Cyclic Ion Mobility-Mass Spectrometry and Tandem Collision Induced Unfolding for Quantification of Elusive Protein Biomarkers.

Sensitive analytical techniques that are capable of detecting and quantifying disease-associated biomolecules are indispensable in our efforts to understand disease mechanisms and guide therapeutic intervention through early detection, accurate diagnosis, and effective monitoring of disease. Parkinson's Disease (PD), for example, is one of the most prominent neurodegenerative disorders in the world, but the diagnosis of PD has primarily been based on the observation of clinical symptoms. The protein α-synuclein (α-syn) has emerged as a promising biomarker candidate for PD, but a lack of analytical methods to measure complex disease-associated variants of α-syn has prevented its widespread use as a biomarker. Antibody-based methods such as immunoassays and mass spectrometry-based approaches have been used to measure a limited number of α-syn forms; however, these methods fail to differentiate variants of α-syn that display subtle differences in only the sequence and structure. In this work, we developed a cyclic ion mobility-mass spectrometry method that combines multiple stages of activation and timed ion selection to quantify α-syn variants using both mass- and structure-based measurements. This method can allow for the quantification of several α-syn variants present at physiological levels in biological fluid. Taken together, this approach can be used to galvanize future efforts aimed at understanding the underlying mechanisms of PD and serves as a starting point for the development of future protein-structure-based diagnostics and therapeutic interventions.

Expanding Native Mass Spectrometry to the Masses.

At the 33rd ASMS Sanibel Meeting, on Membrane Proteins and Their Complexes, a morning roundtable discussion was held discussing the current challenges facing the field of native mass spectrometry and approaches to expanding the field to nonexperts. This Commentary summarizes the discussion and current initiatives to address these challenges.

Collision-Induced Unfolding Reveals Disease-Associated Stability Shifts in Mitochondrial Transfer Ribonucleic Acids.

Ribonucleic acids (RNAs) remain challenging targets for structural biology, creating barriers to understanding their vast functions in cellular biology and fully realizing their applications in biotechnology. The inherent dynamism of RNAs creates numerous obstacles in capturing their biologically relevant higher-order structures (HOSs), and as a result, many RNA functions remain unknown. In this study, we describe the development of native ion mobility-mass spectrometry and collision-induced unfolding (CIU) for the structural characterization of a variety of RNAs. We evaluate the ability of these techniques to preserve native structural features in the gas phase across a wide range of functional RNAs. Finally, we apply these tools to study the elusive mitochondrial encephalopathy, lactic acidosis, and stroke-like episodes-associated A3243G mutation. Our data demonstrate that our experimentally determined conditions preserve some solution-state memory of RNAs via the correlated complexity of CIU fingerprints and RNA HOS, the observation of predicted stability shifts in the control RNA samples, and the retention of predicted magnesium binding events in gas-phase RNA ions. Significant differences in collision cross section and stability are observed as a function of the A3243G mutation across a subset of the mitochondrial tRNA maturation pathway. We conclude by discussing the potential application of CIU for the development of RNA-based biotherapeutics and, more broadly, transcriptomic characterization.

Performance evaluation of in-source ion activation hardware for collision-induced unfolding of proteins and protein complexes on a drift tube ion mobility-mass spectrometer.

Native ion mobility-mass spectrometry (IM-MS) has emerged as an information-rich technique for gas phase protein structure characterization; however, IM resolution is currently insufficient for the detection of subtle structural differences in large biomolecules. This challenge has spurred the development of collision-induced unfolding (CIU) which utilizes incremental gas phase activation to unfold a protein in order to expand the number of measurable descriptors available for native protein ions. Although CIU is now routinely used in native mass spectrometry studies, the interlaboratory reproducibility of CIU has not been established. Here we evaluate the reproducibility of the CIU data produced across three laboratories (University of Michigan, Texas A&M University, and Vanderbilt University). CIU data were collected for a variety of protein ions ranging from 8.6-66 kDa. Within the same laboratory, the CIU fingerprints were found to be repeatable with root mean square deviation (RMSD) values of less than 5%. Collision cross section (CCS) values of the CIU intermediates were consistent across the laboratories, with most features exhibiting an interlaboratory reproducibility of better than 1%. In contrast, the activation potentials required to induce protein CIU transitions varied between the three laboratories. To address these differences, three source assemblies were constructed with an updated ion activation hardware design utilizing higher mechanical tolerance specifications. The production-grade assemblies were found to produce highly consistent CIU data for intact antibodies, exhibiting high precision ion CCS and CIU transition values, thus opening the door to establishing databases of CIU fingerprints to support future biomolecular classification efforts.

