Quantification Of Low Abundance Proteins Research Articles

An Isobaric Labeling Approach to Enhance Detection and Quantification of Tissue-Derived Plasma Proteins as Potential Early Disease Biomarkers.

The proteomic analysis of plasma holds great promise to advance precision medicine and identify biomarkers of disease. However, it is likely that many potential biomarkers circulating in plasma originate from other tissues and are only present in low abundances in the plasma. Accurate detection and quantification of low abundance proteins by standard mass spectrometry approaches remain challenging. In addition, it is difficult to link low abundance plasma proteins back to their specific tissues or organs of origin with confidence. To address these challenges, we developed a mass spectrometry approach based on the use of tandem mass tags (TMT) and a tissue reference sample. By applying this approach to nonhuman primate plasma samples, we were able to identify and quantify 820 proteins by using a kidney tissue homogenate as reference. On average, 643 ± 16 proteins were identified per plasma sample. About 58% of proteins identified in replicate experiments were identified both times. A ratio of 50 μg kidney protein to 10 μg plasma protein, and the use of the TMT label with the highest molecular weight (131) for the kidney reference yielded the largest number of proteins in the analysis, and identified low abundance proteins in plasma that are prominently found in the kidney. Overall, this methodology promises efficient quantification of plasma proteins potentially released from specific tissues, thereby increasing the number of putative disease biomarkers for future study.

Quantification of Proteins in Blood by Absorptive Microtiter Plate-Based Affinity Purification Coupled to Liquid Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry.

Liquid chromatography (LC) coupled to mass spectrometry (MS) is increasingly used for quantification of proteins in blood. This development is prompted by ongoing improvements in detection sensitivities of LC-MS instruments and corresponding sample preparation workflows. The combination of immunoaffinity enrichment and targeted LC-MS detection is a notable analytical platform in this regard as it allows for the quantification of low abundance proteins in biological matrices like plasma and serum. Here, we describe such hybrid methods which are based on the enrichment of proteins with antibodies or affimers coupled to adsorptive microtiter plates, the proteolytic digestion of enriched proteins to release protein-specific peptides, and the detection of these peptides by microflow LC coupled to selected reaction monitoring MS.

Determination of hidden milk allergens in meat-based foodstuffs by liquid chromatography coupled to electrospray ionization and high-resolution tandem mass spectrometry

The issue of deliberate addition of antigenic proteins to foodstuffs for ameliorating bulk properties or the unintentional cross-contamination poses potentially life-threatening health problems to susceptible subjects. Even the intake of food products declaring the absence of allergens on their labels could lead to severe risks for sensitive consumers due to the presence of the so-called “hidden allergens”. Thus, the quantification of low-abundant proteins as putative allergens has become mandatory. Herein, we present a sensitive and selective analytical method based on reversed-phase liquid chromatography coupled to electrospray ionization and hybrid orbitrap high-resolution mass spectrometry (RPLC-ESI-HRMS) and tandem MS, identifying, and quantifying allergenic milk proteins in complex meat-based foodstuffs from direct measurement of tryptic peptides. Two signature peptides of α-S1-casein and β-lactoglobulin, i.e., FFVAPFPEVFGK (m/z 692.8682+) and TPEVDDEALEK (m/z 623.2952+), respectively, were chosen to search for hidden allergens in meat-based samples such as cooked meat, sausages, and sterilised pâté. The marker peptides were identified and were exploited for method validation including recovery, matrix effect, precision, linearity, method variation, limit of detection, and limit of quantification. The undeclared occurrence of milk allergens as total milk protein content (TCMP) was verified in commercial meat products; beef and pork pâté were meat-based products which require a major alert because up to 22 μgTCMP/g of matrix i.e. more than 10 times the action level was determined.

Extensive and Accurate Benchmarking of DIA Acquisition Methods and Software Tools Using a Complex Proteomic Standard.

