Bioinspired Nitroalkylation for Selective Protein Modification and Peptide Stapling

Nitroalkanes react specifically with aldehydes, providing rapid, stable, and chemoselective protein bioconjugation. These nitroalkylated proteins mimic key post‐translational modifications (PTMs) of proteins and can be used to understand the role of these PTMs in cellular processes. Demonstrated here is the substrate scope of this bioconjugation by attaching a variety of tags, such as NMR tags, fluorescent tags, affinity tags, and alkyne tags, to proteins. The structure and enzymatic activity of modified proteins remain conserved after labeling. Notably, the nitroalkane group leads to easy characterization of proteins by mass spectrometry because of its distinct fingerprint pattern. Importantly, the nitro‐alkylated peptides provide a new handle for site‐selective fluorination of peptides, thus installing a specific probe to study peptide–protein interactions by ¹⁹F NMR spectroscopy. Furthermore, nitroalkane reagents can be used for the late‐stage diversification of peptides and for the synthesis of peptide staples.     

Systematic screening of protein modifications in four kinases using affinity enrichment and mass spectrometry analysis with unrestrictive sequence alignment

Protein kinases transfer phosphate groups from ATP to substrate proteins, they are known to be involved in diverse cellular processes. They are also important therapeutic targets in pharmaceutical design. Previous studies indicated that multiple post-translational modifications (PTMs) exist in kinases in addition to phosphorylation, and these PTMs play an important role in regulating kinases activities. Nevertheless, a comprehensive analysis for PTMs of kinases is insufficient due to technical limitations, which prevent us from better understanding their functional regulation. Here, we have developed a novel strategy that combines glutathione S-transferase tag affinity enrichment with nano-liquid chromatography coupled with tandem mass spectrometry analysis and non-restrictive protein sequence alignment for identification of diverse PTMs in four yeast kinases. The method allows us to enrich and analyze the entire protein isomers and to minimize the loss of all isomers of protein sample during protein purification. In our study, nineteen phosphorylation sites and several other types of PTMs sites were localized in 4 protein kinases. In addition, we found that some interesting mass shifts can not match those of the known PTMs. It suggested the existence of some undescribed PTMs in the proteins. Accordingly, this study showed that the novel strategy holds a great potential for identification of full-spectrum PTMs in proteins. Our data serves as a stepping stone for future functional studies.     

Applications of Tandem Mass Spectrometry (MS/MS) in Protein Analysis for Biomedical Research

Mass Spectrometry (MS) allows the analysis of proteins and peptides through a variety of methods, such as Electrospray Ionization-Mass Spectrometry (ESI-MS) or Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption Ionization-Mass Spectrometry (MALDI-MS). These methods allow identification of the mass of a protein or a peptide as intact molecules or the identification of a protein through peptide-mass fingerprinting generated upon enzymatic digestion. Tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS) allows the fragmentation of proteins and peptides to determine the amino acid sequence of proteins (top-down and middle-down proteomics) and peptides (bottom-up proteomics). Furthermore, tandem mass spectrometry also allows the identification of post-translational modifications (PTMs) of proteins and peptides. Here, we discuss the application of MS/MS in biomedical research, indicating specific examples for the identification of proteins or peptides and their PTMs as relevant biomarkers for diagnostic and therapy.     

Clickable report tags for identification of modified peptides by mass spectrometry

The identification and quantification of modified peptides are critical for the functional characterization of post-translational protein modifications (PTMs) to elucidate their biological function. Nowadays, quantitative mass spectrometry coupled with various bioinformatic pipelines has been successfully used for the determination of a wide range of PTMs. However, direct characterization of low abundant protein PTMs in bottom-up proteomic workflow remains challenging. Here, we present the synthesis and evaluation of tandem mass spectrometry tags (TMT) which are introduced via click-chemistry into peptides bearing alkyne handles. The fragmentation properties of the two mass tags were validated and used for screening in a model system and analysis of AMPylated proteins. The presented tags provide a valuable tool for diagnostic peak generation to increase confidence in the identification of modified peptides and potentially for direct peptide-PTM quantification from various experimental conditions.     

