准确地筛选出激酶底物模体,对研究激酶-底物识别以及信号转导过程具有重要意义。     

磷酸化肽富集新方法研究进展

对组成复杂的生物样品中的低丰度磷酸化肽进行预富集,能够消除高丰度非磷酸化肽等干扰组分,从而提高磷酸化肽在质谱分析中的灵敏度,获得更好的检出和鉴定结果.在磷酸化肽富集过程中,对磷酸化肽具有选择性亲和作用的富集材料是实现对磷酸化肽特异高效富集的关键,多种具有不同类型亲和作用的富集材料已在磷酸化肽富集研究中得到了应用;而在材料形貌、富集操作形式、磷酸化肽富集特异性等方面,研究者们也不断在现有磷酸化肽富集材料的基础上进行多样化的改进.本文分别从不同类型亲和作用的磷酸化肽富集材料以及磷酸化肽富集方法改进两方面,对近年来磷酸化肽富集方法的研究进展进行了评述.     

翻译后修饰蛋白质组学分离方法的研究进展

蛋白质翻译后修饰（PTMs）是调节细胞内生理活动的重要途径。该文总结了近年来PTMs蛋白质组学相关的分离方法,包括反相（RP）色谱法、离子交换（IEX）色谱法、亲水相互作用色谱（HILIC）法、多孔石墨化碳（PGC）色谱法、毛细管电泳（CE）法及分子筛色谱（SEC）法等。这些新方法为磷酸化、乙酰化、糖基化等PTM肽段或蛋白质的鉴定提供了更高的分离度和灵敏度。此外,该文也介绍了蛋白质领域其他重要分离方法的研究进展,这些方法可能被进一步应用于PTMs蛋白质组学的研究中。     

基于亲和色谱的肺癌细胞磷酸化蛋白质组研究及其应用

磷酸化是蛋白质翻译后修饰的重要形式之一,其异常往往会导致细胞内信号通路的紊乱和疾病的发生。固定化金属离子亲和色谱(IMAC)是磷酸化肽段的高效富集技术,在磷酸化蛋白质组研究方面应用广泛。该研究以金属钛离子(Ti⁴⁺)螯合IMAC材料(Ti⁴⁺-IMAC)为载体,进行磷酸化肽段富集。比较了10 μm Ti⁴⁺-IMAC通过振荡法和固相萃取法(SPE)富集磷酸肽的效果,发现振荡法可以富集到更多的磷酸肽;对比了两种尺寸(10 μm和30 μm)Ti⁴⁺-IMAC在磷酸化肽段富集中的差异,发现小尺寸材料富集效果更佳。进一步采用优化的策略比较了不同转移能力肺癌细胞的磷酸化蛋白质组,免标记定量蛋白质组学结果表明,优化的Ti⁴⁺-IMAC方法可以从正常的肺成纤维细胞MRC5、低转移肺癌细胞95C和高转移肺癌细胞95D中分别鉴定到510、863和1108种磷酸化蛋白质,其中317种为3组所共有。该研究共鉴定到1268种磷酸化蛋白质上的7560个磷酸化位点,其中1130个为差异磷酸化位点,文献报道显示部分异常表达的激酶与癌症转移密切相关。通过生信对比分析发现,异常表达的磷酸化蛋白质主要与细胞侵袭、迁移和死亡等细胞迁移方面的功能有关。通过优化磷酸化肽富集策略,初步阐明了磷酸化蛋白质网络的异常与肺癌转移之间的相关性,该方法有望用于肺癌进展相关的磷酸化位点、磷酸化蛋白质及其信号通路研究。     

人神经母细胞瘤的磷酸化膜蛋白质组分析

针对人神经母细胞瘤SH-SY5Y细胞系的磷酸化膜蛋白质组,发展了基于多酶酶解法结合杂化硅胶基质固定化钛离子亲和色谱(Ti4+-IMAC)整体柱富集的分析策略。该方法通过对细胞裂解液进行超速离心,以及1 mol/L NaCl和0.1 mol/L Na2CO3顺序清洗,获得膜蛋白质组分。所提取的蛋白质分别经胰蛋白酶、胰凝乳蛋白酶和胃蛋白酶平行酶解,产生的肽段经Ti4+-IMAC整体柱选择性富集磷酸肽后,采用纳升级反相液相色谱分离和质谱鉴定,成功鉴定到43个磷酸化蛋白质,其中有14个定位于膜上。研究结果表明,采用该策略开展SH-SY5Y细胞系磷酸化膜蛋白质组学分析有望加速对该肿瘤的研究和相关潜在标记物的筛选。     

