High-Sensitivity and Low-Toxicity Fucose Probe for Glycan Imaging and Biomarker Discovery.

Fucose, a terminal sugar in glycoconjugates, critically regulates various physiological and pathological phenomena, including cancer development and inflammation. However, there are currently no probes for efficient labeling and detection of this sugar. We chemically synthesized a novel series of alkynyl-fucose analogs as probe candidates and found that 7-alkynyl-fucose gave the highest labeling efficiency and low cytotoxicity. Among the fucose analogs, 7-alkynyl-fucose was the best substrate against all five fucosyltransferases examined. We confirmed its conversion to the corresponding guanosine diphosphate derivative in cells and found that cellular glycoproteins were labeled much more efficiently with 7-alkynyl-fucose than with an existing probe. 7-Alkynyl-fucose was detected in the N-glycan core by mass spectrometry, and 7-alkynyl-fucose-modified proteins mostly disappeared in core-fucose-deficient mouse embryonic fibroblasts, suggesting that this analog mainly labeled core fucose in these cells. These results indicate that 7-alkynyl-fucose is a highly sensitive and powerful tool for basic glycobiology research and clinical application for biomarker discovery.

Flagellin/Toll-like receptor 5 response was specifically attenuated by keratan sulfate disaccharide via decreased EGFR phosphorylation in normal human bronchial epithelial cells.

Bacterial or viral infection of the airway plays a critical role in the pathogenesis and exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) which is expected to be the 3rd leading cause of death by 2020. The induction of inflammatory responses in immune cells as well as airway epithelial cells is observed in the disease process. There is thus a pressing need for the development of new therapeutics. Keratan sulfate (KS) is the major glycosaminoglycans (GAGs) of airway secretions, and is synthesized by epithelial cells on the airway surface. Here we report that a KS disaccharide, [SO3(-)-6]Galß1-4[SO3(-)-6]GlcNAc, designated as L4, suppressed the production of Interleukin-8 (IL-8) stimulated by flagellin, a Toll-like receptor (TLR) 5 agonist, in normal human bronchial epithelial (NHBE) cells. Such suppressions were not observed by other L4 analogues, N-acetyllactosamine or chondroitin-6-sulfate disaccharide. Moreover, treatment of NHBE cells with L4 inhibited the flagellin-stimulated phosphorylation of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), the down stream signaling pathway of TLRs in NHBE cells. These results suggest that L4 specifically blocks the interaction of flagellin with TLR5 and subsequently suppresses IL-8 production in NHBE cells. Taken together, L4 represents a potential molecule for prevention and treatment of airway inflammatory responses to bacteria infections, which play a critical role in exacerbation of COPD.

Nanomechanical recognition of sphingomyelin-rich membrane domains by atomic force microscopy.

Sphingomyelin (SM) is a reservoir of signaling lipids and forms specific lipid domains in biomembranes together with cholesterol. In this study, atomic force microscopy (AFM) and force measurement were applied to investigate the interaction of SM-binding protein toxin, lysenin, with N-palmitoyl-D-erythro-sphingosylphosphorylcholine (palmitoyl sphingomyelin, PSM) bilayer spread over a mica substrate, in an aqueous buffer solution. Lysenin molecules were grafted on a silicon nitride tip for AFM by siloxane-thiol-amide coupling. The bilayers were prepared by the Langmuir-Blodgett (LB)/Langmuir-Schaefer (LS) method. By repeating cycles of tip approach/retraction motion, single-molecular adhesion motions were observed on the force curve, characterized as "fishing curves". The addition of cholesterol and 1,2-dioleoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine (DOPC) did not alter the peak force but increased the peak extension. Mixtures of PSM/DOPC/cholesterol exhibited 2-dimensional two-phase domain separation. The characteristic fishing curves were observed exclusively in one of the phases, indicating the selective interaction of the lysenin tip to PSM-rich membrane domains. Our results indicate that the AFM tips conjugated with lysenin are useful to detect the surface distribution of SM-rich membrane domains as well as the nanomechanical properties of the domains.

Lysenin: a sphingomyelin specific pore-forming toxin.

