Top-down Mass Spectrometry Analysis Research Articles

Isotopic Depletion Increases the Spatial Resolution of FPOP Top-Down Mass Spectrometry Analysis.

Protein radical labeling, like fast photochemical oxidation of proteins (FPOP), coupled to a top-down mass spectrometry (MS) analysis offers an alternative analytical method for probing protein structure or protein interaction with other biomolecules, for instance, proteins and DNA. However, with the increasing mass of studied analytes, the MS/MS spectra become complex and exhibit a low signal-to-noise ratio. Nevertheless, these difficulties may be overcome by protein isotope depletion. Thus, we aimed to use protein isotope depletion to analyze FPOP-oxidized samples by top-down MS analysis. For this purpose, we prepared isotopically natural (IN) and depleted (ID) forms of the FOXO4 DNA binding domain (FOXO4-DBD) and studied the protein-DNA interaction interface with double-stranded DNA, the insulin response element (IRE), after exposing the complex to hydroxyl radicals. As shown by comparing tandem mass spectra of natural and depleted proteins, the ID form increased the signal-to-noise ratio of useful fragment ions, thereby enhancing the sequence coverage by more than 19%. This improvement in the detection of fragment ions enabled us to detect 22 more oxidized residues in the ID samples than in the IN sample. Moreover, less common modifications were detected in the ID sample, including the formation of ketones and lysine carbonylation. Given the higher quality of ID top-down MSMS data set, these results provide more detailed information on the complex formation between transcription factors and DNA-response elements. Therefore, our study highlights the benefits of isotopic depletion for quantitative top-down proteomics. Data are available via ProteomeXchange with the identifier PXD044447.

Microfluidic Platform for Time-Resolved Characterization of Protein Higher-Order Structures and Dynamics Using Top-Down Mass Spectrometry.

Characterization of protein higher-order structures and dynamics is essential for understanding the biological functions of proteins and revealing the underlying mechanisms. Top-down mass spectrometry (MS) accesses structural information at both the intact protein level and the peptide fragment level. Native top-down MS allows analysis of a protein complex's architecture and subunits' identity and modifications. Top-down hydrogen/deuterium exchange (HDX) MS offers high spatial resolution for conformational or binding interface analysis and enables conformer-specific characterization. A microfluidic chip can provide superior performance for front-end reactions useful for these MS workflows, such as flexibility in manipulating multiple reactant flows, integrating various functional modules, and automation. However, most microchip-MS devices are designed for bottom-up approaches or top-down proteomics. Here, we demonstrate a strategy for designing a microchip for top-down MS analysis of protein higher-order structures and dynamics. It is suitable for time-resolved native MS and HDX MS, with designs aiming for efficient ionization of intact protein complexes, flexible manipulation of multiple reactant flows, and precise control of reaction times over a broad range of flow rates on the submicroliter per minute scale. The performance of the prototype device is demonstrated by measurements of systems including monoclonal antibodies, antibody-antigen complexes, and coexisting protein conformers. This strategy may benefit elaborate structural analysis of biomacromolecules and inspire method development using the microchip-MS approach.

Online Electrochemical Reduction of Both Inter- and Intramolecular Disulfide Bridges in Immunoglobulins.

Electrochemical reduction of intermolecular disulfide bridges has previously been demonstrated in immunoglobulins but failed to achieve reduction of intramolecular bonds. We now report an improved method that achieves the full reduction of both intermolecular and intramolecular disulfide bridges in a set of monoclonal antibodies based on their intact mass and on MS/MS analysis. The system uses an online electrochemical flow cell positioned online between a chromatography system and a mass spectrometer to give direct information on pairs of heavy and light chains in an antibody. The complete reduction of the intramolecular disulfide bridges is important, as the redox state affects the intact mass of the antibody chain. Disulfide bonds also hamper MS/MS fragmentation of protein chains and thus limit the confirmation of the amino acid sequence of the protein of interest. The improved electrochemical system and associated protocols can simplify sample processing prior to analysis, as chemical reduction is not required. Also, it opens up new possibilities in the top-down mass spectrometry analysis of samples containing complex biomolecules with inter- and intramolecular disulfide bridges.

Internal Fragments Generated from Different Top-Down Mass Spectrometry Fragmentation Methods Extend Protein Sequence Coverage.

