The metabolic significance of mammalian fatty-acid-binding proteins: abundant proteins in search of a function.
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BACKGROUND: Cancer serum protein profiling by mass spectrometry has uncovered mass profiles that are potentially diagnostic for several common types of cancer. However, direct mass spectrometric profiling has a limited dynamic range and difficulties in providing the identification of the distinctive proteins. We hypothesized that distinctive profiles may result from the differential expression of relatively abundant serum proteins associated with the host response. METHODS: Eighty-four antibodies, targeting a wide range of serum proteins, were spotted onto nitrocellulose-coated microscope slides. The abundances of the corresponding proteins were measured in 80 serum samples, from 24 newly diagnosed subjects with lung cancer, 24 healthy controls, and 32 subjects with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Two-color rolling-circle amplification was used to measure protein abundance. RESULTS: Seven of the 84 antibodies gave a significant difference (p < 0.01) for the lung cancer patients as compared to healthy controls, as well as compared to COPD patients. Proteins that exhibited higher abundances in the lung cancer samples relative to the control samples included C-reactive protein (CRP; a 13.3 fold increase), serum amyloid A (SAA; a 2.0 fold increase), mucin 1 and alpha-1-antitrypsin (1.4 fold increases). The increased expression levels of CRP and SAA were validated by Western blot analysis. Leave-one-out cross-validation was used to construct Diagonal Linear Discriminant Analysis (DLDA) classifiers. At a cutoff where all 56 of the non-tumor samples were correctly classified, 15/24 lung tumor patient sera were correctly classified. CONCLUSION: Our results suggest that a distinctive serum protein profile involving abundant proteins may be observed in lung cancer patients relative to healthy subjects or patients with chronic disease and may have utility as part of strategies for detecting lung cancer.
Protein-based methodologies are catching up with established DNA-based methods at an astonishing speed. Recent developments in mass spectrometry enable high-throughput automated identification of proteins as is already the case with DNA sequencing methods. Furthermore, methods for the quantitation of relative protein abundance at the protein level are getting more advanced, which should complement gene expression monitoring at the mRNA level.
The most abundant protein of Iris bulbs has been identified as a type 1 ribosome-inactivating protein (RIP). Analysis of the purified proteins and molecular cloning of the corresponding cDNAs demonstrated that this type 1 RIP is a mixture of three isoforms that exhibit a high degree of sequence identity and have similar, though not identical, ribosome-inactivating and polynucleotide:adenosine glycosidase activities. The accumulation of large quantities of type 1 RIP in a vegetative storage organ suggests that this presumed defence-related protein also plays a role in the nitrogen-storage metabolism of the bulb.
OBJECTIVE: To separate the low abundance protein and establish the 2-DE synthetic map of total protein of human normal spermatozoa by using the 2-DE technology. METHODS: All the needed human spermatozoa were collected and mixed, and proteins were extracted at one time with the method of urea/thiourea and ultra-sound. 0.8 mg, 0.6 mg, 0.5 mg, 0.3 mg sperm protein extracts were separated with 2-DE. Analyzed with MALDI-TOF-MS, PI and MW of 2 spots were obtained. Then set the 2 spots as the referent spots, different maps were compared and analyzed. At last, a synthetic map enriched with low abundance protein was obtained. RESULTS: 1,080 +/- 23 protein spots have been separated on the 2-DE map with standard 0.5 mg loading amount and a synthetic map A was constructed which consist of 889 matched protein spots on the all maps with 0.5 mg loading amount. 381, 50 and 32 new spots were detected individually on the maps with 0.8 mg, 0.6 mg and 0.3 mg protein loading amount. A synthetic map with 1,352 protein spots was obtained. CONCLUSION: Low abundance protein was separated and a synthetic map enriched with low abundant protein was obtained by changing the protein loading amount.
The mouse uromodulin cDNA sequence was sequenced. The predicted peptide sequence is 642 amino acids long and contains several modular components including four epidermal growth factor like repeats, one betaglycan-like domain (ZP domain), and a consensus sequence for attachment of a glycosyl-phosphatidyl-inositol anchor. An arginine-glycine-aspartate tripeptide reported for rat and human sequence is absent in the mouse. There are several potential sites for post-translational modification.