Sphingomyelin is a major sphingolipid in mammalian cells. Recent results indicate that sphingomyelin is a reservoir of lipid second messengers, ceramide and sphingosine-1-phosphate. Sphingomyelin is also a major component of sphingolipid and cholesterol-rich membrane domains (lipid rafts). Lysenin is a pore-forming toxin that specifically binds sphingomyelin. The binding of lysenin to sphingomyelin is dependent on the membrane distribution of the lipid, i.e. the toxin selectively binds sphingomyelin clusters. Development of a non-toxic lysenin mutant revealed the spatial and functional heterogeneity of sphingolipid-rich membrane domains.

Palmitoylation and intracellular domain interactions both contribute to raft targeting of linker for activation of T cells.

Some transmembrane proteins must associate with lipid rafts to function. However, even if acylated, transmembrane proteins should not pack well with ordered raft lipids, and raft targeting is puzzling. Acylation is necessary for raft targeting of linker for activation of T cells (LAT). To determine whether an acylated transmembrane domain is sufficient, we examined raft association of palmitoylated and nonpalmitoylated LAT transmembrane peptides in lipid vesicles by a fluorescence quenching assay, by microscopic examination, and by association with detergent-resistant membranes (DRMs). All three assays detected very low raft association of the nonacylated LAT peptide. DRM association was the same as a control random transmembrane peptide. Acylation did not measurably enhance raft association by the first two assays but slightly enhanced DRM association. The palmitoylated LAT peptide and a FLAG-tagged LAT transmembrane domain construct expressed in cells showed similar DRM association when both were reconstituted into mixed vesicles (containing cell-derived proteins and lipids and excess artificial raft-forming lipids) before detergent extraction. We conclude that the acylated LAT transmembrane domain has low inherent raft affinity. Full-length LAT in mixed vesicles associated better with DRMs than the peptide. However, cells appeared to contain two pools of LAT, with very different raft affinities. Since some LAT (but not the transmembrane domain construct) was isolated in a protein complex, and the Myc- and FLAG-tagged forms of LAT could be mutually co-immunoprecipitated, oligomerization or interactions with other proteins may enhance raft affinity of one pool of LAT. We conclude that both acylation and other factors, possibly protein-protein interactions, target LAT to rafts.

Exclusion of a transmembrane-type peptide from ordered-lipid domains (rafts) detected by fluorescence quenching: extension of quenching analysis to account for the effects of domain size and domain boundaries.

Sphingolipid/cholesterol-rich rafts are membrane domains thought to exist in the liquid-ordered state. To understand the rules governing the association of proteins with rafts, the behavior of a model membrane-inserted hydrophobic polypeptide (LW peptide, acetyl-K(2)W(2)L(8)AL(8)W(2)K(2)-amide) was examined. The distribution of LW peptide between coexisting ordered and disordered lipid domains was probed by measuring the amount of LW Trp fluorescence quenched by a nitroxide-labeled phospholipid that concentrated in disordered lipid domains. Strong quenching of the Trp fluorescence (relative to quenching in model membranes lacking domains) showed that LW peptide was concentrated in quencher-rich disordered domains and was largely excluded from ordered domains. Exclusion of LW peptide from the ordered domains was observed both in the absence and in the presence of 25-33 mol % cholesterol, indicating that the peptide is relatively excluded both from gel-state domains (which form in the absence of cholesterol) and from liquid-ordered-state domains (which form at high cholesterol concentrations). Because exclusion was also observed when ordered domains contained sphingomyelin in place of DPPC, or ergosterol in place of cholesterol, it appeared that this behavior was not strongly dependent on lipid structure. In both the absence and the presence of 25 mol % cholesterol, exclusion was also not strongly dependent upon the fraction of the bilayer in the form of ordered domains. To evaluate LW peptide behavior in more detail, an analysis of the effects of domain size and edges upon quenching was formulated. This analysis showed that quenching can be affected both by domain size and by whether a fluorescent molecule localized at domain edges. Its application to the quenching of LW peptide indicated that the peptide did not preferentially reside at the boundaries between ordered and disordered domains.

Use of detergents to study membrane rafts: the good, the bad, and the ugly.

Eukaryotic cell membranes contain microdomains called lipid rafts, which are cholesterol-rich domains in which lipid acyl chains are tightly packed and highly extended. A variety of proteins associate preferentially with rafts, and this raft association is important in a wide range of functions. A powerful and widely-used method for studying lipid rafts takes advantage of their insolubility in non-ionic detergents. Here we describe the basis of detergent insolubility, and review strengths, limitations, and unresolved puzzles regarding this method.