Top-down mass spectrometry (TD-MS) of intact proteins results in fragment ions that can be correlated to the protein primary sequence. Fragments generated can either be terminal fragments that contain the N- or C-terminus or internal fragments that contain neither termini. Traditionally in TD-MS experiments, the generation of internal fragments has been avoided because of ambiguity in assigning these fragments. Here, we demonstrate that in TD-MS experiments internal fragments can be formed and assigned in collision-based, electron-based, and photon-based fragmentation methods and are rich with sequence information, allowing for a greater extent of the primary protein sequence to be explained. For the three test proteins cytochrome c, myoglobin, and carbonic anhydrase II, the inclusion of internal fragments in the analysis resulted in approximately 15-20% more sequence coverage, with no less than 85% sequence coverage obtained. Combining terminal fragment and internal fragment assignments results in near complete protein sequence coverage. Hence, by including both terminal and internal fragment assignments in TD-MS analysis, deep protein sequence analysis, allowing for the localization of modification sites more reliably, can be possible.

High-Pressure Electrospray Ionization Yields Supercharged Protein Complexes from Native Solutions While Preserving Noncovalent Interactions.

Increasing charge state of protein complexes from native solutions while preserving noncovalent interactions in native mass spectrometry (MS) offers great opportunity to gain deeper insights into gas-phase protein structures. Several previous studies have disclosed the possibility of high pressure in supercharging small proteins, whereas its capability to supercharge large protein assemblies under native conditions and how it might affect protein structures remain open questions. Herein, we demonstrated that the high-pressure-induced supercharging strategy affords unique advantages of supercharging protein complexes with the highest charge state surpassing the Rayleigh limit (ZR) and concurrently preserving native-like topology. By examining 32 proteins and protein complexes with molecular weights (MWs) ranging from 8.58 to 801 kDa, we demonstrated that the increased average charge states of macromolecular ions have a strong dependence on the surface areas of native protein conformations and MWs. Factors that might contribute to the high-pressure-induced supercharging capability toward macromolecular ions were discussed. Furthermore, using collision cross section (CCS) variation as a function of charge state, we investigate the effects of gas pressure and charge states on gas-phase structures of proteins and protein complexes. Smaller proteins have the largest CCS variations once supercharged, while macromolecular protein complexes are less affected. The results revealed that both surface density of charge and charged surface basic residues contribute to the observed CCS-charge disciplines for all the macromolecules investigated. Taken together, the results presented here indicate that increasing gas pressure in the ion source affords a rapid, simple, and controlled supercharging method, offering the potency of facilitating further applications of native top-down MS analysis with improved transmission, fragmentation, and detection efficiency.

PEPPI-MS: Polyacrylamide-Gel-Based Prefractionation for Analysis of Intact Proteoforms and Protein Complexes by Mass Spectrometry

Prefractionation of complex mixtures of proteins derived from biological samples is indispensable for proteome analysis via top-down mass spectrometry (MS). Polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (PAGE), which enables high-resolution protein separation based on molecular size, is a widely used technique in biochemical experiments and has the potential to be useful in sample fractionation for top-down MS analysis. However, the lack of a means to efficiently recover the separated proteins in-gel has always been a barrier to its use in sample prefractionation. In this study, we present a novel experimental workflow, called Passively Eluting Proteins from Polyacrylamide gels as Intact species for MS ("PEPPI-MS"), which allows top-down MS of PAGE-separated proteins. The optimization of Coomassie brilliant blue staining followed by the passive extraction step in the PEPPI-MS workflow enabled the efficient recovery of proteins, separated on commercial precast gels, from a wide range of molecular weight regions in under 10 min. Two-dimensional separation combining offline PEPPI-MS with online reversed-phase liquid chromatographic separation resulted in identification of over 1000 proteoforms recovered from the target region of the gel (≤50 kDa). Given the widespread availability and relatively low cost of traditional sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS)-PAGE equipment, the PEPPI-MS workflow will be a powerful prefractionation strategy for top-down proteomics.

High-throughput quantitative top-down proteomics.

