基于液相色谱-串联质谱技术的磷酸化蛋白质组学分析

本文运用稳定同位素双甲基化标记技术、固定相金属离子螯合层析(IMAC)技术并结合液相色谱-串联质谱法研究了仙台病毒感染引起的宿主细胞磷酸化蛋白质组变化。实验发现定量的4 289个磷酸化肽段有~20%的蛋白质磷酸化位点发生了显著变化;通路富集分析表明哺乳动物雷帕毒素靶蛋白(mTOR)通路和剪接体(Spliceosome)通路可能参与宿主细胞对病毒的应答;通过对显著变化磷酸化肽段进行基序分析,发现了9个代表性的磷酸化修饰位点基序。本研究方法对于深入解析抗病毒天然免疫信号通路提供了新线索。     

二氧化钛富集磷酸肽方法优化及在腾冲嗜热厌氧菌磷酸化蛋白质组分析中的应用

为了提高二氧化钛富集磷酸肽法对磷酸肽的富集效率,以6种标准蛋白酶切肽段混合物为研究对象,对二氧化钛富集磷酸肽过程中的乙腈比例、三氟乙酸比例、二氧化钛用量等条件分别进行了优化。结果表明在乙腈含量为80%(v/v),三氟乙酸含量为1%(v/v),二氧化钛用量与需要富集肽段的质量比为40:1的条件下,可以取得较好的富集效果。将优化后的富集方法应用于腾冲嗜热厌氧菌磷酸化蛋白质的分析,初步鉴定到25个磷酸化蛋白质,为进一步研究这种极端环境下生存的低等生物的生命活动提供了参考信息。     

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.     

基于天冬氨酸的固定化金属离子亲和色谱材料用于磷酸化肽选择性富集

采用点击化学的方法将自然界中的天冬氨酸(aspartic acid)键合到硅球上(命名为Click Asp),并将Fe3+配位到Click Asp上,合成固定金属离子亲和色谱(IMAC)材料(Fe3+-Click Asp);采用红外光谱、X射线电子能谱和扫描电镜等表征证明Fe3+-Click Asp成功合成。将此IMAC材料用于蛋白质酶解液和牛奶中的磷酸化肽的富集,实现了磷酸化肽的高选择性富集。本研究为磷酸化蛋白质组学提供了新材料和新方法。     

磷酸化肽段分离富集方法研究进展

目前磷酸化肽段鉴定主要依赖于质谱技术,但磷酸化肽段的低丰度性以及来自非磷酸化肽段的干扰等因素,影响质谱的分析与鉴定。因此质谱分析前磷酸化肽段的富集,是深入研究磷酸化蛋白质组学的先决条件。该文介绍了磷酸化蛋白质组学中传统的以及新建立的一些磷酸化肽段分离富集方法的原理及优缺点,这些方法包括固相金属离子亲和色谱法(IMAC)、金属氧化亲和色谱法(MOAC)、强阳/阴离子交换色谱法(SCX/SAX)、亲水相互作用色谱法(HILIC)、静电排斥亲水相互作用色谱法(ERLIC)、化学衍生法、MALDI靶盘富集法以及多种富集方法相结合。     

天冬氨酸作为非特异性吸附抑制剂在二氧化钛选择性富集磷酸肽中的应用

二氧化钛富集法作为目前使用最为广泛的金属氧化物富集磷酸肽的方法,在富集过程中常常对富含天冬氨酸和谷氨酸的酸性非磷酸化肽段存在一定的非特异性吸附作用。这些肽段与磷酸化肽段一同被富集,降低了磷酸肽富集的选择性。传统方法中使用的非特异性吸附抑制剂常会对质谱的电喷雾离子源造成污染,因而限制了其在液相色谱-质谱联用(LC-MS)系统中的应用。本研究将天冬氨酸作为一种新型的非特异性吸附抑制剂加入到二氧化钛富集体系中,并分别对3种和9种标准蛋白质酶切肽段混合物进行富集实验,同时与添加另一种非特异性吸附抑制剂——谷氨酸以及不添加任何非特异性吸附抑制剂的富集体系进行了富集效果的比较。结果表明,天冬氨酸可以有效地提高二氧化钛对磷酸肽富集的选择性。将添加天冬氨酸的二氧化钛富集体系应用于鼠肝全蛋白质磷酸肽的富集中,同样取得了很好的效果,表明天冬氨酸在复杂的生物样本的磷酸肽富集中也同样具有良好的应用前景。此外,由于天冬氨酸在反相色谱中极易被洗脱去除,从而避免了传统抑制剂对LC-MS系统离子源的污染问题。     