基于TMT10-plex等量标记结合SMOAC富集磷酸肽的定量磷酸化蛋白质组性能评价

探索并建立了一种快速、 简便且高通量定量磷酸化蛋白质组的策略, 即采用连续互补的磷酸化富集方法SMOAC(Sequential enrichment of metal oxide affinity chromatography)结合TMT(Tandem mass tag)标记技术定量磷酸化蛋白质组学. 以3例经紫草素处理的及3例正常的人肝癌 HepG2 细胞为实验材料, 经Trypsin酶解后的肽段用TMT10-plex试剂进行等量标记, 标记肽段先经TiO₂富集, 收集包含磷酸化肽段的洗脱液, 接着用次氮基三醋酸铁(Fe-NTA)对TiO₂的流穿液和清洗液进行二次富集, 再次收集包含磷酸化肽段的洗脱液. 整个实验流程做2组, 对其中一组的2次洗脱液分别分析, 另一组的2次洗脱液合并分析. 在SMOAC的2次洗脱液合并分析中鉴定到4263个磷酸化蛋白上超过13000条磷酸化肽, 富集特异性>97%, 其中被定量的磷酸化蛋白为3848个, 占总鉴定量的90%以上. 研究结果表明, SMOAC 能够有效提高磷酸化肽段的鉴定效率, 且能与TMT等量标记试剂结合, 实现对少量蛋白样品的磷酸化蛋白定量分析.     

混合模式色谱材料Click TE-GSH高效富集多磷酸化肽

多磷酸蛋白对于生物体适应内外环境具有重要意义,而明确多磷酸蛋白的磷酸位点功能及其信号转导机制尤为关键. 复杂生物样品中多磷酸化肽的低丰度、低电离的特性,以及非磷酸化肽的抑制作用,决定了质谱分析前进行多磷酸化肽富集是非常必要的步骤. 本工作采用基于巯基-烯烃点击化学法合成的混合模式材料Click TE-GSH进行单磷酸化肽和多磷酸化肽的选择性富集. 我们建立了单磷酸化肽、双磷酸化肽和多磷酸化肽的顺序分段富集方法. 该优化方法能抗干扰,应用于脱脂牛奶时富集到11条多磷酸化肽. 与商品化固化金属亲和色谱(IMAC)材料相比,Click TE-GSH富集多磷酸化肽的选择性更好. 本工作所建立的富集方法为高效富集多磷酸化肽提供新方法和新技术.     

基于离心式富集装置的酪氨酸磷酸肽分析新方法

酪氨酸磷酸化及其相应激酶活性的研究在抗肿瘤药物靶点的研发中具有重要意义.由于酪氨酸磷酸化仅占蛋白质总磷酸化含量的不足0.1%,因此规模化的酪氨酸磷酸化鉴定面临着重大技术挑战.本研究构建了TiO2串联C18反相填料的离心式富集装置,结合抗体免疫沉淀法,建立了酪氨酸磷酸肽的富集策略.此新型富集装置由吸头、适配器和离心(EP)管组成,将TiO2富集磷酸肽和C18填料反相分离磷酸肽有机结合,以离心的方式进行样品的上样、清洗、洗脱和分离,再通过抗酪氨酸磷酸化抗体进一步特异性富集酪氨酸磷酸肽,从而实现了酪氨酸磷酸肽的高效富集和大规模质谱鉴定.通过离心式富集装置简化了实验步骤,减少了样品损失和人为因素干扰;而且离心式、平行化的样品处理方式可显著提高分析通量.将此策略成功用于小鼠肝脏蛋白质酪氨酸磷酸化肽段的富集和质谱鉴定,在5 mg鼠肝蛋白中共鉴定出967个酪氨酸磷酸化位点,对应545个蛋白质,显示了其在蛋白质组学研究中的应用潜力.     

亲水作用-反相二维液相色谱串联质谱法鉴定水稻蛋白质

建立了亲水作用-反相二维液相色谱串联质谱分析水稻叶片蛋白质组学的方法。利用标准肽段系统分析了液相色谱流动相酸碱度对二维亲水作用-反相色谱系统正交性的影响。结果表明,第一维亲水作用色谱在碱性(pH 9.3)和第二维反相色谱在酸性(pH 3.3)的条件下,正交性最佳(R~2=0.34113)。在此基础上,结合馏分收集技术进一步评价了本测试系统在水稻叶片蛋白质分析中的正交性。结果表明,在所有馏分收集组分中,鉴定次数小于2次的水稻叶片肽段占总肽段数目的 50%以上,且一维液相色谱馏分收集的肽段在第二维色谱及质谱分离分析中,可以较好地分布在不同时间段的洗脱窗口,表明本研究建立的亲水作用-反相二维液相色谱串联质谱结合馏分收集技术在复杂水稻叶片蛋白质分离鉴定中可提供良好的的分离正交性。结合水稻蛋白质数据库检索,共鉴定出207345个肽段,归属于2930个蛋白质簇。     

EJMS protocol: systematic studies on TiO2-based phosphopeptide enrichment procedures upon in-solution and in-gel digestions of proteins. Are there readily applicable protocols suitable for matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization mass spectrometry-based phosphopeptide stability estimations?

