Comprehensive Characterization of Surface-Bound Proteins and Measurement of Fibrin Fiber Thickness on Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation Circuits Collected From Patients.

OBJECTIVE: To characterize surface-bound proteins and to measure the thickness of fibrin fibers bound to extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) circuits used in children. DESIGN: Single-center observational prospective study, April to November 2021. SETTING: PICU, Royal Children's Hospital, Melbourne, Australia. PATIENTS: Patients aged less than 18 years on venoarterial ECMO and without preexisting disorder. INTERVENTIONS: None. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: ECMO circuits were collected from six patients. Circuit samples were collected from five different sites, and subsequently processed for proteomic and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) studies. The concentration of proteins bound to ECMO circuit samples was measured using a bicinchoninic acid protein assay, whereas characterization of the bound proteome was performed using data-independent acquisition mass spectrometry. The Reactome Over-representation Pathway Analyses tool was used to identify functional pathways related to bound proteins. For the SEM studies, ECMO circuit samples were prepared and imaged, and the thickness of bound fibrin fibers was measured using the Fiji ImageJ software, version 1.53c (https://imagej.net/software/fiji/). Protein binding to ECMO circuit samples and fibrin networks showed significant intra-circuit and interpatient variation. The median (range) total protein concentration was 19.0 (0-76.9) µg/mL, and the median total number of proteins was 2011 (1435-2777). A total of 933 proteins were commonly bound to ECMO circuit samples from all patients and were functionally involved in 212 pathways, with signal transduction, cell cycle, and metabolism of proteins being the top three pathway categories. The median intra-circuit fibrin fiber thickness was 0.20 (0.15-0.24) µm, whereas the median interpatient fibrin fiber thickness was 0.18 (0.15-0.21) µm. CONCLUSIONS: In this report, we have characterized proteins and fiber fibrin thickness bound to ECMO circuits in six children. The techniques and approaches may be useful for investigating interactions between blood, coagulation, and the ECMO circuit and have the potential for circuit design.

Unbiased Quantitative Proteomics of Organoid Models of Pancreatic Cancer.

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is a lethal solid malignancy with many patients succumbing to the disease within 6 months of diagnosis. The mechanisms that underlie PDAC initiation and progression are poorly understood. Current treatment options are primarily limited to chemotherapy, which is often provided with palliative intent. Unfortunately, there are no robust biomarkers to guide treatment selection or monitor treatment response. This is concerning given the increasing incidence of this cancer. We and others have generated organoid models to explore the biology underlying PDAC with the goal of identifying new therapeutic targets. Here we provide protocols to generate a preclinical PDAC organoid model and methods to use these to define the proteomic landscape of this cancer.

MORC2 phosphorylation fine tunes its DNA compaction activity.

Variants in the poorly characterised oncoprotein, MORC2, a chromatin remodelling ATPase, lead to defects in epigenetic regulation and DNA damage response. The C-terminal domain (CTD) of MORC2, frequently phosphorylated in DNA damage, promotes cancer progression, but its role in chromatin remodelling remains unclear. Here, we report a molecular characterisation of full-length, phosphorylated MORC2, demonstrating its preference for binding open chromatin and functioning as a DNA sliding clamp. We identified a phosphate interacting motif within the CTD that dictates ATP hydrolysis rate and cooperative DNA binding. The DNA binding impacts several structural domains within the ATPase region. We provide the first visual proof that MORC2 induces chromatin remodelling through ATP hydrolysis-dependent DNA compaction, regulated by its phosphorylation state. These findings highlight phosphorylation of MORC2 CTD as a key modulator of chromatin remodelling, presenting it as a potential therapeutic target.

Improved drug target deconvolution with PISA-DIA using an extended, overlapping temperature gradient.

