Characterization of a monolithic immobilized trypsin microreactor with on-line coupling to ESI-MS

The preparation and characterization of a miniaturized trypsin reactor using on-line coupling with an ESI-TOF mass spectrometer are described. L-1-Tosylamido-2-phenylethyl chloromethyl ketone-trypsin was covalently immobilized on poly(glycidyl methacrylate-co-ethylene dimethacrylate) monolith prepared in a 75 microm ID fused silica capillary resulting in a bioreactor with high local concentration of the proteolytic enzyme. Covalent immobilization of trypsin on this support was performed using the epoxide functional groups in either a one- or a multistep reaction. For on-line protein digestion-MS analysis the bioreactor was coupled with the mass spectrometer using a liquid junction microelectrospray interface. The performance of the reactor was tested using an on-line flow through the system with flow rates of 50-300 nL/min. The resulting protein consumption was in the atto- to low femtomole range. Proteolytic activity was characterized in a wide range of conditions with respect to the flow rate, pH, and temperature. Complete protein digestion was achieved in less than 30 s at 25 degrees C with the sequence coverage of 80% (cytochrome c), which is comparable to 3 h digestion in solution at 37 degrees C. Besides the good performance at laboratory temperature, the immobilized trypsin in the bioreactor also performed well at lower pH compared to the standard in-solution protocols.     

Evidence for the induction of a conformational change of trypsin by a specific substrate at pH 8.0

A method is described that permits the covalent attachment of enzymes to solid matrices in the presence of saturating levels of a specific substrate under conditions where the enzyme is optimally active. Bovine trypsin immobilized on glass and agarose in the presence of saturating levels of N-α-benzoyl-L-arginine ethyl ester differs in a number of respects from the enzyme bound in the absence of substrate. Trypsin bound in the presence of substrate (ES form) is attached to porous glass through three more side chains than the enzyme coupled in the absence of substrate (E form). The rate of inactivation by iodoacetamide for the ES form is much greater than that for the E form. The two enzyme forms differ also in their reactivity with TLCK and DFP, active site-directed inhibitors. The pH dependences of the ES and the E forms bound to agarose differ; the pH optima are 9.0 and 8.5 for the ES and E forms, respectively. The thermal denaturation of the agarose-trypsins occurs in two distinct steps. The inactivation rate of the ES form is significantly slower than the E form in both stages. Also, for the hydrolysis of both N-α-benzoyl-L-arginine ethyl ester and N-α-benzoyl-Larginine amide, the K_m values for the ES form were lower than the K_m values for the E form. Our data suggest that a substrate-induced conformatonal change occurs with trypsin, and that this conformation is stabilized when the enzyme is bound by multiple attachments to a solid support. These findings support the “induced-fit” theory in general and lend support to the interpretation of the activation of trypsin by methyl guanidine that is part of a specific substrate (Inagami, T., and Hatano, H. [1969] J. Biol. Chem. 244, 1176).     

原子转移自由基聚合修饰银丝固定化酶反应器的制备及在蛋白质组鉴定中的应用

针对传统溶液酶解存在的酶解时间较长、酶自切物干扰以及蛋白酶不能重复使用等缺陷,通过电子转移生成催化剂的原子转移自由基聚合法修饰银丝,并以其为载体制备了一种新型的固定化酶反应器。用质谱考察了银丝固定化酶反应器(SW-Trypsin)的酶解效率、重复性和回收率。结果表明:绒毛状聚合物修饰的SW-Trypsin的酶解效率较高,酶解标准蛋白牛血清白蛋白(BSA)20 min后,肽段的氨基酸序列覆盖率可达93%,高于传统溶液酶解方法酶解16 h所得79%的覆盖率。使用该固定化酶反应器于一个月内8次酶解BSA所得的氨基酸序列覆盖率在89%到97%之间,平均覆盖率为94%,显示出良好的稳定性。另外,该固定化酶反应器酶解马心肌红蛋白(MYO)的回收率为87.67%。最后,用SW-Trypsin酶解腾冲嗜热菌全蛋白20 min,所鉴定到的氨基酸序列覆盖率和蛋白数量与同样条件下溶液酶解16 h的结果接近,且零漏切位点肽段的比例更高。加之容易分离的优点,SW-Trypsin在蛋白质组学的应用中具有良好的前景。     