Over the past decade, the data-independent acquisition mode has gained popularity for broad coverage of complex proteomes by LC-MS/MS and quantification of low-abundance proteins. However, there is no consensus in the literature on the best data acquisition parameters and processing tools to use for this specific application. Here, we present the most comprehensive comparison of DIA workflows on Orbitrap instruments published so far in the field of proteomics. Using a standard human 48 proteins mixture (UPS1-Sigma) at 8 different concentrations in an E.coli proteome background, we tested 36 workflows including 4 different DIA window acquisition schemes and 6 different software tools (DIA-NN, DIA-Umpire, OpenSWATH, ScaffoldDIA, Skyline, and Spectronaut) with or without the use of a DDA spectral library. On the basis of the number of proteins identified, quantification linearity and reproducibility, as well as sensitivity and specificity in 28 pairwise comparisons of different UPS1 concentrations, we summarize the major considerations and propose guidelines for choosing the DIA workflow best suited for LC-MS/MS proteomic analyses. Our 96 DIA raw files and software outputs have been deposited on ProteomeXchange for testing or developing new DIA processing tools.

Development of an antibody-free ID-LC MS method for the quantification of procalcitonin in human serum at sub-microgram per liter level using a peptide-based calibration.

The quantification of low abundant proteins in complex matrices by liquid chromatography coupled to tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) remains challenging. A measurement procedure based on optimized antibody-free sample preparation and isotope dilution coupled to LC-MS/MS was developed to quantify procalcitonin (PCT) in human serum at sub-microgram per liter level. A combination of sodium deoxycholate-assisted protein precipitation with acetonitrile, solid-phase extraction, and trypsin digestion assisted with Tween-20 enhanced the method sensitivity. Linearity was established through peptide-based calibration curves in the serum matrix (0.092-5.222μg/L of PCT) with a good linear fit (R2 ≥ 0.999). Quality control materials spiked with known amounts of protein-based standards were used to evaluate the method's accuracy. The bias ranged from -2.6 to +4.3%, and the intra-day and inter-day coefficients of variations (CVs) were below 2.2% for peptide-based quality controls. A well-characterized correction factor was determined and applied to compensate for digestion incompleteness and material loss before the internal standards spike. Results with metrological traceability to the SI units were established using standard peptide of well-characterized purity determined by peptide impurity corrected amino acid analysis. The validated method enables accurate quantification of PCT in human serum at a limit of quantification down to 0.245μg/L (bias -1.9%, precision 9.1%). The method was successfully applied to serum samples obtained from patients with sepsis. Interestingly, the PCT concentration reported implementing the isotope dilution LC-MS/MS method was twofold lower than the concentration provided by an immunoassay.

Use of a Recombinant Biomarker Protein DDA Library Increases DIA Coverage of Low Abundance Plasma Proteins.

Credible detection and quantification of low abundance proteins from human blood plasma is a major challenge in precision medicine biomarker discovery when using mass spectrometry (MS). In this proof-of-concept study, we employed a mixture of selected recombinant proteins in DDA libraries to subsequently identify (not quantify) cancer-associated low abundance plasma proteins using SWATH/DIA. The exemplar DDA recombinant protein spectral library (rPSL) was derived from tryptic digestion of 36 recombinant human proteins that had been previously implicated as possible cancer biomarkers from both our own and other studies. The rPSL was then used to identify proteins from nondepleted colorectal cancer (CRC) EDTA plasmas by SWATH-MS. Most (32/36) of the proteins used in the rPSL were reliably identified from CRC plasma samples, including 8 proteins (i.e., BTC, CXCL10, IL1B, IL6, ITGB6, TGFα, TNF, TP53) not previously detected using high-stringency protein inference MS according to PeptideAtlas. The rPSL SWATH-MS protocol was compared to DDA-MS using MARS-depleted and postdigestion peptide fractionated plasmas (here referred to as a human plasma DDA library). Of the 32 proteins identified using rPSL SWATH, only 12 could be identified using DDA-MS. The 20 additional proteins exclusively identified using the rPSL SWATH approach were almost exclusively lower abundance (i.e., <10 ng/mL) proteins. To mitigate justified FDR concerns, and to replicate a more typical library creation approach, the DDA rPSL library was merged with a human plasma DDA library and SWATH identification repeated using such a merged library. The majority (33/36) of the low abundance plasma proteins added from the rPSL were still able to be identified using such a merged library when high-stringency HPP Guidelines v3.0 protein inference criteria were applied to our data set. The MS data set has been deposited to ProteomeXchange Consortium via the PRIDE partner repository (PXD022361).