Thermal proteome profiling (TPP) is a powerful tool for drug target deconvolution. Recently, data-independent acquisition mass spectrometry (DIA-MS) approaches have demonstrated significant improvements to depth and missingness in proteome data, but traditional TPP (a.k.a. CEllular Thermal Shift Assay "CETSA") workflows typically employ multiplexing reagents reliant on data-dependent acquisition (DDA). Herein, we introduce a new experimental design for the Proteome Integral Solubility Alteration via label-free DIA approach (PISA-DIA). We highlight the proteome coverage and sensitivity achieved by using multiple overlapping thermal gradients alongside DIA-MS, which maximizes efficiencies in PISA sample concatenation and safeguards against missing protein targets that exist at high melting temperatures. We demonstrate our extended PISA-DIA design has superior proteome coverage as compared to using tandem-mass tags (TMT) necessitating DDA-MS analysis. Importantly, we demonstrate our PISA-DIA approach has the quantitative and statistical rigor using A-1331852, a specific inhibitor of BCL-xL. Due to the high melt temperature of this protein target, we utilized our extended multiple gradient PISA-DIA workflow to identify BCL-xL. We assert our novel overlapping gradient PISA-DIA-MS approach is ideal for unbiased drug target deconvolution, spanning a large temperature range whilst minimizing target dropout between gradients, increasing the likelihood of resolving the protein targets of novel compounds.

Proteomic biomarkers in seminal plasma as predictors of reproductive potential in azoospermic men.

Introduction: Azoospermia, characterized by an absence of sperm in the ejaculate, represents the most severe form of male infertility. While surgical sperm retrieval in obstructive azoospermia (OA) is successful in the majority of cases, patients with non-obstructive azoospermia (NOA) show retrieval rates of only about 50% and thus frequently have unnecessary surgery. Surgical intervention could be avoided if patients without preserved spermatogenesis are identified preoperatively. This prospective study aimed to discover biomarkers in seminal plasma that could be employed for a non-invasive differential diagnosis of OA/NOA in order to rationalize surgery recommendations and improve success rates. Methods: All patients signed written informed consent, underwent comprehensive andrological evaluation, received human genetics to exclude relevant pathologies, and patients with azoospermia underwent surgical sperm retrieval. Using label-free LC-MS/MS, we compared the proteomes of seminal plasma samples from fertile men (healthy controls (HC), n=8) and infertile men diagnosed with 1) OA (n=7), 2) NOA with successful sperm retrieval (mixed testicular atrophy (MTA), n=8), and 3) NOA without sperm retrieval (Sertoli cell-only phenotype (SCO), n=7). Relative abundance changes of two candidate markers of sperm retrieval, HSPA2 and LDHC, were confirmed by Western Blot. Results: We found the protein expression levels of 42 proteins to be significantly down-regulated (p ≤ 0.05) in seminal plasma from SCO NOA patients relative to HC whereas only one protein was down-regulated in seminal plasma from MTA patients. Analysis of tissue and cell expression suggested that the testis-specific proteins LDHC, PGK2, DPEP3, and germ-cell enriched heat-shock proteins HSPA2 and HSPA4L are promising biomarkers of spermatogenic function. Western blotting revealed a significantly lower abundance of LDHC and HSPA2 in the seminal plasma of men with NOA (SCO and MTA) compared to controls. Discussion: The results indicate that certain testis-specific proteins when measured in seminal plasma, could serve as indicators of the presence of sperm in the testis and predict the success of sperm retrieval. Used in conjunction with conventional clinical assessments, these proteomic biomarkers may assist in the non-invasive diagnosis of idiopathic male infertility.

Identification of Serum Biomarkers to Monitor Therapeutic Response in Intestinal-Type Gastric Cancer.

There are a limited number of clinically useful serum biomarkers to predict tumor onset or treatment response in gastric cancer (GC). For this reason, we explored the serum proteome of the gp130Y757F murine model of intestinal-type gastric cancer (IGC). We identified 30 proteins with significantly elevated expression in early gp130Y757F IGC and 12 proteins that were significantly elevated in late gp130Y757F IGC compared to age- and gender-matched wild-type mice. Within these signatures, there was an overlap of 10 proteins commonly elevated in both early- and late-stage disease. These results highlight the potential to identify serum biomarkers of disease stage. Since IGC in the gp130Y757F model can be reversed following therapeutic inhibition of Interleukin (IL)-11, we explored whether the protein signatures we identified could be used to monitor tumor regression. We compared two different therapeutic modalities and found 5 proteins to be uniquely differentially expressed between control animals and animals halfway through treatment, with 10 differentially expressed at the end of treatment. Our findings highlight the potential to identify reliable biomarkers to track IGC tumor regression in response to treatment.

