NHS-based Tandem Mass Tagging of Proteins at the Level of Whole Cells: A Critical Evaluation in Comparison to Conventional TMT-Labeling Approaches for Quantitative Proteome Analysis.

Tandem mass tags (TMT) are usually introduced at the levels of isolated proteins or peptides. Here, for the first time, we report the labeling of whole cells and a critical evaluation of its performance in comparison to conventional labeling approaches. The obtained results indicated that TMT protein labeling using intact cells is generally possible, if it is coupled to a subsequent enrichment using anti-TMT antibody. The quantitative results were similar to those obtained after labeling of isolated proteins and both were found to be slightly complementary to peptide labeling. Furthermore, when using NHS-based TMT, no specificity towards cell surface proteins was observed in the case of cell labeling. In summary, the conducted study revealed first evidence for the general possibility of TMT cell labeling and highlighted limitations of NHS-based labeling reagents. Future studies should therefore focus on the synthesis and investigation of membrane impermeable TMTs to increase specificity towards cell surface proteins.

Structurally related hydrazone-based metal complexes with different antitumor activities variably induce apoptotic cell death.

Three new complexes bearing the tridentate hydrazone-based ligand 2-(2-(1-(pyridin-2-yl)ethylidene)hydrazinyl)pyridine (L) were synthesized and structurally characterized. Biological tests indicate that the Zn(ii) complex [ZnCl2(L)] is of low cytotoxicity against the hepatocellular carcinoma cell line HepG2. In contrast, the Cu(ii) and Mn(ii) complexes [CuCl2(L)] and [MnCl2(L)] are highly cytotoxic with EC50 values of 1.25 ± 0.01 µM and 20 ± 1 µM, respectively. A quantitative proteome analysis reveals that treatment of the cells with the Cu(ii) complex leads to a significantly altered abundance of 102 apoptosis-related proteins, whereas 38 proteins were up- or down-regulated by the Mn(ii) complex. A closer inspection of those proteins regulated only by the Cu(ii) complex suggests that the superior cytotoxic activity of this complex is likely to be related to an initiation of the caspase-independent cell death (CICD). In addition, an increased generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and a strong up-regulation of proteins responsive to oxidative stress suggest that alterations of the cellular redox metabolism likely contribute to the cytotoxicity of the Cu(ii) complex.

Quantitative Secretome Analysis of Activated Jurkat Cells Using Click Chemistry-Based Enrichment of Secreted Glycoproteins.

Quantitative secretome analyses are a high-performance tool for the discovery of physiological and pathophysiological changes in cellular processes. However, serum supplements in cell culture media limit secretome analyses, but serum depletion often leads to cell starvation and consequently biased results. To overcome these limiting factors, we investigated a model of T cell activation (Jurkat cells) and performed an approach for the selective enrichment of secreted proteins from conditioned medium utilizing metabolic marking of newly synthesized glycoproteins. Marked glycoproteins were labeled via bioorthogonal click chemistry and isolated by affinity purification. We assessed two labeling compounds conjugated with either biotin or desthiobiotin and the respective secretome fractions. 356 proteins were quantified using the biotin probe and 463 using desthiobiotin. 59 proteins were found differentially abundant (adjusted p-value ≤0.05, absolute fold change ≥1.5) between inactive and activated T cells using the biotin method and 86 using the desthiobiotin approach, with 31 mutual proteins cross-verified by independent experiments. Moreover, we analyzed the cellular proteome of the same model to demonstrate the benefit of secretome analyses and provide comprehensive data sets of both. 336 proteins (61.3%) were quantified exclusively in the secretome. Data are available via ProteomeXchange with identifier PXD004280.

Tissue-based quantitative proteome analysis of human hepatocellular carcinoma using tandem mass tags.

CONTEXT AND OBJECTIVE: Human hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a severe malignant disease, and accurate and reliable diagnostic markers are still needed. This study was aimed for the discovery of novel marker candidates by quantitative proteomics. METHODS AND RESULTS: Proteomic differences between HCC and nontumorous liver tissue were studied by mass spectrometry. Among several significantly upregulated proteins, translocator protein 18 (TSPO) and Ras-related protein Rab-1A (RAB1A) were selected for verification by immunohistochemistry in an independent cohort. For RAB1A, a high accuracy for the discrimination of HCC and nontumorous liver tissue was observed. CONCLUSION: RAB1A was verified to be a potent biomarker candidate for HCC.

One Sample, One Shot - Evaluation of sample preparation protocols for the mass spectrometric proteome analysis of human bile fluid without extensive fractionation.

The proteome analysis of bile fluid represents a promising strategy to identify biomarker candidates for various diseases of the hepatobiliary system. However, to obtain substantive results in biomarker discovery studies large patient cohorts necessarily need to be analyzed. Consequently, this would lead to an unmanageable number of samples to be analyzed if sample preparation protocols with extensive fractionation methods are applied. Hence, the performance of simple workflows allowing for "one sample, one shot" experiments have been evaluated in this study. In detail, sixteen different protocols implying modifications at the stages of desalting, delipidation, deglycosylation and tryptic digestion have been examined. Each method has been individually evaluated regarding various performance criteria and comparative analyses have been conducted to uncover possible complementarities. Here, the best performance in terms of proteome coverage has been assessed for a combination of acetone precipitation with in-gel digestion. Finally, a mapping of all obtained protein identifications with putative biomarkers for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and cholangiocellular carcinoma (CCC) revealed several proteins easily detectable in bile fluid. These results can build the basis for future studies with large and well-defined patient cohorts in a more disease-related context. BIOLOGICAL SIGNIFICANCE: Human bile fluid is a proximal body fluid and supposed to be a potential source of disease markers. However, due to its biochemical composition, the proteome analysis of bile fluid still represents a challenging task and is therefore mostly conducted using extensive fractionation procedures. This in turn leads to a high number of mass spectrometric measurements for one biological sample. Considering the fact that in order to overcome the biological variability a high number of biological samples needs to be analyzed in biomarker discovery studies, this leads to the dilemma of an unmanageable number of necessary MS-based analyses. Hence, easy sample preparation protocols are demanded representing a compromise between proteome coverage and simplicity. In the presented study, such protocols have been evaluated regarding various technical criteria (e.g. identification rates, missed cleavages, chromatographic separation) uncovering the strengths and weaknesses of various methods. Furthermore, a cumulative bile proteome list has been generated that extends the current bile proteome catalog by 248 proteins. Finally, a mapping with putative biomarkers for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and cholangiocellular carcinoma (CCC) derived from tissue-based studies, revealed several of these proteins being easily and reproducibly detectable in human bile. Therefore, the presented technical work represents a solid base for future disease-related studies.