Multiplexed Proteomic Analysis for Diagnosis and Screening of Five Primary Immunodeficiency Disorders From Dried Blood Spots.

Early detection of Primary Immunodeficiencies Disorders (PIDDs) is of paramount importance for effective treatment and disease management. Many PIDDs would be strong candidates for newborn screening (NBS) if robust screening methods could identify patients from dried blood spots (DBS) during the neonatal period. As majority of congenital PIDDs result in the reduction or absence of specific proteins, direct quantification of these target proteins represents an attractive potential screening tool. Unfortunately, detection is often limited by the extremely low protein concentrations in blood cells and limited blood volume present in DBS. We have recently developed a robust novel method for quantification of low abundance proteins in DBS for PIDDs using peptide immunoaffinity enrichment coupled to selected reaction monitoring (immuno-SRM). Here, we further generated a multiplexed Immuno-SRM panel for simultaneous screening of eight signature peptides representing five PIDD-specific and two cell-type specific proteins from DBS. In samples from 28 PIDD patients including two carriers, representing X-Linked Agammaglobulinemia (XLA), Wiskott-Aldrich Syndrome (WAS), X-Linked Chronic Granulomatous Disease (XL-CGD), DOCK8 Deficiency and ADA deficiency, peptides representing each disease are significantly reduced relative to normal controls and patient identification had excellent agreement with clinical and molecular diagnosis. Also included in the multiplex panel are cell specific markers for platelets (CD42) and Natural Killer Cells (CD56). In patients with WAS, CD42 levels were found to be significantly reduced consistent with characteristic thrombocytopenia. A patient with WAS analyzed before and after bone marrow transplant showed normalized WAS protein and platelet CD42 after treatment highlighting the ability of immuno-SRM to monitor the effects of PIDD treatment. The assay was readily reproduced in two separate laboratories with similar analytical performance and complete agreement in patient diagnosis demonstrating the effective standardized methods. A high-throughput Immuno-SRM method screens PIDD-specific peptides in a 2.5-min runtime meeting high volume NBS workflow requirements was also demonstrated in this report. This high-throughput method returned identical results to the standard Immuno-SRM PIDD panel. Immuno-SRM peptide analysis represents a robust potential clinical diagnostic for identifying and studying PIDD patients from easily collected and shipped DBS and supports a significant potential for early PIDD diagnosis through newborn screening.

Deep Proteomics Using Two Dimensional Data Independent Acquisition Mass Spectrometry.

Methodologies that facilitate high-throughput proteomic analysis are a key step toward moving proteome investigations into clinical translation. Data independent acquisition (DIA) has potential as a high-throughput analytical method due to the reduced time needed for sample analysis, as well as its highly quantitative accuracy. However, a limiting feature of DIA methods is the sensitivity of detection of low abundant proteins and depth of coverage, which other mass spectrometry approaches address by two-dimensional fractionation (2D) to reduce sample complexity during data acquisition. In this study, we developed a 2D-DIA method intended for rapid- and deeper-proteome analysis compared to conventional 1D-DIA analysis. First, we characterized 96 individual fractions obtained from the protein standard, NCI-7, using a data-dependent approach (DDA), identifying a total of 151,366 unique peptides from 11,273 protein groups. We observed that the majority of the proteins can be identified from just a few selected fractions. By performing an optimization analysis, we identified six fractions with high peptide number and uniqueness that can account for 80% of the proteins identified in the entire experiment. These selected fractions were combined into a single sample which was then subjected to DIA (referred to as 2D-DIA) quantitative analysis. Furthermore, improved DIA quantification was achieved using a hybrid spectral library, obtained by combining peptides identified from DDA data with peptides identified directly from the DIA runs with the help of DIA-Umpire. The optimized 2D-DIA method allowed for improved identification and quantification of low abundant proteins compared to conventional unfractionated DIA analysis (1D-DIA). We then applied the 2D-DIA method to profile the proteomes of two breast cancer patient-derived xenograft (PDX) models, quantifying 6,217 and 6,167 unique proteins in basal- and luminal- tumors, respectively. Overall, this study demonstrates the potential of high-throughput quantitative proteomics using a novel 2D-DIA method.