Capillary blood protein markers of posttraumatic headache in children after concussion.

OBJECTIVE: Posttraumatic headache (PTH) represents the most common acute and persistent symptom in children after concussion, yet there is no blood protein signature to stratify the risk of PTH after concussion to facilitate early intervention. This discovery study aimed to identify capillary blood protein markers, at emergency department (ED) presentation within 48 hours of concussion, to predict children at risk of persisting PTH at 2 weeks postinjury. METHODS: Capillary blood was collected using the Mitra Clamshell device from children aged 8-17 years who presented to the ED of the Royal Children's Hospital, Melbourne, Australia, within 48 hours of sustaining a concussion. Participants were followed up at 2 weeks postinjury to determine PTH status. PTH was defined per clinical guidelines as a new or worsened headache compared with preinjury. An untargeted proteomics analysis using data-independent acquisition (DIA) was performed. Principal component analysis and hierarchical clustering were used to reduce the dimensionality of the protein dataset. RESULTS: A total of 907 proteins were reproducibly identified from 82 children within 48 hours of concussion. The mean participant age was 12.78 years (SD 2.54 years, range 8-17 years); 70% of patients were male. Eighty percent met criteria for acute PTH in the ED, while one-third of participants with follow-up experienced PTH at 2 weeks postinjury (range 8-16 days). Hemoglobin subunit zeta (HBZ), cystatin B (CSTB), beta-ala-his dipeptidase (CNDP1), hemoglobin subunit gamma-1 (HBG1), and zyxin (ZYX) were weakly associated with PTH at 2 weeks postinjury based on up to a 7% increase in the PTH group despite nonsignificant Benjamini-Hochberg adjusted p values. CONCLUSIONS: This discovery study determined that no capillary blood protein markers, measured at ED presentation within 48 hours of concussion, can predict children at risk of persisting PTH at 2 weeks postinjury. While HBZ, CSTB, CNDP1, HBG1, and ZYX were weakly associated with PTH at 2 weeks postinjury, there was no specific blood protein signature predictor of PTH in children after concussion. There is an urgent need to discover new blood biomarkers associated with PTH to facilitate risk stratification and improve clinical management of pediatric concussion.

Caspase-2 protects against ferroptotic cell death.

Caspase-2, one of the most evolutionarily conserved members of the caspase family, is an important regulator of the cellular response to oxidative stress. Given that ferroptosis is suppressed by antioxidant defense pathways, such as that involving selenoenzyme glutathione peroxidase 4 (GPX4), we hypothesized that caspase-2 may play a role in regulating ferroptosis. This study provides the first demonstration of an important and unprecedented function of caspase-2 in protecting cancer cells from undergoing ferroptotic cell death. Specifically, we show that depletion of caspase-2 leads to the downregulation of stress response genes including SESN2, HMOX1, SLC7A11, and sensitizes mutant-p53 cancer cells to cell death induced by various ferroptosis-inducing compounds. Importantly, the canonical catalytic activity of caspase-2 is not required for its role and suggests that caspase-2 regulates ferroptosis via non-proteolytic interaction with other proteins. Using an unbiased BioID proteomics screen, we identified novel caspase-2 interacting proteins (including heat shock proteins and co-chaperones) that regulate cellular responses to stress. Finally, we demonstrate that caspase-2 limits chaperone-mediated autophagic degradation of GPX4 to promote the survival of mutant-p53 cancer cells. In conclusion, we document a novel role for caspase-2 as a negative regulator of ferroptosis in cells with mutant p53. Our results provide evidence for a novel function of caspase-2 in cell death regulation and open potential new avenues to exploit ferroptosis in cancer therapy.