Mass Spectrometry Methods for Measuring Protein Stability.

Mass spectrometry is a central technology in the life sciences, providing our most comprehensive account of the molecular inventory of the cell. In parallel with developments in mass spectrometry technologies targeting such assessments of cellular composition, mass spectrometry tools have emerged as versatile probes of biomolecular stability. In this review, we cover recent advancements in this branch of mass spectrometry that target proteins, a centrally important class of macromolecules that accounts for most biochemical functions and drug targets. Our efforts cover tools such as hydrogen-deuterium exchange, chemical cross-linking, ion mobility, collision induced unfolding, and other techniques capable of stability assessments on a proteomic scale. In addition, we focus on a range of application areas where mass spectrometry-driven protein stability measurements have made notable impacts, including studies of membrane proteins, heat shock proteins, amyloidogenic proteins, and biotherapeutics. We conclude by briefly discussing the future of this vibrant and fast-moving area of research.

Biochemical characterization of the interaction between KRAS and Argonaute 2.

Oncogenic mutations in KRAS result in a constitutively active, GTP-bound form that in turn activates many proliferative pathways. However, because of its compact and simple architecture, directly targeting KRAS with small molecule drugs has been challenging. Another approach is to identify targetable proteins that interact with KRAS. Argonaute 2 (AGO2) was recently identified as a protein that facilitates RAS-driven oncogenesis. Whereas previous studies described the in vivo effect of AGO2 on cancer progression in cells harboring mutated KRAS, here we sought to examine their direct interaction using purified proteins. We show that full length AGO2 co-immunoprecipitates with KRAS using purified components, however, a complex between FL AGO2 and KRAS could not be isolated. We also generated a smaller N-terminal fragment of AGO2 (NtAGO2) which is believed to represent the primary binding site of KRAS. A complex with NtAGO2 could be detected via ion-mobility mass spectrometry and size exclusion chromatography. However, the data suggest that the interaction of KRAS with purified AGO2 (NtAGO2 or FL AGO2) is weak and likely requires additional cellular components or proteo-forms of AGO2 that are not readily available in our purified assay systems. Future studies are needed to determine what conformation or modifications of AGO2 are necessary to enrich KRAS association and regulate its activities.

Mechanism of the small ATP-independent chaperone Spy is substrate specific.

ATP-independent chaperones are usually considered to be holdases that rapidly bind to non-native states of substrate proteins and prevent their aggregation. These chaperones are thought to release their substrate proteins prior to their folding. Spy is an ATP-independent chaperone that acts as an aggregation inhibiting holdase but does so by allowing its substrate proteins to fold while they remain continuously chaperone bound, thus acting as a foldase as well. The attributes that allow such dual chaperoning behavior are unclear. Here, we used the topologically complex protein apoflavodoxin to show that the outcome of Spy's action is substrate specific and depends on its relative affinity for different folding states. Tighter binding of Spy to partially unfolded states of apoflavodoxin limits the possibility of folding while bound, converting Spy to a holdase chaperone. Our results highlight the central role of the substrate in determining the mechanism of chaperone action.

Enhanced Collision Induced Unfolding and Electron Capture Dissociation of Native-like Protein Ions.

Native ion mobility-mass spectrometry (IM-MS) is capable of revealing much that remains unknown within the structural proteome, promising such information on refractory protein targets. Here, we report the development of a unique drift tube IM-MS (DTIM-MS) platform, which combines high-energy source optics for improved collision induced unfolding (CIU) experiments and an electromagnetostatic cell for electron capture dissociation (ECD). We measured a series of high precision collision cross section (CCS) values for protein and protein complex ions ranging from 6-1600 kDa, exhibiting an average relative standard deviation (RSD) of 0.43 ± 0.20%. Furthermore, we compare our CCS results to previously reported DTIM values, finding strong agreement across similarly configured instrumentation (average RSD of 0.82 ± 0.73%), and systematic differences for DTIM CCS values commonly used to calibrate traveling-wave IM separators (-3% average RSD). Our CIU experiments reveal that the modified DTIM-MS instrument described here achieves enhanced levels of ion activation when compared with any previously reported IM-MS platforms, allowing for comprehensive unfolding of large multiprotein complex ions as well as interplatform CIU comparisons. Using our modified DTIM instrument, we studied two protein complexes. The enhanced CIU capabilities enable us to study the gas phase stability of the GroEL 7-mer and 14-mer complexes. Finally, we report CIU-ECD experiments for the alcohol dehydrogenase tetramer, demonstrating improved sequence coverage by combining ECD fragmentation integrated over multiple CIU intermediates. Further improvements for such native top-down sequencing experiments were possible by leveraging IM separation, which enabled us to separate and analyze CID and ECD fragmentation simultaneously.