Systematic detection of low-abundance proteins in human blood that may be putative disease biomarkers is complicated by an extremely wide range of protein abundances. Hence, depletion of major proteins is one potential strategy for enhancing detection sensitivity in serum or plasma. This study compared a recently commercialized HPLC column containing antibodies to six of the most abundant blood proteins ("Top-6 depletion") with either older Cibacron blue/Protein A or G depletion methods or no depletion. In addition, a prototype spin column version of the HPLC column and an alternative prototype two antibody spin column were evaluated. The HPLC polyclonal antibody column and its spin column version are very promising methods for substantially simplifying human serum or plasma samples. These columns show the lowest nonspecific binding of the depletion methods tested. In contrast other affinity methods, particularly dye-based resins, yielded many proteins in the bound fractions in addition to the targeted proteins. Depletion of six abundant proteins removed about 85% of the total protein from human serum or plasma, and this enabled 10- to 20-fold higher amounts of depleted serum or plasma samples to be applied to 2-D gels or alternative protein profiling methods such as protein array pixelation. However, the number of new spots detected on 2-D gels was modest, and most newly visualized spots were minor forms of relatively abundant proteins. The inability to detect low-abundance proteins near expected 2-D staining limits was probably due to both the highly heterogeneous nature of most plasma or serum proteins and masking of many low-abundance proteins by the next series of most abundant proteins. Hence, non2-D methods such as protein array pixelation are more promising strategies for detecting lower abundance proteins after depleting the six abundant proteins.
Reverse phase liquid chromatography (RPLC) has been widely used in proteomics research for peptide separation. When protein samples are separated by RPLC and identified with electrospray ion trap mass spectrometry (ESI-MS), the signals of high-abundance proteins may suppress those of low-abundance proteins, a phenomenon known as abundance suppression. To what degree the abundance suppression correlates to the number of tryptic peptides in the high-abundance proteins has not been carefully investigated. We tried to answer this question by studying the mixtures digested from five known proteins. The numbers of identified tryptic peptides (longer than five amino acids) of the five proteins ranged from 12 to 47. Four different peptide mixtures with 10- to 100-fold abundance differences of five known proteins were separated by RPLC and identified by ESI-MS. Our results showed that abundance suppression was related to the tryptic peptide numbers in the high-abundance protein. Within a 100-fold protein abundance difference range, tryptic peptide number in the low-abundance proteins could be suppressed up to seven times by high-abundance proteins. The procedure we suggest here can help to identify low-abundance proteins co-purified with their high-abundance binding protein. The result can also help to identify specific high-abundance proteins for removal by immunoaffinity.
In this study, for the first time, a comprehensive two-dimensional (2D) liquid-phase separation system, coupling strong cation exchange chromatography (SCX) to reversed-phase high performance liquid chromatography (RPLC), instead of specificity depletion method, was developed at the intact protein level for depletion of high-abundance proteins from rat liver. Proteins were prefractionated by SCX in the first dimensional separation, followed by RPLC with high resolution separation. UV absorption intensity was used to differentiate high-abundance proteins. The proteins with the absorbance intensity above 0.1 AU were defined as high abundance proteins and depleted. After removal of high-abundance proteins; other proteins were pooled, digested, and subsequently separated by capillary liquid chromatography coupled with MALDI-TOF/TOF mass spectrometry analysis. The high efficiency of the strategy was demonstrated by analyzing the soluble protein extracted from rat liver tissue. In total, 77 high-abundance proteins were depleted in one experiment flow. The ratio of depleted content of high-abundance proteins to that of total proteins was about 34.5%. In total, 1530 proteins were identified using the depletion strategy. Quantitative estimation of high-abundance proteins through liquid chromatography combined with UV absorption spectra was achieved. On the basis of the reproducible experimental results, a rapid and high-throughput depletion protocol was put forward. Along with depletion of the most (79.1%) high-abundance proteins and the separation of digested peptides, the total separation time could be less than 30 h. This strategy has no bias for depleting high-abundance proteins and enhances the number of identified proteins; therefore, it can be widely used in the global proteins analysis.