Refinements of LC-MS/MS Spectral Counting Statistics Improve Quantification of Low Abundance Proteins

Mass spectrometry-based spectral count has been a common choice of label-free proteome quantification due to the simplicity for the sample preparation and data generation. The discriminatory nature of spectral count in the MS data-dependent acquisition, however, inherently introduces the spectral count variation for low-abundance proteins in multiplicative LC-MS/MS analysis, which hampers sensitive proteome quantification. As many low-abundance proteins play important roles in cellular processes, deducing low-abundance proteins in a quantitatively reliable manner greatly expands the depth of biological insights. Here, we implemented the Moment Adjusted Imputation error model in the spectral count refinement as a post PLGEM-STN for improving sensitivity for quantitation of low-abundance proteins by reducing spectral count variability. The statistical framework, automated spectral count refinement by integrating the two statistical tools, was tested with LC-MS/MS datasets of MDA-MB468 breast cancer cells grown under normal and glucose deprivation conditions. We identified about 30% more quantifiable proteins that were found to be low-abundance proteins, which were initially filtered out by the PLGEM-STN analysis. This newly developed statistical framework provides a reliable abundance measurement of low-abundance proteins in the spectral count-based label-free proteome quantification and enabled us to detect low-abundance proteins that could be functionally important in cellular processes.

Selective Enrichment and Quantification of N-Terminal Glycine Peptides via Sortase A Mediated Ligation.

The identification and quantification of low-abundant proteins are always impeded by high-abundant proteins in proteomic analysis because of the extreme complexity of peptide mixtures and wide dynamic range of protein abundances. Here, we developed a novel approach to enrich and quantify N-terminal glycine peptides through sortase A mediated ligation. This strategy was based on the formation of a covalent bond between the sortase A recognition motif LPXTG and a N-terminal glycine residue. Also, the quantification was achieved by introducing isotopically labeled threonine in the motif LPXTG. In this strategy, both the enrichment of N-terminal glycine peptides and the stable isotope labeling were achieved in a single step. We applied this approach for the proteome analysis of MCF-7 cell line. It was demonstrated a significant reduction in sample complexity via highly selective and efficient enrichment of N-terminal glycine peptides, thereby detecting lots of less abundant proteins and enhancing proteome coverage. In comparison to the untreated sample, an increase of 34% of proteins was additionally identified. Furthermore, 97% of proteins were successfully quantified with high accuracy. In summary, this quantitative N-terminal glycine peptides enrichment strategy is expected for high-throughput qualitative and quantitative proteomic analysis as a complementary approach to conventional shotgun proteomics.

Optimization and qualification of the single molecule array digital immunoassay for IL-12p70 in plasma of cancer patients.

Cytokine/chemokine levels can reflect the pharmacodynamics of checkpoint inhibitors. The single molecule array (Simoa) HD-1 is a sensitive next-generation immunoassay platform for quantification of low abundance proteins, with potential for cancer immunotherapy mechanism of action studies. The Simoa IL-12p70 reagents, standard curve and test conditions were optimized for improved precision and linearity of dilution in plasma of cancer patients. The assay achieved a lower limit of quantification of 0.08pg/ml, with 27/29 samples recording above lower limit of quantification, precision ≤20% CV and accuracy within 80-120%. Simoa enabled quantification of IL-12p70 at sub-pg/ml levels in cancer patients and was superior to Simple Plex™ and Aushon® in overall performance. This study qualifies the user-modified IL-12p70 immunoassay to measure pharmacodynamic changes in plasma during cancer immunotherapy.

Definition of a RACK1 Interaction Network in Drosophila melanogaster Using SWATH-MS.

Receptor for Activated protein C kinase 1 (RACK1) is a scaffold protein that has been found in association with several signaling complexes, and with the 40S subunit of the ribosome. Using the model organism Drosophila melanogaster, we recently showed that RACK1 is required at the ribosome for internal ribosome entry site (IRES)-mediated translation of viruses. Here, we report a proteomic characterization of the interactome of RACK1 in Drosophila S2 cells. We carried out Label-Free quantitation using both Data-Dependent and Data-Independent Acquisition (DDA and DIA, respectively) and observed a significant advantage for the Sequential Window Acquisition of all THeoretical fragment-ion spectra (SWATH) method, both in terms of identification of interactants and quantification of low abundance proteins. These data represent the first SWATH spectral library available for Drosophila and will be a useful resource for the community. A total of 52 interacting proteins were identified, including several molecules involved in translation such as structural components of the ribosome, factors regulating translation initiation or elongation, and RNA binding proteins. Among these 52 proteins, 15 were identified as partners by the SWATH strategy only. Interestingly, these 15 proteins are significantly enriched for the functions translation and nucleic acid binding. This enrichment reflects the engagement of RACK1 at the ribosome and highlights the added value of SWATH analysis. A functional screen did not reveal any protein sharing the interesting properties of RACK1, which is required for IRES-dependent translation and not essential for cell viability. Intriguingly however, 10 of the RACK1 partners identified restrict replication of Cricket paralysis virus (CrPV), an IRES-containing virus.

