[Preparation of magnetic carbon nitride composite toward phosphopeptide enrichment].

Protein phosphorylation plays an important role in cellular signaling and disease development. Advances in mass spectrometry-based proteomics have enabled qualitative and quantitative phosphorylation studies as well as in-depth biological explorations for biomarker discovery and signaling pathway analysis. However, the dynamic changes that occur during phosphorylation and the low abundance of target analytes render direct analysis difficult because mass spectral detection offers no selectivity, unlike immunoassays such as Western blot and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). The present study aimed to solve one of the key problems in the specific and efficient isolation of phosphorylated peptides. A method based on a magnetic carbon nitride composite coupled with matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF-MS) was developed for the enrichment and analysis of phosphopeptides with low abundance in complex samples. Magnetic carbon nitride composite was synthesized and characterized by electron microscopy, infrared spectroscopy, and X-ray diffractometry. The composite showed a well-distributed two-dimensional layered structure and functional groups with excellent paramagnetic performance. Two classical phosphoproteins, namely, α- and ß-caseins, were selected as model phosphorylated samples to assess the performance of the proposed enrichment technique. The magnetic carbon nitride composite exhibited high selectivity and sensitivity for phosphopeptide enrichment. The limit of detection was determined by MALDI-TOF-MS analysis to be 0.1 fmol. The selectivity of the method was investigated using the digest mixtures of α-casein, ß-casein, and bovine serum albumin (BSA) with different mass ratios (1∶1∶1000, 1∶1∶2000, and 1∶1∶5000). Direct analysis of the samples revealed the dominance of spectral signals from the abundant peptides in BSA. After enrichment with the magnetic carbon nitride composite, the high concentration of background proteins was washed away and only the signals of the phosphopeptides were captured. The signals from the casein proteins were clearly observed with little background noise, indicating the high selectivity of the composite material. The robustness of the method was tested by assessing the reusability of the same batch of magnetic carbon nitride materials over 20 cycles of enrichment. The composite showed nearly the same enrichment ability even after several cycles of reuse, demonstrating its potential applicability for a large number of clinical samples. Finally, the method was applied to the analysis of phosphopeptides from several commonly used phosphoprotein-containing samples, including skimmed milk digest, human serum, and human saliva; these samples are significant in the analysis of food quality, disease biomarkers, and liquid biopsies for cancer. Without enrichment, no phosphopeptide was detected because of the high abundance of nonphosphopeptide materials dominating the spectral signals obtained. After pretreatment with the developed magnetic carbon nitride composite, most of the phosphosites were identified with high selectivity and sensitivity via MALDI-TOF-MS. These results revealed the practicality of the developed approach for clinical applications. In addition, our method may potentially be employed for phosphoproteomics with real complex biological samples.

Gomisin A is a Novel Isoform-Specific Probe for the Selective Sensing of Human Cytochrome P450 3A4 in Liver Microsomes and Living Cells.

Nearly half of prescription medicines are metabolized by human cytochrome P450 (CYP) 3A. CYP3A4 and 3A5 are two major isoforms of human CYP3A and share most of the substrate spectrum. A very limited previous study distinguished the activity of CYP3A4 and CYP3A5, identifying the challenge in predicting CYP3A-mediated drug clearance and drug-drug interaction. In the present study, we introduced gomisin A (GA) with a dibenzocyclooctadiene skeleton as a novel selective probe of CYP3A4. The major metabolite of GA was fully characterized as 8-hydroxylated GA by LC-MS and NMR. CYP3A4 was assigned as the predominant isozyme involved in GA 8-hydroxylation by reaction phenotyping assays, chemical inhibition assays, and correlation studies. GA 8-hydroxylation in both recombinant human CYP3A4 and human liver microsomes followed classic Michaelis-Menten kinetics. The intrinsic clearance values indicated that CYP3A4 contributed 12.8-fold more than CYP3A5 to GA 8-hydroxylation. Molecular docking studies indicated different hydrogen bonds and π-π interactions between CYP3A4 and CYP3A5, which might result in the different catalytic activity for GA 8-hydroxylation. Furthermore, GA exhibited a stronger inhibitory activity towards CYP3A4 than CYP3A5, which further suggested a preferred selectivity of CYP3A4 for the transformation of GA. More importantly, GA has been successfully applied to selectively monitor the modulation of CYP3A4 activities by the inducer rifampin in hepG2 cells, which is consistent with the level change of CYP3A4 mRNA expression. In summary, our results suggested that GA could be used as a novel probe for the selective sensing of CYP3A4 in tissue and cell preparations.

[Recent advances in the quantification of drug metabolizing enzymes and transporters by proteomic approach].

With the advance of drug development and research techniques, the drug metabolic processes and mechanism can be more deeply achieved. As the drug metabolism and pharmacokinetics process are mediated by drug metabolizing enzymes and transporters, study of drug metabolizing enzymes and transporters has become an important part for drug development. The traditional immunoassays with low sensitivity and poor specificity can not reflect the accurate expression level of drug metabolizing enzymes and transporters. We now give a brief review on the quantitative study of drug metabolizing enzymes and transporters by mass spectrometry-based proteomic approach.

A Highly Selective Ratiometric Two-Photon Fluorescent Probe for Human Cytochrome P450 1A.