Derivatisation of arginine residues with malondialdehyde for the analysis of peptides and protein digests by LC-ESI-MS/MS

In this study a selective tagging strategy for the derivatisation of arginine residues in peptides is presented. It is based on the reaction of the guanidine group of the arginine side-chain with malondialdehyde (MDA) under strongly acidic conditions, in which a stable pyrimidine ring is formed. The reaction conditions have been optimised so that quantitative modification can be achieved for a variety of peptides. The label has a strong influence on the polarity and basicity of the arginine side-chain and thus on the chromatographic and mass spectrometric properties of arginine-containing peptides. For example, retention, particularly of small and polar peptides as well as arginine-rich peptides, is significantly increased by derivatisation, and therefore sensitivity is also enhanced in liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS). The arginine side-chain also has a strong impact on the fragmentation behaviour of peptides in tandem mass spectrometry. This has been investigated for standard peptides for which, in some cases, significantly more fragment ions were formed after derivatisation. Finally, the method was tested for tryptic digests of standard proteins to demonstrate how the tagging strategy can give improved or complementary information for protein identification.     

低浓度甲醛对多肽和蛋白化学修饰的质谱研究

采用基质辅助激光解析电离飞行时间质谱( MALDI-TOF MS)和纳升电喷雾四极杆飞行时间串联质谱( Nano-ESI -QTOF MS)技术,以标准肽段和流感病毒基质蛋白酶切肽段为模型,研究了甲醛对蛋白质和多肽主链的修饰作用。采用与实际病毒灭活过程一致的实验条件(4℃,0.025%(V/V)福尔马林(37%(w/w)甲醛溶液)处理72 h),进行甲醛与多肽的化学反应。结果表明,在实验条件下,甲醛能与标准肽段N端的氨基反应生成羟甲基加合物,再发生缩合反应生成亚胺,形成+12 Da的产物。此外,甲醛还能与标准肽段中的精氨酸、赖氨酸的侧链发生反应,生成+12 Da的反应产物。对流感病毒基质蛋白的酶切肽段与甲醛的反应的质谱分析结果显示,多数的肽段都生成了+24 Da的产物,质量的增加来源于肽段N端氨基(+12 Da)和C端精氨酸或赖氨酸的侧链(+12 Da)的贡献。此外,还观察到有一个漏切位点的肽段生成了+36 Da的产物。本研究结果表明,在实验条件下,低浓度甲醛主要与肽段和蛋白的N 端氨基,以及精氨酸和赖氨酸侧链发生反应。本研究为分析低浓度甲醛与蛋白质的反应产物提供了有效的质谱分析方法和解谱依据。     

Modification of citrulline residues with 2,3-butanedione facilitates their detection by liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry

Citrullination is a post-translational modification (PTM) that results from the deimination of the amino acid arginine into citrulline by Peptidyl Arginine Deiminase enzymes and occurs in a wide range of proteins in health and disease. This modification causes a 1 Da mass shift, which can be used to identify citrullination sites in proteins by the use of mass spectrometry. However, other PTMs, such as deamidation from asparagine to aspartic acid or from glutamine to glutamic acid, can also cause a 1 Da mass shift, making correct interpretation of the data more difficult. We developed a chemical tagging strategy which, combined with an open source search application, allowed us to selectively pinpoint citrullinated peptides in a complex mixture after liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry (LC/MS) analysis. After incubation of a peptide mixture with 2,3 butanedione, citrulline residues were covalently modified which resulted in a 50 Da shift in singly charged mass. By comparison of the peptide mass fingerprint from a modified and an unmodified version of the same sample, our in-house search application was able to identify the citrullinated peptides in the mixture. This strategy was optimized on synthetic peptides and validated on a digest of in vitro citrullinated fibrinogen, where different proteolytic enzymes were used to augment the protein coverage. This new method results in easy detection of citrullinated residues, without the need for complex mass spectrometry equipment.     