Protein microarrays are considered an enabling technology, which will significantly expand the scope of current protein expression and protein interaction analysis. Current technologies, such as two-dimensional gel electrophoresis (2-DE) in combination with mass spectrometry, allowing the identification of biologically relevant proteins, have a high resolving power, but also considerable limitations. As was demonstrated by Gygi et al. (Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. USA 2000,97, 9390-9395), most spots in 2-DE, observed from whole cell extracts, are from high abundance proteins, whereas low abundance proteins, such as signaling molecules or kinases, are only poorly represented. Protein microarrays are expected to significantly expedite the discovery of new markers and targets of pharmaceutical interest, and to have the potential for high-throughput applications. Key factors to reach this goal are: high read-out sensitivity for quantification also of low abundance proteins, functional analysis of proteins, short assay analysis times, ease of handling and the ability to integrate a variety of different targets and new assays. Zeptosens has developed a revolutionary new bioanalytical system based on the proprietary planar waveguide technology which allows us to perform multiplexed, quantitative biomolecular interaction analysis with highest sensitivity in a microarray format upon utilizing the specific advantages of the evanescent field fluorescence detection. The analytical system, comprising an ultrasensitive fluorescence reader and microarray chips with integrated microfluidics, enables the user to generate a multitude of high fidelity data in applications such as protein expression profiling or investigating protein-protein interactions. In this paper, the important factors for developing high performance protein microarray systems, especially for targeting low abundant messengers of relevant biological information, will be discussed and the performance of the system will be demonstrated in experimental examples.
The purpose of the present study was to determine in human skeletal muscle whether a single exercise bout and 7 days of consecutive endurance (cycling) training 1) increased insulin-stimulated Akt pSer(473) and 2) altered the abundance of the protein tyrosine phosphatases (PTPases), PTP1B and SHP2. In healthy, untrained men (n = 8; 24 +/- 1 yr), glucose infusion rate during a hyperinsulinemic euglycemic clamp, when compared with untrained values, was not improved 24 h following a single 60-min bout of endurance cycling but was significantly increased ( approximately 30%; P < 0.05) 24 h following completion of 7 days of exercise training. Insulin-stimulated Akt pSer(473) was approximately 50% higher (P < 0.05) 24 h following the acute bout of exercise, with this effect remaining after 7 days of training (P < 0.05). Insulin-stimulated insulin receptor and insulin receptor substrate-1 tyrosine phosphorylation were not altered 24 h after acute exercise and short-term training. Insulin did not acutely regulate the localization of the PTPases, PTP1B or SHP2, although cytosolic protein abundance of SHP2 was increased (P < 0.05; main effect) 24 h following acute exercise and short-term training. In conclusion, insulin-sensitive Akt pSer(473) and cytosolic SHP2 protein abundance are higher after acute exercise and short-term training, and this effect appears largely due to the residual effects of the last bout of prior exercise. The significance of exercise-induced alterations in cytosolic SHP2 and insulin-stimulated Akt pSer(473) on the improvement in insulin sensitivity requires further elucidation.
To estimate absolute protein contents in complex mixtures, we previously defined a protein abundance index (PAI) as the number of observed peptides divided by the number of observable peptides per protein (Rappsilber, J., Ryder, U., Lamond, A. I., and Mann, M. (2002) Large-scale proteomic analysis of the human spliceosome. Genome. Res. 12, 1231-1245). Here we report that PAI values obtained at different concentrations of serum albumin show a linear relationship with the logarithm of protein concentration in LC-MS/MS experiments. This was also the case for 46 proteins in a mouse whole cell lysate. For absolute quantitation, PAI was converted to exponentially modified PAI (emPAI), equal to 10PAI minus one, which is proportional to protein content in a protein mixture. For the 46 proteins in the whole lysate, the deviation percentages of the emPAI-based abundances from the actual values were within 63% on average, similar or better than determination of abundance by protein staining. emPAI was applied to comprehensive protein expression analysis and to a comparison study between gene and protein expression in a human cancer cell line, HCT116. The values of emPAI are easily calculated and add important quantitation information to proteomic experiments; therefore we suggest that they should be reported in large scale proteomic identification projects.