多层开管毛细管酶反应器的制备及在蛋白质酶切中的应用

以石英毛细管作为酶固定化的载体, 在毛细管内壁上逐步合成树枝形大分子聚酰胺-胺(PAMAM), 再通过交联剂戊二醛将胰蛋白酶直接键合到该大分子的末端氨基上, 并对酶固定化条件进行了优化, 制备了多层酶反应器. 利用该酶反应器对马心细胞色素C等蛋白质进行了酶切, 并对酶切的条件进行了优化. 实验结果表明, 该固定化酶反应器具有较高的酶切效率、良好的重现性和稳定性, 可用于蛋白质组学的研究.     

Ion-exchange-membrane-based enzyme micro-reactor coupled online with liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry for protein analysis

In this article, we developed a membrane-based enzyme micro-reactor by directly using commercial polystyrene–divinylbenzene cation–exchange membrane as the support for trypsin immobilization via electrostatic and hydrophobic interactions and successfully applied it for protein digestion. The construction of the reactor can be simply achieved by continuously pumping trypsin solution through the reactor for only 2 min, which was much faster than the other enzyme immobilization methods. In addition, the membrane reactor could be rapidly regenerated within 35 min, resulting in a “new” reactor for the digestion of every protein sample, completely eliminating the cross-interference of different protein samples. The amount and the activity of immobilized trypsin were measured, and the repeatability of the reactor was tested, with an RSD of 3.2% for the sequence coverage of cytochrome c in ten digestion replicates. An integrated platform for protein analysis, including online protein digestion and peptide separation and detection, was established by coupling the membrane enzyme reactor with liquid chromatography–quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry. The performance of the platform was evaluated using cytochrome c, myoglobin, and bovine serum albumin, showing that even in the short digestion time of several seconds the obtained sequence coverages was comparable to or higher than that with in-solution digestion. The system was also successfully used for the analysis of proteins from yeast cell lysate.     

Improving off-line accelerated tryptic digestion. Towards fast-lane proteolysis of complex biological samples

Off-line digestion of proteins using immobilized trypsin beads is studied with respect to the format of the digestion reactor, the digestion conditions, the comparison with in-solution digestion and its use in complex biological samples. The use of the filter vial as the most appropriate digestion reactor enables simple, efficient and easy-to-handle off-line digestion of the proteins on trypsin beads. It was shown that complex proteins like bovine serum albumin (BSA) need much longer time (89 min) and elevated temperature (37 degrees C) to be digested to an acceptable level compared to smaller proteins like cytochrome c (5 min, room temperature). Comparing the BSA digestion using immobilized trypsin beads with conventional in-solution digestion (overnight at 37 degrees C), it was shown that comparable results were obtained with respect to sequence coverage (>90%) and amount of missed cleavages (in both cases around 20 peptides with 1 or 2 missed cleavages were detected). However, the digestion using immobilized trypsin beads was considerable less time consuming. Good reproducibility and signal intensities were obtained for the digestion products of BSA in a complex urine sample. In addition to this, peptide products of proteins typically present in urine were identified.     

Application of a temperature-controllable microreactor to simple and rapid protein identification using MALDI-TOF MS

We have carried out a simultaneous thermal denaturation and trypsin digestion of proteins using a temperature-controllable microreactor. This is a simple and rapid sample preparation technique for use before matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry. In contrast to a conventional sample preparation method, which involves several chemical treatments, our sample preparation was performed using only trypsin digestion with the thermal denaturation of the target protein. Optimization of the reactor operational parameters for trypsin digestion using a temperature-controllable microreactor was carried out. The entire trypsin digestion procedure took about 11 min, and consisted of 1 min for the thermal denaturation of the sample protein (3 microl, 0.2 microM) at 85 degrees C, and 10 min for digestion of the protein at 37 degrees C. The resulting sequence coverage ranged from 24% to 57%, which was sufficient for practical protein identification.     