Pervasive Charge Solvation Permeates Native-like Protein Ions and Dramatically Influences Top-down Sequencing Data.

Post-translational modifications create a diverse mixture of proteoforms, leading to substantial challenges in linking proteomic information to disease. Top-down sequencing of intact proteins and multiprotein complexes offers significant advantages in proteoform analysis, but achieving complete fragmentation for such precursor ions remains challenging. Intact proteins that undergo slow-heating generally fragment via charge directed (i.e., mobile proton) or charge remote fragmentation pathways. Our efforts seek to alter this paradigm by labeling proteins with trimethyl pyrylium (TMP), which forms a stable, positively charged label at lysine residues. Fixing positive charges to the protein sequence reduces the availability of mobile protons, driving fragmentation to charge remote channels. Furthermore, we demonstrate that capping acidic side chains with carbodiimide chemistry obstructs this pathway, restoring charge-directed fragmentation and resulting in more even coverage of the protein sequence. With large amounts of fixed charge and few mobile protons, we demonstrate that it is also possible to direct fragmentation almost exclusively to lysine residues containing the charged label. Finally, our data indicate that when electrosprayed under native conditions, protein ions possess an immense capacity to accommodate excess positive charge. Molecular dynamics simulations of such ions bearing intrinsically charged labels reveal evidence of numerous charge solvation processes, including the preferential formation of helices that solvate charged labels through interactions with their macro-dipoles. Thus, these studies reveal the extent to which intact gas-phase protein ions are capable of solvating charge, and provide the most complete indication to date of the extensive physical forces opposing the goal of comprehensive top-down protein sequencing.

SERF engages in a fuzzy complex that accelerates primary nucleation of amyloid proteins.

The assembly of small disordered proteins into highly ordered amyloid fibrils in Alzheimer's and Parkinson's patients is closely associated with dementia and neurodegeneration. Understanding the process of amyloid formation is thus crucial in the development of effective treatments for these devastating neurodegenerative diseases. Recently, a tiny, highly conserved and disordered protein called SERF was discovered to modify amyloid formation in Caenorhabditis elegans and humans. Here, we use kinetics measurements and native ion mobility-mass spectrometry to show that SERF mainly affects the rate of primary nucleation in amyloid formation for the disease-related proteins Aß40 and α-synuclein. SERF's high degree of plasticity enables it to bind various conformations of monomeric Aß40 and α-synuclein to form structurally diverse, fuzzy complexes. This structural diversity persists into early stages of amyloid formation. Our results suggest that amyloid nucleation is considerably more complex than age-related conversion of Aß40 and α-synuclein into single amyloid-prone conformations.

Investigation of sliding DNA clamp dynamics by single-molecule fluorescence, mass spectrometry and structure-based modeling.

Proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) is a trimeric ring-shaped clamp protein that encircles DNA and interacts with many proteins involved in DNA replication and repair. Despite extensive structural work to characterize the monomeric, dimeric, and trimeric forms of PCNA alone and in complex with interacting proteins, no structure of PCNA in a ring-open conformation has been published. Here, we use a multidisciplinary approach, including single-molecule Förster resonance energy transfer (smFRET), native ion mobility-mass spectrometry (IM-MS), and structure-based computational modeling, to explore the conformational dynamics of a model PCNA from Sulfolobus solfataricus (Sso), an archaeon. We found that Sso PCNA samples ring-open and ring-closed conformations even in the absence of its clamp loader complex, replication factor C, and transition to the ring-open conformation is modulated by the ionic strength of the solution. The IM-MS results corroborate the smFRET findings suggesting that PCNA dynamics are maintained in the gas phase and further establishing IM-MS as a reliable strategy to investigate macromolecular motions. Our molecular dynamic simulations agree with the experimental data and reveal that ring-open PCNA often adopts an out-of-plane left-hand geometry. Collectively, these results implore future studies to define the roles of PCNA dynamics in DNA loading and other PCNA-mediated interactions.