To elute or not to elute in immunocapture bottom-up LC-MS.

Immunocapture-based bottom-up LC-MS is a promising technique for the quantification of low abundant proteins. Magnetic immunocapture beads provide efficient enrichment from complex samples through the highly specific interaction between the target protein and its antibody. In this article, we have performed the first thorough comparison between digestion of proteins while bound to antibody coated beads versus after elution from the beads. Two previously validated immunocapture based MS methods for the quantification of pro-gastrin releasing peptide (ProGRP) and human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) were used as model systems. The tryptic peptide generation was shown to be protein dependent and influenced by protein folding and accessibility towards trypsin both on-beads and in the eluate. The elution of proteins bound to the beads was also shown to be incomplete. In addition, the on-beads digestion suffered from non-specific binding of the trypsin generated peptides. A combination of on-beads digestion and elution may be applied to improve both the quantitative (peak area of the signature peptides) and qualitative yield (number of missed cleavages, total number of identified peptides, coverage, signal intensity and number of zero missed cleavage peptides) of the target proteins. The quantitative yield of signature peptides was shown to be reproducible in all procedures tested.

BioSpotlight / Citations

BioTechniquesVol. 61, No. 5 BioSpotlight / CitationsOpen AccessBioSpotlight / CitationsPatrick C.H. Lo & Nathan S. BlowPatrick C.H. LoSearch for more papers by this author & Nathan S. BlowSearch for more papers by this authorPublished Online:16 Mar 2018https://doi.org/10.2144/000114469AboutSectionsPDF/EPUB ToolsAdd to favoritesDownload CitationsTrack Citations ShareShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInReddit An enriching experienceAccurate detection and quantification of low-abundance proteins by immunoblotting can be difficult since the amount of sample that can be loaded onto SDS-polyacrylamide gels is limited. However, methods to enrich for specific classes of proteins prior to gel electrophoresis can help overcome this problem. In this issue of BioTechniques, Azamat Karginov and Michael Agaphonov at the Russian Academy of Sciences describe a simple enrichment technique that greatly improves the immunoblotting of low-abundance yeast membrane proteins and is also superior to the standard method of boiling yeast cell lysates in Laemmli SDS gel-electrophoresis sample buffer. In the new approach, yeast cells are lysed in a buffer containing ammonium acetate, which protects proteins from degradation and facilitates membrane precipitation. The membrane fraction is obtained by a 10-minute centrifugation in a benchtop microcentrifuge and then resuspended in an alternative sample buffer containing SDS and a high concentration of urea, eliminating the boiling step that can cause protein degradation.See “A simple enrichment procedure improves detection of membrane proteins by immunoblotting” on page 260.Double-fish for frog embryosIn situ hybridization (ISH) for the simultaneous detection of two different transcripts in Xenopus embryos has been tricky to carry out using conventional chromogenic substrates of alkaline phosphatase (AP) since the darker signal of substrates such as nitro blue tetrazolium/5-bromo-4-chloro-3-indolyl-phosphate (NBT/ BCIP) obscures the lighter signal from other substrates such as Vector Red. In addition, the opaque yolk platelets in the endodermal cells of Xenopus embryos interfere with signal detection. In this month's issue, Zachary Agricola and Sang-Wook Cha at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center describe their protocol for sequential double-fluorescence ISH (FISH) in Xenopus that resolves both of these issues. As substrates for AP development, they used Vector Red and NBT/BCIP, but these were visualized fluorescently by excitation with red and far-red light, respectively, which allowed the signal from each substrate to be detected without interference from the other. Coupled with treatment of the embryos by a clearing agent to render them transparent, this new approach enabled single-cell resolution of the expression of each target transcript.See “Two-color fluorescence in situ hybridization using chromogenic substrates in Xenopus” on page 263.Deciphering cytosine methylationThe epigenetic