新型鳞片状聚合物修饰硅胶填料固定化酶的制备及其在蛋白质组鉴定中的应用

利用原子转移自由基聚合法制备了鳞片状聚合物修饰的硅胶填料,将其作为一种新型的固定化酶载体,实现了蛋白酶的高密度固定,从而明显缩短了复杂蛋白质样品的酶解时间。使用标准蛋白质对固定化酶的酶解效率进行了考察,结果表明: 鳞片状聚合物修饰的新型固定化酶硅胶填料具有较高的酶解效率,酶解标准蛋白质1 min后,鉴定到肽段的氨基酸序列覆盖率可达95%以上。将该固定化酶硅胶填料成功应用于大肠杆菌全蛋白质的酶解,从2 min酶解肽段的混合物中鉴定到的蛋白质数量超过同样条件下溶液酶解12 h的结果。另外,该固定化酶硅胶填料可以重复使用,其酶解效率具有良好的稳定性和重现性;该固定化酶具有较好的样品回收率,因而可以应用于蛋白质组学研究中。     

Disparities between immobilized enzyme and solution based digestion of transferrin with trypsin

Trypsin digestion is a major component of preparing proteins for peptide based identification and quantification by mass spectral (MS) analysis. Surprisingly proteolysis is the slowest part of the proteomics process by an order of magnitude. Numerous recent efforts to reduce protein digestion to a few minutes have centered on the use of an immobilized enzyme reactor (IMER) to minimize both trypsin autolysis and vastly increase the trypsin to protein ratio. A central question in this approach is whether proteolysis with an IMER produces the same peptide cleavage products as derived from solution based digestion. The studies reported here examined this question with transferrin; a model protein of known resistance to trypsin digestion. Results from these studies confirmed that a trypsin‐IMER can in fact digest transferrin in a few minutes; providing tryptic peptides that subsequent to MS analysis allow sequence identification equivalent to solution digestion. Although many of the peptides obtained from these two trypsin digestion systems were identical, many were not. The greatest difference was that the trypsin‐ IMER produces (i) numerous peptides bearing multiple lysine and/or arginine residues and (ii) identical portions of the protein sequence were found in multiple peptides. Most of these peptides were derived from five regions in transferrin. These results were interpreted to mean that proteolysis in the case of transferrin occurred faster than the rate at which buried lysine and arginine residues were unmasked in the five regions providing peptides that were only partially digested.     

Analytical characterization of a facile porous polymer monolithic trypsin microreactor enabling peptide mass mapping using mass spectrometry

A simple and rapid single-step method is presented to fabricate an enzyme reactor using trypsin immobilized on a macroporous polymer monolith. A reactor produced in a capillary format is ready to use within 1 h of preparation. The monomers making up the monolith, including N-acryloxysuccinimide for covalent immobilization of the enzyme, are mixed with trypsin and introduced into the column by capillary force for polymerization/immobilization. The enzyme activity from column-to-column is reproducible below 5% relative standard deviation (RSD), while the reactor is durable for at least 20 weeks when stored at room temperature. The apparent kinetic constants V(max) and K(m) are of value similar to those obtained by free trypsin in solution. Enzymatic digestion of proteins was shown to be feasible on a time-scale of seconds and submicromolar concentrations enabling peptide mass mapping by matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry.     

Development of an In-Line Enzyme Reactor Integrated into a Capillary Electrophoresis System

The goal of this paper was to develop an in-line immobilized enzyme reactor (IMER) integrated into a capillary electrophoresis platform. In our research, we created the IMER by adsorbing trypsin onto the inner surface of a capillary in a short section. Enzyme immobilization was possible due to the electrostatic attraction between the oppositely charged fused silica capillary surface and trypsin. The reactor was formed by simply injecting and removing trypsin solution from the capillary inlet (~1–2 cms). We investigated the factors affecting the efficiency of the reactor. The main advantages of the proposed method are the fast, cheap, and easy formation of an IMER with in-line protein digestion capability. Human tear samples were used to test the efficiency of the digestion in the microreactor.     