Cytochrome P450 1A (CYP1A), one of the most important phase I drug-metabolizing enzymes in humans, plays a crucial role in the metabolic activation of procarcinogenic compounds to their ultimate carcinogens. Herein, we reported the development of a ratiometric two-photon fluorescent probe NCMN that allowed for selective and sensitive detection of CYP1A for the first time. The probe was designed on the basis of substrate preference of CYP1A and its high capacity for O-dealkylation, while 1,8-naphthalimide was selected as fluorophore because of its two-photon absorption properties. To achieve a highly selective probe for CYP1A, a series of 1,8-naphthalimide derivatives were synthesized and used to explore the potential structure-selectivity relationship, by using a panel of human CYP isoforms for selectivity screening. After screening and optimization, NCMN displayed the best combination of selectivity, sensitivity and ratiometric fluorescence response following CYP1A-catalyzed O-demetylation. Furthermore, the probe can be used to real-time monitor the enzyme activity of CYP1A in complex biological systems, and it has the potential for rapid screening of CYP1A modulators using tissue preparation as enzyme sources. NCMN has also been successfully used for two-photon imaging of intracellular CYP1A in living cells and tissues, and showed high ratiometric imaging resolution and deep-tissue imaging depth. In summary, a two-photon excited ratiometric fluorescent probe NCMN has been developed and well-characterized for sensitive and selective detection of CYP1A, which holds great promise for bioimaging of endogenous CYP1A in living cells and for further investigation on CYP1A associated biological functions in complex biological systems.

An optimized ratiometric fluorescent probe for sensing human UDP-glucuronosyltransferase 1A1 and its biological applications.

This study aimed to develop a practical ratiometric fluorescent probe for highly selective and sensitive detection of human UDP-glucuronosyltransferase 1A1 (UGT1A1), one of the most important phase II enzymes. 4-Hydroxy-1,8-naphthalimide (HN) was selected as the fluorophore for this study because it possesses intramolecular charge transfer (ICT) feature and displays outstanding optical properties. A series of N-substituted derivatives with various hydrophobic, acidic and basic groups were designed and synthesized to evaluate the selectivity of HN derivatives toward UGT1A1. Our results demonstrated that the introduction of an acidic group to HN could significantly improve the selectivity of UGT1A1. Among the synthesized fluorescent probes, NCHN (N-3-carboxy propyl-4-hydroxy-1,8-naphthalimide) displayed the best combination of selectivity, sensitivity and ratiometric fluorescence response following UGT1A1-catalyzed glucuronidation. UGT1A1-catalyzed NCHN-4-O-glucuronidation generated a single fluorescent product with a high quantum yield (Φ=0.688) and brought remarkable changes in both color and fluorescence in comparison with the parental substrate. The newly developed probe has been successfully applied for sensitive measurements of UGT1A1 activities in human liver preparations, as well as for rapid screening of UGT1A1 modulators, using variable enzyme sources. Furthermore, its potential applications for live imaging of endogenous UGT1A1in cells have also been demonstrated.

Characterization of phase I metabolism of resibufogenin and evaluation of the metabolic effects on its antitumor activity and toxicity.

Resibufogenin (RB), one of the major active compounds of the traditional Chinese medicine Chansu, has displayed great potential as a chemotherapeutic agent in oncology. However, it is a digoxin-like compound that also exhibits extremely cardiotoxic effects. The present study aimed to characterize the metabolic behaviors of RB in humans as well as to evaluate the metabolic effects on its bioactivity and toxicity. The phase I metabolic profile in human liver microsomes was characterized systemically, and the major metabolite was identified as marinobufagenin (5ß-hydroxylresibufogenin, 5-HRB) by liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry and nuclear magnetic imaging techniques. Both cytochrome P450 (P450) reaction phenotyping and inhibition assays using P450-selective chemical inhibitors demonstrated that CYP3A4 was mainly involved in RB 5ß-hydroxylation with much higher selectivity than CYP3A5. Kinetic characterization demonstrated that RB 5ß-hydroxylation in both human liver microsomes and human recombinant CYP3A4 obeyed biphasic kinetics and displayed similar apparent kinetic parameters. Furthermore, 5-HRB could significantly induce cell growth inhibition and apoptosis in A549 and H1299 by facilitating apoptosome assembly and caspase activation. Meanwhile, 5-HRB displayed very weak cytotoxicity of human embryonic lung fibroblasts, and in mice there was a greater tolerance to acute toxicity. In summary, CYP3A4 dominantly mediated 5ß-hydroxylation and was found to be a major metabolic pathway of RB in the human liver, whereas its major metabolite (5-HRB) displayed better druglikeness than its parent compound RB. Our findings lay a solid foundation for RB metabolism studies in humans and encourage further research on the bioactive metabolite of RB.

A highly selective probe for human cytochrome P450 3A4: isoform selectivity, kinetic characterization and its applications.

Bufalin 5ß-hydroxylation was found to be an isoform-specific biotransformation probe substrate for cytochrome P450 3A4 (CYP3A4). The probe reaction was well-characterized and it can be used for measuring the real catalytic activities of CYP3A4 from different enzyme sources.

Trilinear decomposition method applied to removal of three-dimensional background drift in comprehensive two-dimensional separation data.

A novel technique for removal of three-dimensional background drift in comprehensive two-dimensional (2D) liquid chromatography coupled with diode array detection (LCxLC-DAD) data is proposed. The basic idea is to perform trilinear decomposition on the instrumental response data, which is based on the alternating trilinear decomposition (ATLD) algorithm. In model construction, the background drift is modeled as one component or factor as well as the analytes of interest, hence, the drift is explicitly included into the calibration. The method involves performing trilinear decomposition on the raw data, then extracting the background component and subtracting this background data from the raw data, leaving the analytes' signal on a flat baseline. Simultaneous evaluation of three-dimensional background drift and true signals may improve the quality of the data. This method is applied to the determination and removal of three-dimensional background drifts in simulated multidimensional data as well as experimental comprehensive two-dimensional liquid chromatographic data. It is shown that this technique yield a good removal of background drift, without the need to perform a blank chromatographic run, and required no prior knowledge about the sample composition.