Halomethyl-Triazoles for Rapid,Site-Selective Protein Modification

Post-translational modifications (PTMs) are used by organisms to control protein structure and function after protein translation, but their study is complicated and their roles are not often well understood as PTMs are difficult to introduce onto proteins selectively. Designing reagents that are both good mimics of PTMs, but also only modify select amino acid residues in proteins is challenging. Frequently, both a chemical warhead and linker are used, creating a product that is a misrepresentation of the natural modification. We have previously shown that biotin-chloromethyl-triazole is an effective reagent for cysteine modification to give S-Lys derivatives where the triazole is a good mimic of natural lysine acylation. Here, we demonstrate both how the reactivity of the alkylating reagents can be increased and how the range of triazole PTM mimics can be expanded. These new iodomethyl-triazole reagents are able to modify a cysteine residue on a histone protein with excellent selectivity in 30 min to give PTM mimics of acylated lysine side-chains. Studies on the more complicated, folded protein SCP-2L showed promising reactivity, but also suggested the halomethyl-triazoles are potent alkylators of methionine residues.     

Applications of MALDI-MS/MS-Based Proteomics in Biomedical Research

Matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization (MALDI) mass spectrometry (MS) is one of the most widely used techniques in proteomics to achieve structural identification and characterization of proteins and peptides, including their variety of proteoforms due to post-translational modifications (PTMs) or protein–protein interactions (PPIs). MALDI-MS and MALDI tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS) have been developed as analytical techniques to study small and large molecules, offering picomole to femtomole sensitivity and enabling the direct analysis of biological samples, such as biofluids, solid tissues, tissue/cell homogenates, and cell culture lysates, with a minimized procedure of sample preparation. In the last decades, structural identification of peptides and proteins achieved by MALDI-MS/MS helped researchers and clinicians to decipher molecular function, biological process, cellular component, and related pathways of the gene products as well as their involvement in pathogenesis of diseases. In this review, we highlight the applications of MALDI ionization source and tandem approaches for MS for analyzing biomedical relevant peptides and proteins. Furthermore, one of the most relevant applications of MALDI-MS/MS is to provide “molecular pictures”, which offer in situ information about molecular weight proteins without labeling of potential targets. Histology-directed MALDI-mass spectrometry imaging (MSI) uses MALDI-ToF/ToF or other MALDI tandem mass spectrometers for accurate sequence analysis of peptide biomarkers and biological active compounds directly in tissues, to assure complementary and essential spatial data compared with those obtained by LC-ESI-MS/MS technique.     

Derivatization procedures to facilitate de novo sequencing of lysine-terminated tryptic peptides using postsource decay matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization mass spectrometry

Guanidination of the epsilon-amino group of lysine-terminated tryptic peptides can be accomplished selectively in one step with O-methylisourea hydrogen sulfate. This reaction converts lysine residues into more basic homoarginine residues. It also protects the epsilon-amino groups against unwanted reaction with sulfonation reagents, which can then be used to selectively modify the N-termini of tryptic peptides. The combined reactions convert lysine-terminated tryptic peptides into modified peptides that are suitable for de novo sequencing by postsource decay matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization (MALDI) mass spectrometry. The guanidination reaction is very pH dependent. Product yields and reaction kinetics were studied in aqueous solution using either NaOH or diisopropylethylamine as the base. Methods are reported for derivatizing and sequencing lysine-terminated tryptic peptides at low pmole levels. The postsource decay (PSD) MALDI tandem mass spectra of a model peptide (VGGYGYGAK), the homoarginine analog and the sulfonated homoarginine analog are compared. These spectra show the influence that each chemical modification has on the peptide fragmentation pattern. Finally, we demonstrate that definitive protein identifications can be achieved by PSD MALDI sequencing of derivatized peptides obtained from solution digests of model proteins and from in-gel digests of 2D-gel separated proteins.     

Methyl group migration during the fragmentation of singly charged ions of trimethyllysine-containing peptides: Precaution of using MS/MS of singly charged ions for interrogating peptide methylation

Core histones are susceptible to a range of post-translational modifications (PTMs), including acetylation, phosphorylation, methylation, and ubiquitination, which play important roles in the epigenetic control of gene expression. Here, we observed an unusual discrepancy between MALDI-MS/MS and ESI-MS/MS on the methylation of trimethyllysine-containing peptides with residues 9–17 from human histone H3 and residues 73–83 from yeast histone H3. It turned out that the discrepancy could be attributed to an unusual methyl group migration from the side chain of trimethyllysine to the C-terminal arginine residue during peptide fragmentation, and this methyl group transfer only occurred for singly charged ions, but not for doubly charged ions. The methyl group transfer argument received its support from the results on the studies of the fragmentation of the ESI- or MALDI-produced singly charged ions of several synthetic trimethyllysine-bearing peptides. The results presented in this study highlighted that caution should be exerted while MS/MS of singly charged ions is employed to interrogate the PTMs of trimethyllysine-containing peptides.     