Comparing the relative abundance of each protein present in two or more complex samples can be accomplished using isotope-coded tags incorporated at the peptide level. Here we describe a chemical labeling strategy for the incorporation of a single isotope label per peptide, which is completely sequence-independent so that it potentially labels every peptide from a protein including those containing posttranslational modifications. It is based on a gentle chemical labeling strategy that specifically labels the N-terminus of all peptides in a digested sample with either a d5- or d0-propionyl group. Lysine side chains are blocked by guanidination prior to N-terminal labeling to prevent the incorporation of multiple labels. In this paper, we describe the optimization of this N-terminal isotopic tagging strategy and validate its use for peptide-based protein abundance measurements with a 10-protein standard mixture. Using a results-driven strategy, which targets proteins for identification based on MALDI TOF-MS analysis of isotopically labeled peptide pairs, we also show that this labeling strategy can detect a small number of differentially expressed proteins in a mixture as complex as a yeast cell lysate. Only peptides that show a difference in relative abundance are targeted for identification by tandem MS. Despite the fact that many peptides are quantitated, only those few showing a difference in abundance are targeted for protein identification. Proteins are identified by either targeted LC-ES MS/MS or MALDI TOF/TOF. Identifications can be accomplished equally well by either technique on the basis of multiple peptides. This increases the confidence level for both identification and quantitation. The merits of ES MS/MS or MALDI MS/MS for protein identification in a results-driven strategy are discussed.
Ascites from ovarian cancer patients are increasingly recognized as a valuable biofluid for cancer research, as its protein composition reflects the disease state and may reveal biomarkers of treatment sensitivity and response. However, the detection of low-abundance proteins is hindered by the presence of highly abundant proteins such as albumin. In this study, we evaluated five protein preparation methods for their effectiveness in depleting high-abundance or enriching low-abundance proteins in ovarian cancer ascites. The Norgen (Nor), Minutes (Min), and Perchloric acid (PerCA) methods were based on abundant protein depletion, while the Urine (Uri) and Nanomics (Nano) kits focused on low-abundance protein enrichment. Processed samples were analyzed using label-free quantitative bottom-up proteomics by LC-MS/MS, followed by a bioinformatics assessment. Compared with undepleted ascites (UnD), Min, Nor, Nano, and PerCA increased protein identifications, whereas Uri produced profiles similar to those of UnD. Notably, PerCA and Nano enabled the identification of distinct protein subsets associated with cancer-related pathways, including immune responses and autophagy. PerCA enriched transmembrane and secreted immunomodulatory glycoproteins, whereas Nano enrichment primarily captured secreted, nuclear, and cytoplasmic soluble proteins. Overall, our results show that both high-abundance protein depletion and low-abundance enrichment improve ascites proteome coverage, each offering distinct advantages in identifying biologically relevant low-abundance proteins.