Advances in Structural and Single-Molecule Methods for Investigating DNA Lesion Bypass and Repair Polymerases.

Innovative advances in X-ray crystallography and single-molecule biophysics have yielded unprecedented insight into the mechanisms of DNA lesion bypass and damage repair. Time-dependent X-ray crystallography has been successfully applied to view the bypass of 8-oxo-7,8-dihydro-2'-deoxyguanine (8-oxoG), a major oxidative DNA lesion, and the incorporation of the triphosphate form, 8-oxo-dGTP, catalyzed by human DNA polymerase ß. Significant findings of these studies are highlighted here, and their contributions to the current mechanistic understanding of mutagenic translesion DNA synthesis (TLS) and base excision repair are discussed. In addition, single-molecule Förster resonance energy transfer (smFRET) techniques have recently been adapted to investigate nucleotide binding and incorporation opposite undamaged dG and 8-oxoG by Sulfolobus solfataricus DNA polymerase IV (Dpo4), a model Y-family DNA polymerase. The mechanistic response of Dpo4 to a DNA lesion and the complex smFRET technique are described here. In this perspective, we also describe how time-dependent X-ray crystallography and smFRET can be used to achieve the spatial and temporal resolutions necessary to answer some of the mechanistic questions that remain in the fields of TLS and DNA damage repair.

Pre-steady-state kinetic investigation of bypass of a bulky guanine lesion by human Y-family DNA polymerases.

3-Nitrobenzanthrone (3-NBA), a byproduct of diesel exhaust, is highly present in the environment and poses a significant health risk. Exposure to 3-NBA results in formation of N-(2'-deoxyguanosin-8-yl)-3-aminobenzanthrone (dGC8-N-ABA), a bulky DNA lesion that is of particular importance due to its mutagenic and carcinogenic potential. If not repaired or bypassed during genomic replication, dGC8-N-ABA can stall replication forks, leading to senescence and cell death. Here we used pre-steady-state kinetic methods to determine which of the four human Y-family DNA polymerases (hPolη, hPolκ, hPolι, or hRev1) are able to catalyze translesion synthesis of dGC8-N-ABAin vitro. Our studies demonstrated that hPolη and hPolκ most efficiently bypassed a site-specifically placed dGC8-N-ABA lesion, making them good candidates for catalyzing translesion synthesis (TLS) of this bulky lesion in vivo. Consistently, our publication (Biochemistry 53, 5323-31) in 2014 has shown that small interfering RNA-mediated knockdown of hPolη and hPolκ in HEK293T cells significantly reduces the efficiency of TLS of dGC8-N-ABA. In contrast, hPolι and hRev1 were severely stalled by dGC8-N-ABA and their potential role in vivo was discussed. Subsequently, we determined the kinetic parameters for correct and incorrect nucleotide incorporation catalyzed by hPolη at various positions upstream, opposite, and downstream from dGC8-N-ABA. Notably, nucleotide incorporation efficiency and fidelity both decreased significantly during dGC8-N-ABA bypass and the subsequent extension step, leading to polymerase pausing and error-prone DNA synthesis by hPolη. Furthermore, hPolη displayed nucleotide concentration-dependent biphasic kinetics at the two polymerase pause sites, suggesting that multiple enzyme•DNA complexes likely exist during nucleotide incorporation.

Single-Molecule Investigation of Response to Oxidative DNA Damage by a Y-Family DNA Polymerase.

Y-family DNA polymerases are known to bypass DNA lesions in vitro and in vivo and rescue stalled DNA replication machinery. Dpo4, a well-characterized model Y-family DNA polymerase, is known to catalyze translesion synthesis across a variety of DNA lesions including 8-oxo-7,8-dihydro-2'-deoxyguanine (8-oxo-dG). Our previous X-ray crystallographic, stopped-flow Förster resonance energy transfer (FRET), and computational simulation studies have revealed that Dpo4 samples a variety of global conformations as it recognizes and binds DNA. Here we employed single-molecule FRET (smFRET) techniques to investigate the kinetics and conformational dynamics of Dpo4 when it encountered 8-oxo-dG, a major oxidative lesion with high mutagenic potential. Our smFRET data indicated that Dpo4 bound the DNA substrate in multiple conformations, as suggested by three observed FRET states. An incoming correct or incorrect nucleotide affected the distribution and stability of these states with the correct nucleotide completely shifting the equilibrium toward a catalytically competent complex. Furthermore, the presence of the 8-oxo-dG lesion in the DNA stabilized both the binary and ternary complexes of Dpo4. Thus, our smFRET analysis provided a basis for the enhanced efficiency which Dpo4 is known to exhibit when replicating across from 8-oxo-dG.