Multiplexed Analysis of Peptide Functionality Using Lanthanide-based Structural Shift Reagents

Functionally selective lanthanide-based ion mobility shift reagents are presented as a method to elucidate protein or peptide structural information as well as relative quantitation of protein expression profiles. Sequence information and site localization of primary amines (n-terminus and lysine), phosphorylation sites, and cysteine residues can be obtained in a data dependent manner using ion mobility-mass spectrometry (IM-MS). The high mass of the incorporated lanthanide ensures a significant shift of where the signal occurs in IM-MS conformation space. Peptide sequence information provided by the use of IM-MS shift reagents allows for both a more confident identification of peptides from complex mixtures and site localization following tandem MS experiments. Stable isotopes of the lanthanide series may also be used as relative quantitation labels since several lanthanides can be utilized in differential sample analyses.     

Rapid determination of amino acid incorporation by stable isotope labeling with amino acids in cell culture (SILAC)

Stable isotope labeling with amino acids in cell culture (SILAC) has evolved to be a major technique for quantitative proteomics using cell cultures. We developed a rapid method to follow and determine the incorporation of arginine and lysine. Analysis of the heavy state is required to avoid quantification errors. Moreover, the mixture of light and heavy states can be exploited to normalize the protein amount for subsequent relative quantification experiments. Therefore, peptides from different cell lines were extracted with 0.1% trifluoroacetic acid and analyzed by matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization tandem time-of-flight (MALDI-TOF/TOF) mass spectrometry (MS). This analysis was highly reproducible and was performed in less than 2 h, significantly faster than other methods for the same purpose. Similar peptide mass profiles were obtained for human EBV-transformed B, Jurkat T, and HeLa cells as well as for mouse embryonic fibroblasts. Proteolytic fragments of 27 human proteins were identified with 56 peptides by MALDI-MS/MS and can be used as a database for these kinds of experiments. Sequencing revealed that the peptides were predominantly amino- and carboxy-terminal protein fragments displaying a specificity characteristic of the acidic proteases cathepsin D and E. Many of the identified peptides contained arginine and/or lysine, allowing determination of the incorporation rate of these amino acids. Furthermore, the rate of conversion of arginine into proline could be monitored easily.     

Structural elucidation of isocyanate-peptide adducts using tandem mass spectrometry

Diisocyanates are highly reactive chemical compounds widely used in the manufacture of polyurethanes. Although diisocyanates have been identified as causative agents of allergic respiratory diseases, the specific mechanism by which these diseases occur is largely unknown. To better understand the chemical species produced when isocyanates are reacted with model peptides, tandem mass spectrometry was employed to unambiguously identify the binding site of four commercially-relevant isocyanates on model peptides. In each case, the isocyanates react preferentially with the N-terminus of the peptide. No evidence of side-chain/isocyanate adduct formation exclusive of the N-terminus was observed. However, significant intra-molecular diisocyanate crosslinking was observed between the N-terminal amine and a side-chain amine of arginine, when Arg was located within two residues of the N-terminus. Addition of multiple isocyanates to the peptide occurs via polymerization of the isocyanate at the N-terminus, rather than via addition of multiple isocyanate molecules to varied residues within the peptide. The direct observation of isocyanate binding to the N-terminus of peptides under these experimental conditions is in good agreement with previous studies on the relative reaction rate of isocyanate with amino acid functional groups.     

