Rapid and Efficient Proteolysis for Protein Analysis by an Aptamer-Based Immobilized Chymotrypsin Microreactor

Efficient protein digestion is a key step for successful mass spectrometry identification. However, traditional in-solution digestion suffers some drawbacks, such as autolysis of protease, long analysis times and lack of control. Recently, specific single-stranded nucleic acids, aptamers, screened from random sequence pools, have been performed high affinity for targets. In this paper, we have developed a novel enzyme reactor, which immobilized chymotrypsin based on aptamer-grafted silica beads. Mixed proteins, which consist of bovine serum albumin, myoglobin, and cytochrome c, were used as samples, to evaluate the digestion performance of the enzymatic reactor. With the use of this novel tool, proteins were digested in 40 min to an extent similar to that achieved with soluble enzyme at 37°C after 16 h. Moreover, enzymatic reactor regeneration was carried out through chymotrypsin elution and re-immobilization. The advanced characteristics of the aptamer-based chymotrypsin reactor demonstrated that aptamers could serve as novel materials for rapid and efficient enzyme immobilization and application in protein studies.     

固定化β-葡萄糖醛酸酶反应器的制备及其在4-甲基亚硝胺基-1-(3-吡啶)-1-丁醇的O-糖苷化合物分析中的应用

采用溶胶-凝胶法,以丙烯酰胺作为单体,制备了基于有机-硅胶杂化整体柱的β-葡萄糖醛酸酶反应器。优化了硅酸甲酯和γ-(甲基丙烯酰氧)丙基三甲氧基硅的物质的量的比、丙烯酰胺和聚乙二醇的用量,以及水浴温度等制备条件,获得了孔隙均匀、通透性良好、机械强度高的有机-硅胶杂化整体柱。采用光学显微镜和扫描电镜表征杂化整体柱。进一步将β-葡萄糖醛酸酶共价键合在整体柱上,以4-甲基亚硝胺基-1-(3-吡啶)-1-丁醇(NNAL)的O-糖苷化合物(NNAL-O-Gluc)为底物研究酶反应器的水解效果,实验结果证明酶反应器在室温条件下的水解效率大大提高,实现了NNAL-O-Gluc高效水解与分析,解决了目前NNAL-O-Gluc分析中前处理水解效率低的问题。     

High quality drug screening by capillary electrophoresis: A review

High quality assays are needed in drug discovery to reduce the high attrition rate of lead compounds during primary screening. Capillary electrophoresis (CE) represents a versatile micro-separation technique for resolution of enzyme-catalyzed reactions, including substrate(s), product(s), cofactor(s) and their stereoisomers, which is needed for reliable characterization of biomolecular interactions in free solution. This review article provides a critical overview of new advances in CE for drug screening over the past five years involving biologically relevant enzymes of therapeutic interest, including transferases, hydrolases, oxidoreductases, and isomerases. The basic principles and major configurations in CE, as well as data processing methods needed for rigorous characterization of enzyme inhibition are described. New developments in functional screening of small molecules that modulate the activity of disease-related enzymes are also discussed. Although inhibition is a widely measured response in most enzyme assays, other important outcomes of ligand interactions on protein structure/function that impact the therapeutic potential of a drug will also be highlighted, such as enzyme stabilization, activation and/or catalytic uncoupling. CE offers a selective platform for drug screening that reduces false-positives while also enabling the analysis of low amounts of complex sample mixtures with minimal sample handling.     

基于核酸适配体的微流控芯片酶反应器用于蛋白质的分析

将核酸适配体作为胰蛋白酶固定化介质,制备了一种新型的微流控芯片酶反应器,并与高效液相色谱-串联质谱联用,搭建了在线分析平台;分别使用标准蛋白及混合蛋白样品对芯片的酶解效率及联用平台的分析能力进行了初步评价。结果表明,5 ng肌红蛋白经该平台分析后肽段覆盖率可达到37%;对500 ng混合蛋白进行3次平行分析,肽段覆盖率及相对标准偏差分别为44.3%、6.5%(牛血清白蛋白), 65.0%、2.7%(肌红蛋白)和62.0%、5.6%(细胞色素c);初步实验表明,该在线分析平台具有检测灵敏度高、重现性好、酶解效率高的特点,有望在蛋白质组学分析中发挥重要作用。     

Rheostatic control of tryptic digestion in a microscale fluidic system

Integrated fluidic systems that unite bottom-up and top-down proteomic approaches have the potential to deliver complete protein characterization. To circumvent fraction collection, as is conducted in current blended approaches, a technique to regulate digestion efficiency in a flow-through system is required. The present study examined the concept of regulating tryptic digestion in an immobilized enzyme reactor (IMER), incorporating mixed solvent systems for digestion acceleration. Using ovalbumin, cytochrome c, and myoglobin as protein standards, we demonstrate that tryptic digestion can be efficiently regulated between complete digestion and no digestion extremes by oscillating between 45 and 0% acetonitrile in the fluid stream. Solvent composition was tuned using programmable solvent waveforms in a closed system consisting of the IMER, a sample delivery stream, a dual gradient pumping system and a mass spectrometer. Operation in this rheostatic digestion mode provides access to novel peptide mass maps (due to substrate unfolding hysteresis) as well as the intact protein, in a reproducible and stable fashion. Although cycle times were on the order of 90 s for testing purposes, we show that regulated digestion is sufficiently rapid to be limited by solvent switching efficiency and kinetics of substrate unfolding/folding. Thus, regulated digestion should be useful in blending bottom-up and top-down proteomics in a single closed fluidic system.     

An improved design to capture magnetic microparticles for capillary electrophoresis based immobilized microenzyme reactors

In this paper, we demonstrate the effectiveness of a new 3D printed magnet holder that enables capture of magnetic microparticles in commercially available capillary electrophoresis equipment with a liquid or air based coolant system. The design as well as the method to capture magnetic microparticles inside the capillary are discussed. This setup was tested at temperature and pH values suitable for performing enzymatic reactions. To demonstrate its applicability in CE‐ immobilized microenzyme reactors (IMER) development, human flavin‐containing monooxygenase 3 and bovine serum albumin were immobilized on amino functionalized magnetic microparticles using glutaraldehyde. These microparticles were subsequently used to perform in‐line capillary electrophoresis with clozapine as a model substrate. This setup could be used further to establish CE‐IMERs of other drug metabolic enzymes in a commercially available liquid based capillary coolant system. The CE‐IMER setup was successful, although a subsequent decrease in enzyme activity was observed on repeated runs.