There have been many successful efforts to enrich phosphopeptides in complex protein mixtures by the use of immobilized metal affinity chromatography (IMAC) and/or metal oxide affinity chromatography (MOAC) with which mass spectrometric analysis of phosphopeptides has become state of the art in specialized laboratories, mostly applying nanoLC electrospray ionization mass spectrometry-based investigations. However, widespread use of these powerful techniques is still not achieved. In this study, we present a ready-to-use phosphopeptide enrichment procedure using commercially available TiO(2)-loaded pipette tips in combination with matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization mass spectrometry (MALDI-MS) analyses. Using α-casein as a model protein and citric acid as additive during sample loading, a similar enrichment success can be achieved as compared to applying 2,5- dihydroxy benzoic acid (DHB) for this task. But the DHB-inherited drawbacks are eliminated. In addition, we show that combining DHB and 2,4,6-trihydroxy acetophenone (THAP) as matrix for MALDI-MS measurements retains the sensitivity of DHB for phosphopeptide analysis but adds the homogenous crystallization properties of THAP, enabling preparation of evenly distributed matrix surfaces on MALDI-MS anchor targets, a prerequisite for automated MALDI- MS analyses. Tripartite motif-containing protein 28 and stathmin are two examples for which successful phosphopeptide enrichment of either sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis or two-dimensional gel electrophoresis-separated proteins is shown. Finally, high resolution MALDI Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry after phosphopeptide enrichment suggests that chemical dephosphorylation may occur as a side reaction during basic elution of phosphopeptides bound to MOAC surfaces, suggesting that proteome-wide phosphopeptide analyses ought to be interpreted with caution. In contrast, in-depth analysis of phosphopeptide/non-phosphorylated peptide siblings may be used to estimate stability differences of phosphorylation sites in individual proteins, possibly adding valuable information on biological regulation processes.     

Dynamic identification of phosphopeptides using immobilized metal ion affinity chromatography enrichment, subsequent partial beta-elimination/chemical tagging and matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization mass spectrometric analysis

The enrichment of phosphopeptides using immobilized metal ion affinity chromatography (IMAC) and subsequent mass spectrometric analysis is a powerful protocol for detecting phosphopeptides and analyzing their phosphorylation state. However, nonspecific binding peptides, such as acidic, nonphosphorylated peptides, often coelute and make analyses of mass spectra difficult. This study used a partial chemical tagging reaction of a phosphopeptide mixture, enriched by IMAC and contaminated with nonspecific binding peptides, following a modified beta-elimination/Michael addition method, and dynamic mass analysis of the resulting peptide pool. Mercaptoethanol was used as a chemical tag and nitrilotriacetic acid (NTA) immobilized on Sepharose beads was used for IMAC enrichment. The time-dependent dynamic mass analysis of the partially tagged reaction mixture detected intact phosphopeptides and their mercaptoethanol-tagged derivatives simultaneously by their mass difference (-20 Da for each phosphorylation site). The number of new peaks appearing with the mass shift gave the number of multiply phosphorylated sites in a phosphopeptide. Therefore, this partial chemical tagging/dynamic mass analysis method can be a powerful tool for rapid and efficient phosphopeptide identification and analysis of the phosphorylation state concurrently using only MS analysis data.     

Enrichment and analysis of phosphopeptides under different experimental conditions using titanium dioxide affinity chromatography and mass spectrometry