A quantitative analysis of histone methylation and acetylation isoforms from their deuteroacetylated derivatives: application to a series of knockout mutants

The core histones, H2A, H2B, H3 and H4, undergo post‐translational modifications (PTMs) including lysine acetylation, methylation and ubiquitylation, arginine methylation and serine phosphorylation. Lysine residues may be mono‐, di‐ and trimethylated, the latter resulting in an addition of mass to the protein that differs from acetylation by only 0.03639 Da, but that can be distinguished either on high‐performance mass spectrometers with sufficient mass accuracy and mass resolution or via retention times. Here we describe the use of chemical derivatization to quantify methylated and acetylated histone isoforms by forming deuteroacetylated histone derivatives prior to tryptic digestion and bottom‐up liquid chromatography‐mass spectrometric analysis. The deuteroacetylation of unmodified or mono‐methylated lysine residues produces a chemically identical set of tryptic peptides when comparing the unmodified and modified versions of a protein, making it possible to directly quantify lysine acetylation. In this work, the deuteroacetylation technique is used to examine a single histone H3 peptide with methyl and acetyl modifications at different lysine residues and to quantify the relative abundance of each modification in different deacetylase and methylase knockout yeast strains. This application demonstrates the use of the deuteroacetylation technique to characterize modification ‘cross‐talk’ by correlating different PTMs on the same histone tail. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Unexpected products from the reaction of the synthetic cross-linker 3,3′-dithiobis(sulfosuccinimidyl propionate), DTSSP with peptides

Synthetic cross-linking reagents, such as 3,3′-dithiobis(sulfosuccinimidyl propionate), DTSSP, can react with sidechains of amino acids that are within close proximity. Identification of cross-linked residues provides insight into the folded structures of proteins. However, analysis of proteolytic digests of proteins cross-linked with commercially available DTSSP is difficult because many ions cannot be attributed to reported reactions of DTSSP. To better understand the reactivity of DTSSP, products from the reaction of DTSSP with several model peptides were analyzed by HPLC electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (ESIMS). Several products not previously reported were identified. Sources for these unexpected products were traced to reaction of DTSSP with contaminant ammonium ions in the buffer, to reaction of contaminants present in the commercial DTSSP reagent, and to reactivity of DTSSP with serine and tyrosine residues. In addition, the collision-induced-dissociation (CID) of peptides modified by DTSSP was investigated. These results showed that certain DTSSP-peptide adducts easily undergo in-source fragmentation to give additional unexpected ions. This study of the reactions of DTSSP with model peptides has revealed the major types of ions that are likely to be found in proteolytic digests of proteins cross-linked with DTSSP, thereby facilitating identification of the cross-linked residues that can provide information about the three-dimensional structures of folded proteins.     

MeCAT—new iodoacetamide reagents for metal labeling of proteins and peptides

Besides protein identification via mass spectrometric methods, protein and peptide quantification has become more and more important in order to tackle biological questions. Methods like differential gel electrophoresis or enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays have been used to assess protein concentrations, while stable isotope labeling methods are also well established in quantitative proteomics. Recently, we developed metal-coded affinity tagging (MeCAT) as an alternative for accurate and sensitive quantification of peptides and proteins. In addition to absolute quantification via inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry, MeCAT also enables sequence analysis via electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry. In the current study, we developed a new labeling approach utilizing an iodoacetamide MeCAT reagent (MeCAT-IA). The MeCAT-IA approach shows distinct advantages over the previously used MeCAT with maleinimide reactivity such as higher labeling efficiency and the lack of diastereomer formation during labeling. Here, we present a careful characterization of this new method focusing on the labeling process, which yields complete tagging with an excess of reagent of 1.6 to 1, less complex chromatographic behavior, and fragmentation characteristics of the tagged peptides using the iodoacetamide MeCAT reagent.     

Influence of crosslinker identity and position on gas-phase dissociation of lys-lys crosslinked peptides

A systematic study of the dissociation patterns of crosslinked peptides analyzed by tandem mass spectrometry is reported. A series of 11-mer peptides was designed around either a polyalanine or polyglycine scaffold with arginine at the C terminus. One or two lysine residues were included at various locations within the peptides to effect inter- or intra-molecular crosslinking, respectively. Crosslinked species were generated with four commonly used amine-specific chemical crosslinking reagents: disuccinimidyl suberate (DSS), disuccinimidyl tartarate (DST), dithiobis(succinimidylpropionate) (DSP), and disuccinimidyl glutarate (DSG). The influence of precursor charge state, location of crosslink, and specific crosslinking reagent on the MS/MS dissociation pattern was examined. Observed trends in the dissociation patterns obtained for these species will allow for improvements to software used in the automated interpretation of crosslinked peptide MS/MS data.