Top-down mass spectrometry (MS) analyzes intact proteins at the proteoform level, which allows researchers to better understand the functions of protein modifications. Recently, top-down proteomics has increased in popularity due to advancements in high-resolution mass spectrometers, increased efficiency in liquid chromatography (LC) separation, and advances in data analysis software. Some unique protein proteoforms, which have been distinguished using top-down MS, have even been shown to exhibit marked variation in biological function compared to similar proteoforms. However, the qualitative identification of a particular proteoform may not be enough to determine the biological relevance of that proteoform. Quantitative top-down MS methods have been notably applied to the study of the differing biological functions of protein proteoforms and have allowed researchers to explore proteomes at the proteoform, rather than the peptide, level. Here, we review the top-down MS methods that have been used to quantitatively identify intact proteins, discuss current applications of quantitative top-down MS analysis, and present new areas where quantitative top-down MS analysis may be implemented.

Increasing the Separation Capacity of Intact Histone Proteoforms Chromatography Coupling Online Weak Cation Exchange-HILIC to Reversed Phase LC UVPD-HRMS

Top-down proteomics is an emerging analytical strategy to characterize combinatorial protein post-translational modifications (PTMs). However, sample complexity and small mass differences between chemically closely related proteoforms often limit the resolution attainable by separations employing a single liquid chromatographic (LC) principle. In particular, for ultramodified proteins like histones, extensive and time-consuming fractionation is needed to achieve deep proteoform coverage. Herein, we present the first online nanoflow comprehensive two-dimensional liquid chromatography (nLC×LC) platform top-down mass spectrometry analysis of histone proteoforms. The described two-dimensional LC system combines weak cation exchange chromatography under hydrophilic interaction LC conditions (i.e., charge- and hydrophilicity-based separation) with reversed phase liquid chromatography (i.e., hydrophobicity-based separation). The two independent chemical selectivities were run at nanoflows (300 nL/min) and coupled online with high-resolution mass spectrometry employing ultraviolet photodissociation (UVPD-HRMS). The nLC×LC workflow increased the number of intact protein masses observable relative to one-dimensional approaches and allowed characterization of hundreds of proteoforms starting from limited sample quantities (∼1.5 μg).

Top-Down Proteomics of Large Proteins up to 223 kDa Enabled by Serial Size Exclusion Chromatography Strategy.

Mass spectrometry (MS)-based top-down proteomics is a powerful method for the comprehensive analysis of proteoforms that arise from genetic variations and post-translational modifications (PTMs). However, top-down MS analysis of high molecular weight (MW) proteins remains challenging mainly due to the exponential decay of signal-to-noise ratio with increasing MW. Size exclusion chromatography (SEC) is a favored method for size-based separation of biomacromolecules but typically suffers from low resolution. Herein, we developed a serial size exclusion chromatography (sSEC) strategy to enable high-resolution size-based fractionation of intact proteins (10-223 kDa) from complex protein mixtures. The sSEC fractions could be further separated by reverse phase chromatography (RPC) coupled online with high-resolution MS. We have shown that two-dimensional (2D) sSEC-RPC allowed for the identification of 4044 more unique proteoforms and a 15-fold increase in the detection of proteins above 60 kDa, compared to one-dimensional (1D) RPC. Notably, effective sSEC-RPC separation of proteins significantly enhanced the detection of high MW proteins up to 223 kDa and also revealed low abundance proteoforms that are post-translationally modified. This sSEC method is MS-friendly, robust, and reproducible and, thus, can be applied to both high-efficiency protein purification and large-scale proteomics analysis of cell or tissue lysate for enhanced proteome coverage, particularly for low abundance and high MW proteoforms.

Commercial processed soy-based food product contains glycated and glycoxidated lunasin proteoforms.

Nutraceuticals have been proposed to exert positive effects on human health and confer protection against many chronic diseases. A major bioactive component of soy-based foods is lunasin peptide, which has potential to exert a major impact on the health of human consumers worldwide, but the biochemical features of dietary lunasin still remain poorly characterized. In this study, lunasin was purified from a soy-based food product via strong anion exchange solid phase extraction and then subjected to top-down mass spectrometry analysis that revealed in detail the molecular diversity of lunasin in processed soybean foods. We detected multiple glycated proteoforms together with potentially toxic advanced glycation end products (AGEs) derived from lunasin. In both cases, modification sites were Lys24 and Lys29 located at the helical region that shows structural homology with a conserved region of chromatin-binding proteins. The identified post-translational modifications may have an important repercussion on lunasin epigenetic regulatory capacity. Taking together, our results demonstrate the importance of proper chemical characterization of commercial processed food products to assess their impact on consumer’s health and risk of chronic diseases.