modifications methylcytosine (mC) and hydroxymethylcytosine (hmC) play important roles in modulating gene expression. Although techniques have emerged to identify cytosine methylation patterns, they are limited in resolution, which makes distinguishing these marks experimentally challenging for researchers. Now, Kawasaki et al. present a method to simultaneously identify cytosine, mC and hmC at single-base resolution. Their approach relies on the enzyme DNMT1, which methylates the unmethylated cytosine in a hemi-methylated CpG but not in a hemi-hydroxymethylated CpG. Using DNMT1 alongside standard bisulfite treatment, the authors were able to identify mC, hmC, and cytosine sites in single assay. They validated the new EnIGMA (Enzyme-assisted Identification of Genome Modification Assay) technique by assaying a 200-bp sequence containing multiple cytosine modifications. This new approach should help researchers better catalog cytosine modifications and their effects on gene expression patterns.Kawasaki et al. 2016. “A novel method for the simultaneous identification of methylcytosine and hydroxymethylcytosine at a single base resolution.”Nucleic Acid Research. doi:10.1093/nar/gkw994Single-cell, single-tube transcriptomics and proteomicsA fundamental mystery of molecular biology is the relationship between gene expression and protein production. Attempts to understand how RNA and protein levels co-vary within cells have led to the development of new techniques for assaying these molecules simultaneously. Genshaft et al. now offer a method for profiling single-cell transcriptomes and proteomes in the same reaction. The key to their approach is the use of the reverse transcriptase activity of DNA polymerase for both complementary DNA synthesis and proximity extension assays. Proximity extension uses two antibodies attached to short DNA sequences. When the antibodies are close, the DNA sequences bind together and are extended by DNA polymerase to generate a protein-indexed DNA readout, which can be detected by sequencing. Using this method, the authors were able to profile changes in the transcriptome and proteome of a human breast cancer cell line in response to different chemical perturbations. This multiplexed profiling technique provides a new option for scientists exploring gene—protein expression relationships.Genshaft et al. 2016. “Multiplexed, targeted profiling of single-cell proteomes and transcriptomes in a single reaction.” Genome Biology. 17:188. doi:10.1186/s13059-016-1045-6FiguresReferencesRelatedDetails Vol. 61, No. 5 Follow us on social media for the latest updates Metrics History Published online 16 March 2018 Published in print November 2016 Information© 2016 Author(s)PDF download

Assessment of current mass spectrometric workflows for the quantification of low abundant proteins and phosphorylation sites.

The data described here provide a systematic performance evaluation of popular data-dependent (DDA) and independent (DIA) mass spectrometric (MS) workflows currently used in quantitative proteomics. We assessed the limits of identification, quantification and detection for each method by analyzing a dilution series of 20 unmodified and 10 phosphorylated synthetic heavy labeled reference peptides, respectively, covering six orders of magnitude in peptide concentration with and without a complex human cell digest background. We found that all methods performed very similarly in the absence of background proteins, however, when analyzing whole cell lysates, targeted methods were at least 5–10 times more sensitive than directed or DDA methods. In particular, higher stage fragmentation (MS3) of the neutral loss peak using a linear ion trap increased dynamic quantification range of some phosphopeptides up to 100-fold. We illustrate the power of this targeted MS3 approach for phosphopeptide monitoring by successfully quantifying 9 phosphorylation sites of the kinetochore and spindle assembly checkpoint component Mad1 over different cell cycle states from non-enriched pull-down samples. The data are associated to the research article ‘Evaluation of data-dependent and data-independent mass spectrometric workflows for sensitive quantification of proteins and phosphorylation sites׳ (Bauer et al., 2014) [1]. The mass spectrometry and the analysis dataset have been deposited to the ProteomeXchange Consortium (http://proteomecentral.proteomexchange.org) via the PRIDE partner repository with the dataset identifier PXD000964.