Development of an open-tubular trypsin reactor for on-line digestion of proteins

A study was initiated to construct a micro-reactor for protein digestion based on trypsin-coated fused-silica capillaries. Initially, surface plasmon resonance was used both for optimization of the surface chemistry applied in the preparation and for monitoring the amount of enzyme that was immobilized. The highest amount of trypsin was immobilized on dextran-coated SPR surfaces which allowed the covalent coupling of 11 ng mm⁻² trypsin. Fused-silica capillaries were modified in a similar manner and the resulting open-tubular trypsin-reactors having a pH optimum of pH 8.5, display a high activity when operated at 37 °C and are stable for at least two weeks when used continuously. Trypsin auto-digestion fragments, sample carry-over, and loss of signal due to adsorption of the protein were not observed. On-line digestion without prior protein denaturation, followed by micro-LC separation and photodiode array detection, was tested with horse-heart cytochrome C and horse skeletal-muscle myoglobin. The complete digestion of 20 pmol μL⁻¹ horse cytochrome C was observed when the average residence time of the protein sample in a 140 cm ×50 μm capillary immobilized enzyme reactor (IMER) was 165 s. Mass spectrometric identification of the injected protein on the basis of the tryptic peptides proved possible. Protein digestion was favorable with respect to reaction time and fragments formed when compared with other on-line and off-line procedures. These results and the easy preparation of this micro-reactor provide possibilities for miniaturized enzyme-reactors for on-line peptide mapping and inhibitor screening.     

Integration of immobilized trypsin bead beds for protein digestion within a microfluidic chip incorporating capillary electrophoresis separations and an electrospray mass spectrometry interface

A microfluidic device is described in which an electrospray interface to a mass spectrometer is integrated with a capillary electrophoresis channel, an injector and a protein digestion bed on a monolithic substrate. A large channel, 800 microm wide, 150 microm deep and 15 mm long, was created to act as a reactor bed for trypsin immobilized on 40-60 microm diameter beads. Separation was performed in channels etched 10 microm deep, 30 microm wide and about 45 mm long, feeding into a capillary, attached to the chip with a low dead volume coupling, that was 30 mm in length, with a 50 microm i.d. and 180 microm o.d. Sample was pumped through the reactor bed at flow rates between 0.5 and 60 microL/min. The application of this device for rapid digestion, separation and identification of proteins is demonstrated for melittin, cytochrome c and bovine serum albumin (BSA). The rate and efficiency of digestion was related to the flow rate of the substrate solution through the reactor bed. A flow rate of 1 or 0.5 microL/min was found adequate for complete consumption of cytochrome c or BSA, corresponding to a digestion time of 3-6 min at room temperature. Coverage of the amino acid sequence ranged from 92% for cytochrome c to 71% for BSA, with some missed cleavages observed. Melittin was consumed within 5 s. In contrast, a similar extent of digestion of melittin in a cuvet took 10-15 min. The kinetic limitations associated with the rapid digestion of low picomole levels of substrate were minimized using an integrated digestion bed with hydrodynamic flow to provide an increased ratio of trypsin to sample. This chip design thus provides a convenient platform for automated sample processing in proteomics applications.     

Evaluation of various immobilized enzymatic microreactors coupled on-line with liquid chromatography and mass spectrometry detection for quantitative analysis of cytochrome c

An in-line procedure for protein analysis using a trypsin-based immobilized enzymatic reactor (IMER) coupled to LC-MS/MS has been developed. Various IMERs were synthesized and characterized by estimating the digestion yield of a pattern peptide in UV detection. Laboratory-made IMERs were optimized by studying the effect of different parameters as the nature of the functionalized immobilization support (silica, agarose), the amount of immobilized trypsin and the binding density. The potential of the laboratory-made IMERs were compared with a batch digestion and with a commercial trypsin-based IMER. The laboratory-made IMER based on CNBr-activated Sepharose showed the best performances in terms of digestion yields, digestion time, price and repeatability (RSD<4%). Cytochrome c was then digested on this IMER and used in-line with LC-MS. The target protein was easily recognized by the Mascot database until 17pmol injected.     