Signal and charge enhancement for protein analysis by liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry with desorption electrospray ionization

We recently reported the use of desorption electrospray ionization (DESI) as a novel interface to couple high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) with mass spectrometry (MS) (Chem. Commun. 47 (2011) 4171). One of the benefits of such an interface is that post-column derivatization of separated analytes can be integrated with ionization via a “reactive” DESI approach in which a derivatizing reagent is doped into the spray solvent. The reactive DESI interface allows analyte desorption/ionization from the end of the chromatographic column with prompt MS detection; a short time delay of ∼20ms was demonstrated. In this study, we extended this application by “supercharging” proteins following HPLC separation using a DESI spray solvent containing supercharging reagents, m-nitrobenzyl alcohol (m-NBA) or sulfolane. Proteins (insulin, ubiquitin, lysozyme and α-lactalbumin) eluted out of the LC column can be supercharged with the protein charge state distributions (CSDs) significantly increased (to higher charge), which would be advantageous for subsequent top-down MS analysis of proteins. Interestingly, supercharging combined with reactive DESI enhances tolerance towards trifluoroacetic acid (TFA), which is known to be a superior additive in the mobile phase for premium peptide/protein chromatographic separation but has severe signal suppression effects for conventional electrospray ionization (ESI). In comparison to electrosonic spray ionization (ESSI), a variant form of ESI, the sensitivity of protein analysis using LC/DESI-MS with the mobile phase containing TFA can be improved by up to 70-fold for lysozyme and α-lactalbumin by including m-NBA in the DESI spray solvent. Presumably, by reducing TFA dissociation in the droplet, supercharging agents lower trifluoroacetate anion concentrations and concomitantly reduce ion pairing to analyte cationic sites. The reduced ion pairing therefore decreases the TFA signal suppression effect. The supercharging capability and the reduction of TFA signal suppression suggest that LC/DESI-MS is a valuable method for protein analysis.

Biochemical Characterization of the O-Linked Glycosylation Pathway in Neisseria gonorrhoeae Responsible for Biosynthesis of Protein Glycans Containing N,N′-Diacetylbacillosamine

The O-linked protein glycosylation pathway in Neisseria gonorrhoeae is responsible for the synthesis of a complex oligosaccharide on undecaprenyl diphosphate and subsequent en bloc transfer of the glycan to serine residues of select periplasmic proteins. Protein glycosylation (pgl) genes have been annotated on the basis of bioinformatics and top-down mass spectrometry analysis of protein modifications in pgl-null strains [Aas, F. E., et al. (2007) Mol. Microbiol. 65, 607-624; Vik, A., et al. (2009) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 106, 4447-4452], but relatively little biochemical analysis has been performed to date. In this report, we present the expression, purification, and functional characterization of seven Pgl enzymes. Specifically, the enzymes studied are responsible for synthesis of an uncommon uridine diphosphate (UDP)-sugar (PglD, PglC, and PglB-acetyltransferase domain), glycan assembly (PglB-phospho-glycosyltransferase domain, PglA, PglE, and PglH), and final oligosaccharide transfer (PglO). UDP-2,4-diacetamido-2,4,6-trideoxy-α-d-hexose (DATDH), which is the first sugar in glycan biosynthesis, was produced enzymatically, and the stereochemistry was assigned as uridine diphosphate N'-diacetylbacillosamine (UDP-diNAcBac) by nuclear magnetic resonance characterization. In addition, the substrate specificities of the phospho-glycosyltransferase, glycosyltransferases, and oligosaccharyltransferase (OTase) were analyzed in vitro, and in most cases, these enzymes exhibited strong preferences for the native substrates relative to closely related glycans. In particular, PglO, the O-linked OTase, and PglB(Cj), the N-linked OTase from Campylobacter jejuni, preferred the native N. gonorrhoeae and C. jejuni substrates, respectively. This study represents the first comprehensive biochemical characterization of this important O-linked glycosylation pathway and provides the basis for further investigations of these enzymes as antibacterial targets.