Mechanistic investigation of the bypass of a bulky aromatic DNA adduct catalyzed by a Y-family DNA polymerase.

3-Nitrobenzanthrone (3-NBA), a nitropolyaromatic hydrocarbon (NitroPAH) pollutant in diesel exhaust, is a potent mutagen and carcinogen. After metabolic activation, the primary metabolites of 3-NBA react with DNA to form dG and dA adducts. One of the three major adducts identified is N-(2'-deoxyguanosin-8-yl)-3-aminobenzanthrone (dG(C8-N-ABA)). This bulky adduct likely stalls replicative DNA polymerases but can be traversed by lesion bypass polymerases in vivo. Here, we employed running start assays to show that a site-specifically placed dG(C8-N-ABA) is bypassed in vitro by Sulfolobus solfataricus DNA polymerase IV (Dpo4), a model Y-family DNA polymerase. However, the nucleotide incorporation rate of Dpo4 was significantly reduced opposite both the lesion and the template position immediately downstream from the lesion site, leading to two strong pause sites. To investigate the kinetic effect of dG(C8-N-ABA) on polymerization, we utilized pre-steady-state kinetic methods to determine the kinetic parameters for individual nucleotide incorporations upstream, opposite, and downstream from the dG(C8-N-ABA) lesion. Relative to the replication of the corresponding undamaged DNA template, both nucleotide incorporation efficiency and fidelity of Dpo4 were considerably decreased during dG(C8-N-ABA) lesion bypass and the subsequent extension step. The lower nucleotide incorporation efficiency caused by the lesion is a result of a significantly reduced dNTP incorporation rate constant and modestly weaker dNTP binding affinity. At both pause sites, nucleotide incorporation followed biphasic kinetics with a fast and a slow phase and their rates varied with nucleotide concentration. In contrast, only the fast phase was observed with undamaged DNA. A kinetic mechanism was proposed for the bypass of dG(C8-N-ABA) bypass catalyzed by Dpo4.

Mutagenic potential of 8-oxo-7,8-dihydro-2'-deoxyguanosine bypass catalyzed by human Y-family DNA polymerases.

One of the most common lesions induced by oxidative DNA damage is 8-oxo-7,8-dihydro-2'-deoxyguanosine (8-oxodG). Replicative DNA polymerases poorly traverse this highly mutagenic lesion, suggesting that the replication fork may switch to a polymerase specialized for translesion DNA synthesis (TLS) to catalyze 8-oxodG bypass in vivo. Here, we systematically compared the 8-oxodG bypass efficiencies and fidelities of the TLS-specialized, human Y-family DNA polymerases eta (hPolη), iota (hPolι), kappa (hPolκ), and Rev1 (hRev1) either alone or in combination. Primer extension assays revealed that the times required for hPolη, hRev1, hPolκ, and hPolι to bypass 50% of the 8-oxodG lesions encountered (t50(bypass)) were 0.58, 0.86, 108, and 670 s, respectively. Although hRev1 bypassed 8-oxodG efficiently, hRev1 failed to catalyze the extension step of TLS, and a second polymerase was required to extend the lesion bypass products. A high-throughput short oligonucleotide sequencing assay (HT-SOSA) was used to quantify the types and frequencies of incorporation errors produced by the human Y-family DNA polymerases at and near the 8-oxodG site. Although hPolη bypassed 8-oxodG most efficiently, hPolη correctly incorporated dCTP opposite 8-oxodG within only 54.5% of the sequences analyzed. In contrast, hPolι bypassed the lesion least efficiently but correctly incorporated dCTP at a frequency of 65.8% opposite the lesion. The combination of hRev1 and hPolκ was most accurate opposite 8-oxodG (92.3%), whereas hPolκ alone was the least accurate (18.5%). The t50(bypass) value and correct dCTP incorporation frequency in the presence of an equal molar concentration of all four Y-family enzymes were 0.60 s and 43.5%, respectively. These values are most similar to those of hPolη alone, suggesting that hPolη outcompetes the other three Y-family polymerases to catalyze 8-oxodG bypass in vitro and possibly in vivo.