Mind bomb 2 limits inflammatory dermatitis in Sharpin mutant mice independently of cell death.

Skin inflammation is a complex process implicated in various dermatological disorders. The chronic proliferative dermatitis (cpd) phenotype driven by the cpd mutation (cpdm) in the Sharpin gene is characterized by dermal inflammation and epidermal abnormalities. Tumour necrosis factor (TNF) and caspase-8-driven cell death causes the pathogenesis of Sharpincpdm mice; however, the role of mind bomb 2 (MIB2), a pro-survival E3 ubiquitin ligase involved in TNF signaling, in skin inflammation remains unknown. Here, we demonstrate that MIB2 antagonizes inflammatory dermatitis in the context of the cpd mutation. Surprisingly, the role of MIB2 in limiting skin inflammation is independent of its known pro-survival function and E3 ligase activity. Instead, MIB2 enhances the production of wound-healing molecules, granulocyte colony-stimulating factor, and Eotaxin, within the skin. This discovery advances our comprehension of inflammatory cytokines and chemokines associated with cpdm pathogenesis and highlights the significance of MIB2 in inflammatory skin disease that is independent of its ability to regulate TNF-induced cell death.

Phosphorylation-dependent pseudokinase domain dimerization drives full-length MLKL oligomerization.

The necroptosis pathway is a lytic, pro-inflammatory mode of cell death that is widely implicated in human disease, including renal, pulmonary, gut and skin inflammatory pathologies. The precise mechanism of the terminal steps in the pathway, where the RIPK3 kinase phosphorylates and triggers a conformation change and oligomerization of the terminal pathway effector, MLKL, are only emerging. Here, we structurally identify RIPK3-mediated phosphorylation of the human MLKL activation loop as a cue for MLKL pseudokinase domain dimerization. MLKL pseudokinase domain dimerization subsequently drives formation of elongated homotetramers. Negative stain electron microscopy and modelling support nucleation of the MLKL tetramer assembly by a central coiled coil formed by the extended, ~80 Å brace helix that connects the pseudokinase and executioner four-helix bundle domains. Mutational data assert MLKL tetramerization as an essential prerequisite step to enable the release and reorganization of four-helix bundle domains for membrane permeabilization and cell death.

Sertoli cell-enriched proteins in mouse and human testicular interstitial fluid.

Sertoli cells support the development of sperm and the function of various somatic cells in the interstitium between the tubules. Sertoli cells regulate the function of the testicular vasculature and the development and function of the Leydig cells that produce testosterone for fertility and virility. However, the Sertoli cell-derived factors that regulate these cells are largely unknown. To define potential mechanisms by which Sertoli cells could support testicular somatic cell function, we aimed to identify Sertoli cell-enriched proteins in the testicular interstitial fluid (TIF) between the tubules. We previously resolved the proteome of TIF in mice and humans and have shown it to be a rich source of seminiferous tubule-derived proteins. In the current study, we designed bioinformatic strategies to interrogate relevant proteomic and genomic datasets to identify Sertoli cell-enriched proteins in mouse and human TIF. We analysed proteins in mouse TIF that were significantly reduced after one week of acute Sertoli cell ablation in vivo and validated which of these are likely to arise primarily from Sertoli cells based on relevant mouse testis RNASeq datasets. We used a different, but complementary, approach to identify Sertoli cell-enriched proteins in human TIF, taking advantage of high-quality human testis genomic, proteomic and immunohistochemical datasets. We identified a total of 47 and 40 Sertoli cell-enriched proteins in mouse and human TIF, respectively, including 15 proteins that are conserved in both species. Proteins with potential roles in angiogenesis, the regulation of Leydig cells or steroidogenesis, and immune cell regulation were identified. The data suggests that some of these proteins are secreted, but that Sertoli cells also deposit specific proteins into TIF via the release of extracellular vesicles. In conclusion, we have identified novel Sertoli cell-enriched proteins in TIF that are candidates for regulating somatic cell-cell communication and testis function.