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。     

基于强阳离子交换色谱分离的磷酸化肽段富集策略

为了在短时间内获得相对含量高的磷酸化肽段,以标准磷酸化蛋白质为模型对强阳离子交换色谱（SCX）分离磷酸化肽段体系的缓冲溶液和梯度设置进行了研究,并用酵母酶切肽段混合物考察了该路线在较复杂的样品中的应用。实验结果表明优化后的体系能够在30 min内分离出磷酸肽段,而且非磷酸化肽段的干扰很少,这样便相对提高了磷酸化肽段在质谱仪中的响应强度,重要的是该体系可以对复杂样品进行很好的分离。这说明SCX用于规模化磷酸化肽段富集的策略是可行的。本研究为磷酸化蛋白质组学规模化分析提供了实用技术。     

基于两相预柱的在线二维分离系统用于人肝组织中磷酸肽的规模化鉴定

将C18反相(RP)填充柱和磷酸基强阳离子交换(SCX)整体柱集成于一体的RP - SCX两相预柱,成功用于RPLC - MS/MS系统的自动进样和SCX分级,完成了磷酸肽在线多维分离平台的构建,可以减少样品的损失,极大地提高了系统的集成化水平和检测灵敏度.对人肝组织酶解液富集的磷酸肽进行规模化鉴定,在假阳率小于1％的情况下,共鉴定到3082条非重复的磷酸化肽段、3056个磷酸化位点和1332个磷酸化蛋白.对所鉴定到的磷酸化蛋白进行了功能分类和激酶分析.该实验结果对于了解蛋白质磷酸化在肝脏组织中发挥的生理学作用具有重要意义.     

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.     

Preparation of monodisperse immobilized Ti affinity chromatography microspheres for specific enrichment of phosphopeptides

This study presented an approach to prepare monodisperse immobilized Ti⁴⁺ affinity chromatography (Ti⁴⁺-IMAC) microspheres for specific enrichment of phosphopeptides in phosphoproteome analysis. Monodisperse polystyrene seed microspheres with a diameter of ca. 4.8 μm were first prepared by a dispersion polymerization method. Monodisperse microspheres with a diameter of ca. 13 μm were prepared using the seed microspheres by a single-step swelling and polymerization method. Ti⁴⁺ ion was immobilized after chemical modification of the microspheres with phosphonate groups. The specificity of the Ti⁴⁺-IMAC microspheres to phosphopeptides was demonstrated by selective enrichment of phosphopeptides from mixture of tryptic digests of α-casein and bovine serum albumin (BSA) at molar ratio of 1 to 500 by MALDI-TOF MS analysis. The sensitivity of detection for phosphopeptides determined by MALDI-TOF MS was as low as 5 fmol for standard tryptic digest of β-casein. The Ti⁴⁺-IMAC microspheres were compared with commercial Fe³⁺-IMAC adsorbent and homemade Zr⁴⁺-IMAC microspheres for enrichment of phosphopeptides. The phosphopeptides and non-phosphopeptides identified by Fe³⁺-IMAC, Zr⁴⁺-IMAC and Ti⁴⁺-IMAC methods were 26, 114, 127 and 181, 11, 11 respectively for the same tryptic digest samples. The results indicated that the Ti⁴⁺-IMAC had the best performance for enrichment of phosphopeptides.     