MOTIVATION: Protein abundance is related to mRNA expression through many different cellular processes. Up to now, there have been conflicting results on how correlated the levels of these two quantities are. Given that expression and abundance data are significantly more complex and noisy than the underlying genomic sequence information, it is reasonable to simplify and average them in terms of broad proteomic categories and features (e.g. functions or secondary structures), for understanding their relationship. Furthermore, it will be essential to integrate, within a common framework, the results of many varied experiments by different investigators. This will allow one to survey the characteristics of highly expressed genes and proteins. RESULTS: To this end, we outline a formalism for merging and scaling many different gene expression and protein abundance data sets into a comprehensive reference set, and we develop an approach for analyzing this in terms of broad categories, such as composition, function, structure and localization. As the various experiments are not always done using the same set of genes, sampling bias becomes a central issue, and our formalism is designed to explicitly show this and correct for it. We apply our formalism to the currently available gene expression and protein abundance data for yeast. Overall, we found substantial agreement between gene expression and protein abundance, in terms of the enrichment of structural and functional categories. This agreement, which was considerably greater than the simple correlation between these quantities for individual genes, reflects the way broad categories collect many individual measurements into simple, robust averages. In particular, we found that in comparison to the population of genes in the yeast genome, the cellular populations of transcripts and proteins (weighted by their respective abundances, the transcriptome and what we dub the translatome) were both enriched in: (i) the small amino acids Val, Gly, and Ala; (ii) low molecular weight proteins; (iii) helices and sheets relative to coils; (iv) cytoplasmic proteins relative to nuclear ones; and (v) proteins involved in 'protein synthesis,' 'cell structure,' and 'energy production.' SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: http://genecensus.org/expression/translatome
The plant system is a highly dynamic structure on all molecular levels, transcripts, proteins, and metabolites. Thus, protein analysis has to cope with a highly dynamic range of concentrations. A severe problem is the detection of low-abundance proteins in the presence of housekeeping proteins. Basically three approaches are facilitated to measure protein abundance in a comprehensive manner: 2DE and one- or multi-dimensional shotgun proteomics, with or without stable-isotope labelling. These comparative techniques allow for the identification of altered protein levels compared with a reference state. However, they are limited to the analysis of medium/high-abundance proteins. Using stable-isotope dilution techniques it is possible to target the quantitative analysis to low-abundance proteins and to measure absolute concentrations of proteins. Based on multi-dimensional non-gel shotgun proteomics in Arabidopis thaliana, a list of tryptic peptides comprising >1000 proteins was generated. A strategy for quantitative plant proteomics is proposed using this master-list for selecting signature peptides of proteins. To prove the concept, a liquid chromatography-high-resolution triple quadrupole multiple reaction monitoring-mass spectrometry technique is described to determine the absolute amount of a low-abundance sucrose synthase isoform out of an ultra-complex A. thaliana protein extract.
The proteomic analysis of plasma and serum samples represents a formidable challenge due to the presence of a few highly abundant proteins such as albumin and immunoglobulins. Detection of low abundance protein biomarkers requires therefore either the specific depletion of high abundance proteins with immunoaffinity columns and/or optimized protein fractionation methods based on charge, size or hydrophobicity. Here we describe the depletion of seven abundant rat plasma proteins with an immunoaffinity column with coupled antibodies directed against albumin, IgG, transferrin, IgM, haptoglobin, fibrinogen and alpha1-anti-trypsin. The IgY-R7-LC2 (Beckman Coulter) column showed high specificity for the targeted proteins and was able to efficiently remove most of the albumin, IgG and transferrin from rat plasma samples as judged by Western blot analysis. Depleted rat plasma protein samples were analyzed by SELDI-TOF MS, 2D SDS-PAGE and 2D-LC and compared to non-depleted plasma samples as well as to the abundant protein fraction that was eluted from the immunoaffinity column. Analysis of the depleted plasma protein fraction revealed improved signal to noise ratios, regardless of which proteomic method was applied. However, only a small number of new proteins were observed in the depleted protein fraction. Immunoaffinity depletion of abundant plasma proteins results in the significant dilution of the original sample which complicates subsequent analysis. Most proteomic approaches require specialized sample preparation procedures during which significant losses of less abundant proteins and potential biomarkers can occur. Even though abundant protein depletion reduces the dynamic range of the plasma proteome by about 2-3 orders of magnitude, the difference between medium-abundant and low abundant plasma proteins is still in the range of 7-8 orders of magnitude and beyond the dynamic range of current proteomic technologies. Thus, exploring the plasma proteome in greater detail remains a daunting task.
Abundant proteins of 25 human kidneys were surveyed for genic variation by means of two-dimensional electrophoresis. Eighty-three (83) proteins were scored, and no genic variation was detected. This reduction in genic heterozygosity corroborates results determined with two-dimensional electrophoresis in mice and flies. These results suggest that previous estimates of electrophoretic variation may have been in error because of biased selection of loci.