Quantitative assessment of human serum transferrin receptor in breast cancer patients pre- and post-chemotherapy using peptide immunoaffinity enrichment coupled with targeted proteomics

BackgroundsTfR, a soluble form of transferrin receptor in serum, has been suggested as an indicator of bone marrow failure in breast cancer patients receiving chemotherapy. However, intensive chemotherapy could also cause a reduction of sTfR to a level below the LOQ of most assays. MethodsAn advanced liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS)–based targeted proteomics assay coupled with peptide immunoaffinity enrichment (SISCAPA) was developed and validated for monitoring sTfR. ResultsTryptic peptide 681VEYHFLSPYVSPK693 was selected as a surrogate analyte for quantification. High-abundant proteins were first removed from serum, followed by SISCAPA that was effective in surrogate peptide enrichment and sensitivity enhancement. The resulting LOQ can achieve 100ng/ml (~10-fold increase). Then, sTfR levels in breast cancer patients pre- and post-chemotherapy, and healthy volunteers were accurately quantified as 1.77±0.53μg/ml, 0.98±0.26μg/ml and 1.66±0.50μg/ml, respectively, using a standard addition method. While there was no evidence for a difference between patients and healthy volunteers, differential levels of sTfR pre- and post-chemotherapy were obtained. Comparison between SISCAPA-targeted proteomics and ELISA indicated that the former approach provided a lower value of sTfR. ConclusionsSISCAPA-targeted proteomics may allow the quantification of low-abundant proteins in a more accurate manner.

Addendum: Digestion and depletion of abundant proteins improves proteomic coverage.

Addendum: Digestion and depletion of abundant proteins improves proteomic coverage.

DOTA based metal labels for protein quantification: a review

Today, quantitative data play a pivotal role in the understanding of biological processes. This is particularly true for the proteome: protein quantification always follows protein identification. To obtain useful and reliable quantitative data, rather sophisticated strategies using electrospray and MALDI mass spectrometry have been developed, which allow relative and sometimes even absolute quantification. All of those strategies have merits and limitations. In order to overcome some of these limits, methods based on the reliable and sensitive detection and quantification of heavy metals present in proteins using inductively coupled plasma (ICP)-MS have been reported. With specific labels carrying heavy metals, the applicability of ICP-MS has been extended to almost every protein. One of such covalently bound metal tags, allowing the quantification of low abundant proteins, uses 1,4,7,10-tetraazacyclododecane N,N′,N′′,N′′-tetraacetic acid (DOTA) chelate complexes carrying lanthanides as the metal core. In this review the scope and limitations of peptide and protein quantification will be addressed. The metal tags do not only provide low detection limits, but also due to the large number of different lanthanides and lanthanide isotopes, multiplexing capabilities and previously unknown accuracy based on inherently possible isotope dilution methods came into reach. The developed workflows, including electrophoretic and chromatographic separation and preconcentration techniques, will be addressed to allow a comparison with already established procedures.

Multiple reaction monitoring for the detection of disease-related synaptic proteins.

Multiple reaction monitoring for the detection of disease-related synaptic proteins.

Novel Approach for Quantitative Measurement of Matrix Metalloprotease-1 (MMP1) in Human Breast Cancer Cells Using Mass Spectrometry

Identification and quantification of low abundance growth factors and regulators in complex biological samples still present a challenging task in analytical biochemistry. Immunoassays are often used for such purpose but immunoassays face limitation of both availability and qualities of antibody reagents that are necessary for development of immune assays. With genomics data base available, mass spectrometry (MS) can analyze protein tryptic peptides directly for quantitative determination of proteins. In this study, we report a method for detection of matrix metalloproteinase 1 (MMP1), an important extracellular matrix modulator, in human breast cancer cells by quadrupole time-of-flight (Q-TOF) MS. Absolute quantification of MMP1 was conducted using the selected reaction monitoring (SRM) on a triple quadrupole (Triple-Quad) MS via transitions selected from MMP1 tryptic peptides using non isotope labeled MMP1 protein as a titration standard. In comparison with immune based assay, this MS method showed picogram level sensitivity for quantitative determination of MMP1 intotal cell lysates. Our results demonstrated the feasibility of absolute quantification of low abundance proteins using label-free protein standard by mass spectrometry. Therefore, this method provides not only advantages of high sensitivity but also cost saving in comparison with the commonly used mass spectrometry that currently employs isotype labeled proteins for quantitative analysis.