新型亲水聚合物修饰硅胶颗粒固定化酶的制备及在蛋白质组鉴定中的应用

采用原子转移自由基聚合法制备了亲水聚合物修饰的硅胶颗粒作为一种新型固定化酶载体,在实现胰蛋白酶高密度固定的同时,显著降低了载体材料非特异性吸附导致的样品损失。因此,该固定化酶材料兼具高酶解效率和高回收率的特性。以标准蛋白质牛血清白蛋白(BSA)为样本,使用该固定化酶1 min即可完成酶解,鉴定到肽段对BSA的氨基酸序列覆盖率可达90%以上。该固定化酶材料成功应用于酵母菌全蛋白质复杂样本的酶解,从3 min酶解产物中鉴定到666个蛋白质,超过同样条件下溶液酶解12 h的鉴定结果。     

A Trypsin Immobilized Sol-Gel for Protein Indentification in MALDI-MS Applications

The proteolytic enzyme trypsin was chemically immobilized to an amine-functionalized sol-gel using adipoyl chloride under nonaqueous conditions and a nitrogen atmosphere. In the synthesis of the sol-gel, tetraethyl orthosilicate (TEOS), and 3-(2-aminoethylamino) propyldimethoxymethylsilane (AEAPMS) (50:50, v/v) were used, which provided convenient physical and chemical conditions to maintain catalytic activity of immobilized trypsin molecules for the digestion of proteins in proteomics applications. Bovine serum albumin was used as a model protein to perform enzymatic digestion using the trypsin immobilized sol-gel. The resulting peptides were analyzed by matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization-mass spectrometry to evaluate the digestion performance and specificity of the sol-gel material. The trypsin immobilized sol-gel showed superior enzymatic activity in protein digestion and it was determined that the sol-gel material could be repeatedly used at least 25 times without significant activity loss in long-term use. Additionally, autocatalysis was prevented by immobilization of trypsin. The peptide digest having the highest purity was obtained for protein identification studies.     

Immobilized trypsin on epoxy organic monoliths with modulated hydrophilicity: novel bioreactors useful for protein analysis by liquid chromatography coupled to tandem mass spectrometry

The development of epoxy organic monoliths with modulated hydrophilicity for the preparation of novel trypsin-based microreactors is reported. Porous polymer monoliths have been prepared using methacrylate chemistry triggered by γ-ray irradiation. In situ polymerization has been optimized and extended to medium and high polymer densities using glycidyl methacrylate (GMA) as reactive monomer as well as to the hydrophilic nature of the co-monomers (glyceryl monomethacrylate, GlyMA and acrylamide, AMD). Enzyme immobilization was smoothly achieved by passing a buffered trypsin solution through the columns kept at room temperature. The activities of the immobilized enzyme were characterized by the apparent Michaelis constant (K(m)) and the apparent maximum velocity (V(max)) of the reaction using a non chromogenic, low-molecular mass substrate N-α-benzoyl-l-arginine ethyl ester (BAEE). For the kinetic constants determination a new off-line chromatographic procedure was developed on purpose. The most efficient IMERs were obtained by immobilizing trypsin on monolithic skeleton prepared with hydrophilic monomers (GlyMA and AMD). One of the most promising bioreactor was applied to the digestion of model proteins with different molecular weight and complexity such as human serum albumin (HSA), β-casein and ribonuclease B (RNase B), and the produced peptides were analyzed by liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry. Using a digestion time of only 25 min the proteins were recognized by the database with satisfactory sequence coverage, which was 78.22, 49.76 and 80.68% for HSA, β-casein and RNase B, respectively.     