Titanium dioxide metal oxide affinity chromatography (TiO₂‐MOAC) is widely regarded as being more selective than immobilized metal‐ion affinity chromatography (IMAC) for phosphopeptide enrichment. However, the widespread application of TiO₂‐MOAC to biological samples is hampered by conflicting reports as to which experimental conditions are optimal. We have evaluated the performance of TiO₂‐MOAC under a wide range of loading and elution conditions. Loading and stringent washing of peptides with strongly acidic solutions ensured highly selective enrichment for phosphopeptides, with minimal carryover of non‐phosphorylated peptides. Contrary to previous reports, the addition of glycolic acid to the loading solution was found to reduce specificity towards phosphopeptides. Base elution in ammonium hydroxide or ammonium phosphate provided optimal specificity and recovery of phosphorylated peptides. In contrast, elution with phosphoric acid gave incomplete recovery of phosphopeptides, whereas inclusion of 2,5‐dihydroxybenzoic acid in the eluant introduced a bias against the recovery of multiply phosphorylated peptides. TiO₂‐MOAC was also found to be intolerant of many reagents commonly used as phosphatase inhibitors during protein purification. However, TiO₂‐MOAC showed higher specificity than immobilized gallium (Ga³⁺), immobilized iron (Fe³⁺), or zirconium dioxide (ZrO₂) affinity chromatography for phosphopeptide enrichment. Matrix‐assisted laser desorption/ionization mass spectrometry (MALDI‐MS) was more effective in detecting larger, multiply phosphorylated peptides than liquid chromatography/electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry (LC/ESI‐MS/MS), which was more efficient for smaller, singly phosphorylated peptides. Copyright © 2009 Crown in the right of Canada. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Comparison of metal and metal oxide media for phosphopeptide enrichment prior to mass spectrometric analyses

Several affinity resins consisting of ionic metals or metal oxides were investigated for their phosphopeptide enrichment capabilities with subsequent mass spectrometric analyses. Commercially-available enrichment metal oxide affinity chromatography (MOAC) resins using manufacturer’s and/or published protocols were compared and evaluated for the most efficient and selective method that could be implemented as a standard enrichment procedure. From these comparative analyses, using a tryptic digest of casein proteins, it was determined that in our hands, two of the resins out-performed the others based on a variety of criteria, including the number of phosphorylation sites identified during MS analyses, the lower numbers of nonspecifically bound peptides observed, and the limits of detection. Applicability of these enrichment resins to a complex biological mixture was investigated. For this work, a mixture of avian histones was digested, subjected to titanium dioxide phosphopeptide enrichment, and analyzed by mass spectrometry. Eight phosphorylated tryptic peptides were observed following enrichment and subsequent LC/MS/MS analyses. Of note, seven of the eight phosphopeptides were not observed without titanium dioxide enrichment. From these analyses, four sites of phosphorylation were unequivocally determined, two of which have not been reported previously. Four additional phosphopeptides were observed; however, the site of phosphorylation could not be distinguished but was localized to one of two possible amino acids. These methods should aid in the investigation of proteins post-translationally modified with phosphate, especially those present at low concentrations as was demonstrated by successful enrichment at the femtomole level.     

Highly specific enrichment of phosphopeptides by zirconium dioxide nanoparticles for phosphoproteome analysis

Large-scale characterization of phosphoproteins requires highly specific methods for the purification of phosphopeptides because of the low abundance of phosphoproteins and substoichiometry of phosphorylation. A phosphopeptide enrichment method using ZrO2 nanoparticles is presented. The high specificity of this approach was demonstrated by the isolation of phosphopeptides from the digests of model phosphoproteins. The strong affinity of ZrO2 nanoparticles to phosphopeptides enables the specific enrichment of phosphopeptides from a complex peptide mixture in which the abundance of phosphopeptides is two orders of magnitude lower than that of nonphosphopeptides. Superior selectivity of ZrO2 nanoparticles for the enrichment of phosphorylated peptides than that of conventional immobilized metal affinity chromatography was observed. Femtomole phosphopeptides from digestion products could be enriched by ZrO2 nanoparticles and can be well detected by MALDI mass spectrometric analysis. ZrO2 nanoparticles were further applied to selectively isolate phosphopeptides from the tryptic digestion of mouse liver lysate for phosphoproteome analysis by nanoliter LC MS/MS (nano-LC-MS/MS) and MS/MS/MS. A total of 248 defining phosphorylation sites and 140 phosphorylated peptides were identified by manual validation using a series of rigid criteria.     

Development of core–shell structure Fe3O4@Ta2O5 microspheres for selective enrichment of phosphopeptides for mass spectrometry analysis