Facile synthesis of gallium ions immobilized and adenosine functionalized magnetic nanoparticles with high selectivity for multi-phosphopeptides

Despite recent advances in phosphoproteome research, detection and characterization of multi-phosphopeptides have remained a challenge. Here we present a novel IMAC strategy for effective extracting multi-phosphopeptides from complex samples, through Ga³⁺ chelation to the adenosine tri-phosphate (ATP)-functionalized magnetic nanoparticles (Ga³⁺-ATP-MNPs). The high specificity of Ga³⁺-ATP-MNPs was demonstrated by efficient enriching multi-phosphopeptides from the digest mixture of β-casein and BSA with molar ratio as low as 1:5000. Ga³⁺-ATP-MNPs were also successfully applied for the phosphoproteome analysis of rat liver mitochondria, resulting in the identification of 193 phosphopeptides with 331 phosphorylation sites from 158 phosphoproteins. In other words, 54.4% of the phosphopeptides trapped by Ga³⁺-ATP-MNPs were observed with more than one phosphorylated sites, resulting in significant improvement on the identification of peptides with multi-phosphorylated sites. The high specificity of Ga³⁺-ATP-MNPs towards multi-phosphopeptides may be due to the synergistic effect of the strong hydrophilic surface functionalized by ATP and the proper chelating strength provided by Ga³⁺. Moreover, the unique magnetic core of Ga³⁺-ATP-MNPs also facilitates the isolation process and on-plate enrichment for direct MALDI MS analysis with limit of detection as low as 30 amol. This new affinity-based protocol is expected to provide a powerful approach for characterizing multiple phosphorylation sites on proteins in complex and dilute analytes, which may be explored as complementary technique for improving the coverage of phosphoproteome.     

Mass spectrometric analysis of protein phosphorylation

Phosphorylation is one of the most common posttranslational modifications of proteins in eukaryotic cells; it plays an important role in a wide spectrum of biological processes. This makes its study an important task for understanding cell functioning mechanisms. The aim of phosphoproteomics is a global mass spectral analysis of the phosphoprotein composition of cells, i.e., phosphoproteome. Nowadays, new effective methods are actively developed, which succeed not only in the detection of phosphorylated proteins but also in the determination of phosphorylated amino acid residues (phosphorylation sites) and in the quantitative comparison of phosphorylation among several specimens. Despite the analysis of protein phosphorylation remains a complicated problem, the available methods nowadays allow the detection of thousands of phosphorylation sites in the very same experiment. The present review covers the main methods utilized in contemporary phosphoproteomics: phosphoprotein and phosphopeptides enrichment as well as the mass spectrometric analysis of protein phosphorylation.     

Comparative analysis of salt‐responsive phosphoproteins in maize leaves using Ti4+‐IMAC enrichment and ESI‐Q‐TOF MS

Salinity is one of the most common abiotic stresses encountered by plants. Reversible protein phosphorylation is involved in plant defense processes against salinity stress. Here, we performed global phosphopeptide mapping through enrichment by our synthesized PVA‐phosphate‐Ti⁴⁺ IMAC coupled with subsequent identification by ESI‐Q‐TOF MS. A total of 104 peptide sequences containing 139 phosphorylation sites were determined from 70 phosphoproteins of the control leaves. In contrast, 124 phosphopeptides containing 143 phosphorylated sites from 92 phosphoproteins were identified in salt‐stressed maize leaves. Compared with the control, 47 proteins were phosphorylated, 25 were dephosphorylated, and 45 overlapped. Among the 72 differential phosphoproteins, 35 were known salt stress response proteins and the rest had not been reported in the literature. To dissect the differential phosphorylation, gene ontology annotations were retrieved for the differential phosphoproteins. The results revealed that cell signaling pathway members such as calmodulin and 14‐3‐3 proteins were regulated in response to 24‐h salt stress. Multiple putative salt‐responsive phosphoproteins seem to be involved in the regulation of photosynthesis‐related processes. These results may help to understand the salt‐inducible phosphorylation processes of maize leaves.     

