Interactome Analysis Identifies the Role of BZW2 in Promoting Endoplasmic Reticulum-Mitochondria Contact and Mitochondrial Metabolism.

Understanding the molecular functions of less-studied proteins is an important task of life science research. Despite reports of basic leucine zipper and W2 domain-containing protein 2 (BZW2) promoting cancer progression first emerging in 2017, little is known about its molecular function. Using a quantitative proteomic approach to identify its interacting proteins, we found that BZW2 interacts with both endoplasmic reticulum (ER) and mitochondrial proteins. We thus hypothesized that BZW2 localizes to and promotes the formation of ER-mitochondria contact sites and that such localization would promote calcium transport from ER to the mitochondria and promote ATP production. Indeed, we found that BZW2 localized to ER-mitochondria contact sites and that BZW2 knockdown decreased ER-mitochondria contact, mitochondrial calcium levels, and ATP production. These findings provide key insights into molecular functions of BZW2, the potential role of BZW2 in cancer progression, and highlight the utility of interactome data in understanding the function of less-studied proteins.

A Proteomic Approach Identifies Isoform-Specific and Nucleotide-Dependent RAS Interactions.

Active mutations in the RAS genes are found in ∼30% of human cancers. Although thought to have overlapping functions, RAS isoforms show preferential activation in human tumors, which prompted us to employ a comparative and quantitative proteomics approach to generate isoform-specific and nucleotide-dependent interactomes of the four RAS isoforms, KRAS4A, KRAS4B, HRAS, and NRAS. Many isoform-specific interacting proteins were identified, including HRAS-specific CARM1 and CHK1 and KRAS-specific PIP4K2C and IPO7. Comparing the interactomes of WT and constitutively active G12D mutant of RAS isoforms, we identified several potential previously unknown effector proteins of RAS, one of which was recently reported while this article was in preparation, RADIL. These interacting proteins play important roles as knockdown or pharmacological inhibition leads to potent inhibition of cancer cells. The HRAS-specific interacting protein CARM1 plays a role in HRAS-induced senescence, with CARM1 knockdown or inhibition selectively increasing senescence in HRAS-transformed cells but not in KRAS4B-transformed cells. By revealing new isoform-specific and nucleotide-dependent RAS interactors, the study here provides insights to help understand the overlapping functions of the RAS isoforms.

Systematic optimization and modification of a DNA aptamer with 2'-O-methyl RNA analogues.

Nucleic acid aptamers (NAAs) are short synthetic DNA or RNA molecules that specifically fold into distinct three-dimensional structures able to specifically recognize a target. While NAAs show unprecedented promise in a variety of applications, including sensing, therapeutics and diagnostics, one major limitation involves the lack of stability towards omnipresent nucleases. Therefore, we herein report a systematic truncation and incorporation of 2'-O-methyl bases to a DNA aptamer, which results in increased stability without affecting affinity. One of the newly designed analogues is stable up to 24 hours, demonstrating that 2'-O-methyl RNA is an attractive modification to DNA aptamers, especially when therapeutic applications are intended.

Ligand-guided selection of aptamers against T-cell Receptor-cluster of differentiation 3 (TCR-CD3) expressed on Jurkat.E6 cells.

We recently introduced a screening technology termed ligand-guided selection, (LIGS), to selectively identify target-specific aptamers from an evolved cell-SELEX library. Cell-SELEX utilizes a large combinatorial single-stranded oligonucleotide library and progressively selects DNA ligands against whole cells with variable DNA-binding affinities and specificities by repeated rounds of partition and amplification. LIGS exploits the partition step and introduces a secondary, pre-existing high-affinity monoclonal antibody (mAb) ligand to outcompete and elute specific aptamers towards the binding target of the antibody, not the cell. Here, using anti-CD3ε mAb against the cluster of differentiation 3 (CD3ε), as the guiding ligand against one of the domains of the T-cell Receptor (TCR) complex expressed on Jurkat.E6 cells, we discovered three specific aptamers against TCR complex expressed on an immortalized line of human T lymphocyte cells. In sum, we demonstrate that specific aptamers can be identified utilizing an antibody against a single domain of a multidomain protein complex in their endogenous state with neither post- nor pre-SELEX protein manipulation.

Ligand-Guided Selection of Target-Specific Aptamers: A Screening Technology for Identifying Specific Aptamers Against Cell-Surface Proteins.

We report on a new strategy for identifying highly specific aptamers against a predetermined epitope of a target. Termed "ligand-guided selection" (LIGS), this method uniquely exploits the selection step, the core of SELEX (Systematic Evolution Exponential enrichment). LIGS uses a naturally occurring stronger and highly specific bivalent binder, an antibody (Ab) interacting with its cognate antigen to outcompete specific aptamers from a partially enriched SELEX pool, as a strategy. We demonstrate the hypothesis of LIGS by utilizing an Ab binding to membrane-bound Immunoglobulin M (mIgM) to selectively elute aptamers that are specific for mIgM from a SELEX pool that is partially enriched toward mIgM expressing Ramos cells. The selected aptamers show specificity toward Ramos cells. We identified three aptamer candidates utilizing LIGS that could be outcompeted by mIgM Ab, demonstrating that LIGS can be successfully applied to select aptamers from a partially evolved cell-SELEX library, against predetermined receptor proteins using a cognate ligand. This proof-of-concept study introduces a new biochemical-screening platform that exploits the binding of a secondary stronger molecular entity to its target as a partition step, to identify highly specific artificial nucleic acid ligands.