Protein phosphorylation is one of the most important post-translational modifications. Due to the dynamic nature and low stoichiometry of the protein phosphorylation, enrichment of phosphopeptides from proteolytic mixtures is often necessary prior to their characterization by mass spectrometry. Many metal oxides such as titanium dioxide and zirconium dioxide have been successfully applied to isolation and enrichment of phosphopeptides. Recently, niobium pentoxide was proved to have the ability for selective enrichment of phosphopeptides. Considering the proximity of tantalum to niobium, we supposed that Ta₂O₅ can be used as affinity probes for phosphopeptide enrichment. In the work, we synthesized Fe₃O₄@Ta₂O₅ magnetic microspheres with core–shell structure for selective enrichment of phosphopeptides. To demonstrate its ability for selective enrichment of phosphopeptides, we applied Fe₃O₄@Ta₂O₅ magnetic microspheres to isolation and enrichment of the phosphopeptides from tryptic digestion of standard proteins and real samples, and then the enriched peptides were analyzed by matrix-assisted laser desorption mass spectrometry analysis (MALDI-MS) or liquid chromatography coupled to electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (LC–ESI-MS). Experiment results demonstrate that Ta₂O₅ coated-magnetic microspheres show the excellent potential for selective enrichment of phosphopeptides.     

Isolation of phosphopeptides using zirconium-chlorophosphonazo chelate-modified silica nanoparticles

Due to the low abundance of phosphoproteins and substoichiometry of phosphorylation, the elucidation of protein phosphorylation requires highly specific materials for isolation of phosphopeptides from biological samples prior to mass spectrometric analysis. In this study, chlorophosphonazo type derivatives of chromotropic acid including p-hydroxychlorophosphonazo (HCPA) and chlorophosphonazo I (CPA I), traditionally used in the photometric determination of transition metal ions, have been employed as chelating ligands in the preparation of novel affinity materials for phosphopeptide enrichment. The chromogenic reagents of HCPA and CPA I were chemically modified on the surface of silica nanoparticles, and the functionalized materials were charged with zirconium ions through the strong complexation between chelating ligands and Zr(4+). The obtained zirconium-chlorophosphonazo chelate-modified silica nanoparticles (Zr-HCPA-SNPs and Zr-CPA I-SNPs) were applied to the selective enrichment of phosphopeptides, followed by matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS) analysis. The purification procedures were optimized using α-casein digest at first, and then the performance of these two affinity materials for efficient and specific enrichment of phosphopeptides was evaluated with the tryptic digests of standard proteins (α-casein, β-casein, ovalbumin and bovine serum albumin). It is found that Zr-HCPA-SNPs are superior to Zr-CPA I-SNPs in phosphopeptide enrichment. Using Zr-HCPA-SNPs to trap phosphopeptides in α-casein digest, the detection limit was close to 50fmol based on MALDI-TOF MS analysis. Finally, Zr-HCPA-SNPs were used to directly isolate phosphopeptides from diluted human serum of healthy, diabetes and hypertension persons, respectively. Our results show that the constitution and level of phosphopeptides are remarkably different among the three groups, which indicate the powerful potentials of Zr-HCPA-SNPs in disease diagnosis and biomarker screening.     

Evaluation of the impact of some experimental procedures on different phosphopeptide enrichment techniques

The complete characterization of phosphorylated proteins requires an efficient procedure for the enrichment of phosphopeptides from amongst a complicated peptide mixture. The sensitivity of the traditional immobilized metal affinity chromatography (IMAC) approach is severely affected by various buffers, detergents and other reagents normally utilized in biochemical and cell biological procedures, and thus pre-purification steps such as reversed-phase chromatography is required prior to phosphopeptide enrichment. Here we evaluate the use of different 'non-phosphopeptide-excluding compounds' in the loading buffer for titanium dioxide (TiO(2)) chromatography and show that TiO(2) is more robust and tolerant towards many reagents, including salts, detergents and other low molecular mass molecules, than conventional IMAC. In addition, we show that the inclusion of various detergents can enhance the efficiency of this enrichment method, as phosphopeptides that otherwise adhere to plastic surfaces can be efficiently solubilized and subsequently purified. The TiO(2) chromatography technique is also compared to zirconium dioxide chromatography for phosphopeptide enrichment.     

Automated immobilized metal affinity chromatography/nano-liquid chromatography/electrospray ionization mass spectrometry platform for profiling protein phosphorylation sites

A versatile integrated system has been developed for the automated enrichment and analysis of phosphopeptides by immobilized metal affinity chromatography/nano-liquid chromatography/electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (IMAC/nano-LC/ESI-MS). This system utilizes two independently controlled high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) pumps, an autosampler and microvalves to prepare and elute samples into an ion trap mass spectrometer. The use of robust reversed-phase HPLC columns with integrated ESI emitter tips enables the reproducible detection and identification of low-femtomole quantities of phosphopeptides. The entire system is coordinated through a simple user interface by customized software. The ruggedness of the system is demonstrated by highly reproducible analyses of single and multi-protein digests, while its utility is demonstrated by the thorough evaluation of the relative immunoprecipitation efficiencies of several commercially available anti-phosphotyrosine antibodies.