Plasmepsin X activates the PCRCR complex of Plasmodium falciparum by processing PfRh5 for erythrocyte invasion.

Plasmodium falciparum causes the most severe form of malaria in humans. The protozoan parasite develops within erythrocytes to mature schizonts, that contain more than 16 merozoites, which egress and invade fresh erythrocytes. The aspartic protease plasmepsin X (PMX), processes proteins and proteases essential for merozoite egress from the schizont and invasion of the host erythrocyte, including the leading vaccine candidate PfRh5. PfRh5 is anchored to the merozoite surface through a 5-membered complex (PCRCR), consisting of Plasmodium thrombospondin-related apical merozoite protein, cysteine-rich small secreted protein, Rh5-interacting protein and cysteine-rich protective antigen. Here, we show that PCRCR is processed by PMX in micronemes to remove the N-terminal prodomain of PhRh5 and this activates the function of the complex unmasking a form that can bind basigin on the erythrocyte membrane and mediate merozoite invasion. The ability to activate PCRCR at a specific time in merozoite invasion most likely masks potential deleterious effects of its function until they are required. These results provide an important understanding of the essential role of PMX and the fine regulation of PCRCR function in P. falciparum biology.

S100 family proteins are linked to organoid morphology and EMT in pancreatic cancer.

Epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) is a continuum that includes epithelial, partial EMT, and mesenchymal states, each of which is associated with cancer progression, invasive capabilities, and ultimately, metastasis. We used a lineage-traced sporadic model of pancreatic cancer to generate a murine organoid biobank from primary and secondary tumors, including sublines that underwent partial EMT and complete EMT. Using an unbiased proteomics approach, we found that organoid morphology predicts the EMT state, and the solid organoids are associated with a partial EMT signature. We also observed that exogenous TGFß1 induces solid organoid morphology that is associated with changes in the S100 family, complete EMT, and the formation of high-grade tumors. S100A4 may be a useful biomarker for predicting EMT state, disease progression, and outcome in patients with pancreatic cancer.

CIS controls the functional polarization of GM-CSF-derived macrophages.

The cytokine granulocyte-macrophage-colony stimulating factor (GM-CSF) possesses the capacity to differentiate monocytes into macrophages (MØs) with opposing functions, namely, proinflammatory M1-like MØs and immunosuppressive M2-like MØs. Despite the importance of these opposing biological outcomes, the intrinsic mechanism that regulates the functional polarization of MØs under GM-CSF signaling remains elusive. Here, we showed that GM-CSF-induced MØ polarization resulted in the expression of cytokine-inducible SH2-containing protein (CIS) and that CIS deficiency skewed the differentiation of monocytes toward immunosuppressive M2-like MØs. CIS deficiency resulted in hyperactivation of the JAK-STAT5 signaling pathway, consequently promoting downregulation of the transcription factor Interferon Regulatory Factor 8 (IRF8). Loss- and gain-of-function approaches highlighted IRF8 as a critical regulator of the M1-like polarization program. In vivo, CIS deficiency induced the differentiation of M2-like macrophages, which promoted strong Th2 immune responses characterized by the development of severe experimental asthma. Collectively, our results reveal a CIS-modulated mechanism that clarifies the opposing actions of GM-CSF in MØ differentiation and uncovers the role of GM-CSF in controlling allergic inflammation.

PCRCR complex is essential for invasion of human erythrocytes by Plasmodium falciparum.

The most severe form of malaria is caused by Plasmodium falciparum. These parasites invade human erythrocytes, and an essential step in this process involves the ligand PfRh5, which forms a complex with cysteine-rich protective antigen (CyRPA) and PfRh5-interacting protein (PfRipr) (RCR complex) and binds basigin on the host cell. We identified a heteromeric disulfide-linked complex consisting of P. falciparum Plasmodium thrombospondin-related apical merozoite protein (PfPTRAMP) and P. falciparum cysteine-rich small secreted protein (PfCSS) and have shown that it binds RCR to form a pentameric complex, PCRCR. Using P. falciparum lines with conditional knockouts, invasion inhibitory nanobodies to both PfPTRAMP and PfCSS, and lattice light-sheet microscopy, we show that they are essential for merozoite invasion. The PCRCR complex functions to anchor the contact between merozoite and erythrocyte membranes brought together by strong parasite deformations. We solved the structure of nanobody-PfCSS complexes to identify an inhibitory epitope. Our results define the function of the PCRCR complex and identify invasion neutralizing epitopes providing a roadmap for structure-guided development of these proteins for a blood stage malaria vaccine.