Two‐step Immobilized Metal Affinity Chromatography (IMAC) for Phosphoproteomics Using Mass Spectrometry

In this study, a new strategy named two‐step IMAC is demonstrated as a novel prelude to MS analysis of phosphoproteome by increasing the enrichment factor of phosphoproteins/phosphopeptides from a protein mixture. In this method, the first IMAC was performed at the protein level to extract the minute amount of phosphoproteins present in the sample. During this step, nonphosphoproteins and other undesired chemicals or inhibitors were excluded. After tryptic digestion, the second IMAC was performed at the peptide level to enrich phosphopeptides present in the tryptic digest, and the eluent from the second IMAC was analyzed by MALDI‐MS. It is particularly noticeable that the eluent from the first IMAC can be directly digested by trypsin without buffer exchange. Our results revealed that β‐casein that was spiked in a protein mixture can be successfully extracted by the first IMAC at a concentration of less than 1–3%, and the two phosphopeptides of β‐casein with single and four phosphorylation sites, respectively, can be captured by the second IMAC. It was found that the two‐step IMAC method could significantly reduce non‐specific bindings from unwanted proteins and greatly enhance the MALDI‐MS signal of phosphopeptide ions compared to the typical one‐step IMAC, by which only IMAC at the peptide level was performed. Two‐step IMAC was also found to tolerate a greater amount and a greater concentration range of proteins than one‐step IMAC, which is especially important when analyzing complicated unknown samples. Furthermore, the MS signal of phosphopeptide ions did not appear to be degraded by the presence of biological matrixes, such as the cell lysate in which the β‐casein was spiked in.     

Automated phosphoproteome analysis for cultured cancer cells by two-dimensional nanoLC-MS using a calcined titania/C18 biphasic column.

We have developed an on-line automated system for phosphoproteome analysis using titania-based phosphopeptide enrichment followed by nanoLC-MS/MS. Titania beads were prepared by calcination of commercial chromatographic titania beads at 800 degrees C to convert the crystalline structure. The obtained rutile-form titania exhibited higher selectivity in phosphopeptide enrichment than commercial titania, even in the absence of a competitive chelating reagent for non-phosphopeptides. For phosphoproteome analysis of human cervical cancer HeLa cells, tryptic digests of the cell extracts were directly injected into this on-line system, and 696 non-redundant phosphopeptides with 671 unambiguously determined phosphorylation sites, derived from 512 phosphoproteins, were successfully identified. This is the first successful application of an on-line automated phosphoproteome analysis system to complex biological samples.     

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.     

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.     

Phosphoproteome analysis of human liver tissue by long‐gradient nanoflow LC coupled with multiple stage MS analysis

Reversible protein phosphorylation plays a critical role in liver development and function. Comprehensively cataloging the phosphoproteins and their phosphorylation sites in human liver tissue will facilitate the understanding of physiological and pathological mechanisms of liver. Owing to lacking of efficient approach to fractionate phosphopeptides, nanoflow‐RPLC with long‐gradient elution was applied to reduce the complexity of the phosphopeptides in this study. Two approaches were performed to further improve the coverage of phosphoproteome analysis of human liver tissue. In one approach, ten‐replicated long‐gradient LC‐MS/MS runs were performed to analyze the enriched phosphopeptides, which resulted in the localization of 1080 phosphorylation sites from 495 proteins. In another approach, proteins from liver tissue were first fractionated by SDS‐PAGE and then long‐gradient LC‐MS/MS analysis was performed to analyze the phosphopeptides derived from each fraction, which resulted in the localization of 1786 phosphorylation sites from 911 proteins. The two approaches showed the complementation in phosphoproteome analysis of human liver tissue. Combining the results of the two approaches, identification of 2225 nonredundant phosphorylation sites from 1023 proteins was obtained. The confidence of phosphopeptide identifications was strictly controlled with false discovery rate (FDR)≤1% by a MS²/MS³ target‐decoy database search approach. Among the localized 2225 phosphorylated sites, as many as 70.07% (1559 phosphorylated sites) were also reported by others, which confirmed the high confidence of the sites determined in this study. Considering the data acquired from low accuracy mass spectrometer and processed by a conservative MS²/MS³ target‐decoy approach, the number of localized phosphorylation sites obtained for human liver tissue in this study is quite impressive.