An ultra-fast and highly efficient multiple proteases digestion strategy using graphene-oxide-based immobilized protease reagents

Highly efficient and rapid proteolytic digestion of proteins into peptides is a crucial step in shotgun-based proteome-analysis strategy.Tandem digestion by two or more proteases is demonstrated to be helpful for increasing digestion efficiency and decreasing missed cleavages,which results in more peptides that are compatible with mass-spectrometry analysis.Compared to conventional solution digestion,immobilized protease digestion has the obvious advantages of short digestion time,no self-proteolysis,and reusability.We proposed a multiple-immobilized proteases-digestion strategy that combines the advantages of the two digestion strategies mentioned above.Graphene-oxide(GO)-based immobilized trypsin and endoproteinase Glu-C were prepared by covalently attaching them onto the GO surface.The prepared GO-trypsin and GO-Glu-C were successfully applied in standard protein digestion and multiple immobilized proteases digestion of total proteins of Thermoanaerobacter tengcongensis.Compared to 12-hour solution digestion using trypsin or Glu-C,14%and 7%improvement were obtained,respectively,in the sequence coverage of BSA by one-minute digestion using GO-trypsin and GO-Glu-C.Multiple immobilized-proteases digestion of the total proteins of Thermoanaerobacter tengcongensis showed 24.3%and 48.7%enhancement in the numbers of identified proteins than was obtained using GO-trypsin or GO-Glu-C alone.The ultra-fast and highly efficient digestion can be contributed to the high loading capacity of protease on GO,which leads to fewer missed cleavages and more complete digestion.As a result,improved protein identification and sequence coverage can be expected.     

On-line characterization of the activity and reaction kinetics of immobilized enzyme by high-performance frontal analysis

A microreactor by immobilized trypsin on the activated glycidyl methacrylate-modified cellulose membrane packed column was constructed. Immobilized trypsin mirrored the properties of the free enzyme and showed high stability. A novel method to characterize the activity and reaction kinetics of the immobilized enzyme has been developed based on the frontal analysis of enzymatic reaction products, which was performed by the on-line monitoring of the absorption at 410 nm of p-nitroaniline from the hydrolysis of N-alpha-benzoyl-DL-arginine-p-nitroanilide (BAPNA). The hydrolytic activity of the immobilized enzyme was 55.6% of free trypsin. The apparent Michaelis-Menten kinetics constant (Km) and Vmax values measured by the frontal analysis method were, respectively, 0.12 mM and 0.079 mM min(-1) mg enzyme(-1). The former is very close to that observed by the static and off-line detection methods, but the latter is about 15% higher than that of the static method. Inhibition of the immobilized trypsin by addition of benzamidine into substrate solution has been studied by the frontal analysis method. The apparent Michaelis-Menten constant of BAPNA (Km), the inhibition constant of benzamidine (Ki) and Vmax were determined. It was indicated that the interaction of BAPNA and benzamidine with trypsin is competitive, the Km value was affected but the Vmax was unaffected by the benzamidine concentration.     

Highly efficient enrichment and subsequent digestion of proteins in the mesoporous molecular sieve silicate SBA-15 for matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization mass spectrometry with time-of-flight/time-of-flight analyzer peptide mapping

Based on a previous study of protein digestion inside the nanoreactor channels of the mesoporous molecular sieve silicate SBA-15 (Chem. Eur. J. 2005, 11: 5391), we have developed a highly efficient enrichment and subsequent tryptic digestion of proteins in SBA-15 for matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization mass spectrometry with time-of-flight/time-of-flight analyzer (MALDI-TOF/TOF) peptide mapping. The performance of the method is exemplified with myoglobin and cytochrome c. First, protein adsorption isotherms for two standard proteins with a range of initial concentration of proteins were investigated at room temperature. The results revealed that the kinetic adsorption rate of a protein within SBA-15 was independent of initial protein concentration, and a 15-min protein enrichment within SBA-15 could be enough for protein identification in biological samples. It was noticed that no washing steps were needed to avoid protein loss due to desorption from the mesochannels into solution. Second, protein digestion inside the channels of SBA-15 was also optimized. After adsorption of proteins into SBA-15 in 15 min, the trypsin solution (pH 8) was directly added to the SBA-15 beads with immobilized proteins by centrifugation, and then the digestion was performed for 15 min at 37 degrees C. It was observed that a higher peptide sequence covering of 98% for myoglobin was obtained by MALDI-TOF/TOF analysis, compared to in-solution digestion. So the protein digestion inside SBA-15 was proved to be significantly faster and yielded a better sequence coverage. The new procedure allows for rapid protein enrichment and digestion inside SBA-15, and has great potential for protein analysis.