Simplifying MS1 and MS2 spectra to achieve lower mass error, more dynamic range, and higher peptide identification confidence on the Bruker timsTOF Pro.

For bottom-up proteomic analysis, the goal of analytical pipelines that process the raw output of mass spectrometers is to detect, characterise, identify, and quantify peptides. The initial steps of detecting and characterising features in raw data must overcome some considerable challenges. The data presents as a sparse array, sometimes containing billions of intensity readings over time. These points represent both signal and chemical or electrical noise. Depending on the biological sample's complexity, tens to hundreds of thousands of peptides may be present in this vast data landscape. For ion mobility-based LC-MS analysis, each peptide is comprised of a grouping of hundreds of single intensity readings in three dimensions: mass-over-charge (m/z), mobility, and retention time. There is no inherent information about any associations between individual points; whether they represent a peptide or noise must be inferred from their structure. Peptides each have multiple isotopes, different charge states, and a dynamic range of intensity of over six orders of magnitude. Due to the high complexity of most biological samples, peptides often overlap in time and mobility, making it very difficult to tease apart isotopic peaks, to apportion the intensity of each and the contribution of each isotope to the determination of the peptide's monoisotopic mass, which is critical for the peptide's identification. Here we describe four algorithms for the Bruker timsTOF Pro that each play an important role in finding peptide features and determining their characteristics. These algorithms focus on separate characteristics that determine how candidate features are detected in the raw data. The first two algorithms deal with the complexity of the raw data, rapidly clustering raw data into spectra that allows isotopic peaks to be resolved. The third algorithm compensates for saturation of the instrument's detector thereby recovering lost dynamic range, and lastly, the fourth algorithm increases confidence of peptide identifications by simplification of the fragment spectra. These algorithms are effective in processing raw data to detect features and extracting the attributes required for peptide identification, and make an important contribution to an analytical pipeline by detecting features that are higher quality and better segmented from other peptides in close proximity. The software has been developed in Python using Numpy and Pandas and made freely available with an open-source MIT license to facilitate experimentation and further improvement (DOI 10.5281/zenodo.6513126). Data are available via ProteomeXchange with identifier PXD030706.

TGFß and CIS Inhibition Overcomes NK-cell Suppression to Restore Antitumor Immunity.

Antibodies targeting "immune checkpoints" have revolutionized cancer therapy by reactivating tumor-resident cytotoxic lymphocytes, primarily CD8+ T cells. Interest in targeting analogous pathways in other cytotoxic lymphocytes is growing. Natural killer (NK) cells are key to cancer immunosurveillance by eradicating metastases and driving solid tumor inflammation. NK-cell antitumor function is dependent on the cytokine IL15. Ablation of the IL15 signaling inhibitor CIS (Cish) enhances NK-cell antitumor immunity by increasing NK-cell metabolism and persistence within the tumor microenvironment (TME). The TME has also been shown to impair NK-cell fitness via the production of immunosuppressive transforming growth factor ß (TGFß), a suppression which occurs even in the presence of high IL15 signaling. Here, we identified an unexpected interaction between CIS and the TGFß signaling pathway in NK cells. Independently, Cish- and Tgfbr2-deficient NK cells are both hyperresponsive to IL15 and hyporesponsive to TGFß, with dramatically enhanced antitumor immunity. Remarkably, when both these immunosuppressive genes are simultaneously deleted in NK cells, mice are largely resistant to tumor development, suggesting that combining suppression of these two pathways might represent a novel therapeutic strategy to enhance innate anticancer immunity.