A novel high-throughput screen for identifying lipids that stabilise membrane proteins in detergent based solution.

Membrane proteins have a range of crucial biological functions and are the target of about 60% of all prescribed drugs. For most studies, they need to be extracted out of the lipid-bilayer, e.g. by detergent solubilisation, leading to the loss of native lipids, which may disturb important protein-lipid/bilayer interactions and thus functional and structural integrity. Relipidation of membrane proteins has proven extremely successful for studying challenging targets, but the identification of suitable lipids can be expensive and laborious. Therefore, we developed a screen to aid the high-throughput identification of beneficial lipids. The screen covers a large lipid space and was designed to be suitable for a range of stability assessment methods. Here, we demonstrate its use as a tool for identifying stabilising lipids for three membrane proteins: a bacterial pyrophosphatase (Tm-PPase), a fungal purine transporter (UapA) and a human GPCR (A2AR). A2AR is stabilised by cholesteryl hemisuccinate, a lipid well known to stabilise GPCRs, validating the approach. Additionally, our screen also identified a range of new lipids which stabilised our test proteins, providing a starting point for further investigation and demonstrating its value as a novel tool for membrane protein research. The pre-dispensed screen will be made commercially available to the scientific community in future and has a number of potential applications in the field.

An ELISA method to estimate the mono ADP-ribosyltransferase activities: e.g in pertussis toxin and vaccines.

ADP-ribosyltransferase activities have been observed in many prokaryotic and eukaryotic species and viruses and are involved in many cellular processes, including cell signalling, DNA repair, gene regulation and apoptosis. In a number of bacterial toxins, mono ADP-ribosyltransferase is the main cause of host cell cytotoxicity. Several approaches have been used to analyse this biological system from measuring its enzyme products to its functions. By using a mono ADP-ribose binding protein we have now developed an ELISA method to estimate native pertussis toxin mono ADP-ribosyltransferase activity and its residual activities in pertussis vaccines as an example. This new approach is easy to perform and adaptable in most laboratories. In theory, this assay system is also very versatile and could measure the enzyme activity in other bacteria such as Cholera, Clostridium, E. coli, Diphtheria, Pertussis, Pseudomonas, Salmonella and Staphylococcus by just switching to their respective peptide substrates. Furthermore, this mono ADP-ribose binding protein could also be used for staining mono ADP-ribosyl products resolved on gels or membranes.

Re-refinement of 4g4a: room-temperature X-ray diffraction study of cisplatin and its binding to His15 of HEWL after 14 months chemical exposure in the presence of DMSO.

A re-refinement of 4g4a, the room-temperature X-ray diffraction study of cisplatin and its binding to His15 of HEWL after 14 months chemical exposure in the presence of DMSO is published as an addendum to Tanley et al. [(2012), Acta Cryst. F68, 1300-1306]. This example illustrates the benefits of sharing raw diffraction images, as well as structure factors and molecular coordinates, as the diffraction resolution of the study is now much improved at 1.70 Å.

Re-refinement of 4xan: hen egg-white lysozyme with carboplatin in sodium bromide solution.

A re-refinement of 4xan, hen egg-white lysozyme (HEWL) with carboplatin crystallized in NaBr solution, has been made and is published here as an addendum to Tanley et al. [(2014), Acta Cryst. F70, 1135-1142]. This follows a previous re-refinement and PDB deposition (4yem) by Shabalin et al. [(2015), Acta Cryst. D71, 1965-1979]. The critical evaluation of the original PDB deposition (4xan), and the subsequent critical examination of the re-refined structure (4yem), has led to an improved model (PDB code 5hmj).

X-ray diffraction in temporally and spatially resolved biomolecular science.

Time-resolved Laue protein crystallography at the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF) opened up the field of sub-nanosecond protein crystal structure analyses. There are a limited number of such time-resolved studies in the literature. Why is this? The X-ray laser now gives us femtosecond (fs) duration pulses, typically 10 fs up to ∼50 fs. Their use is attractive for the fastest time-resolved protein crystallography studies. It has been proposed that single molecules could even be studied with the advantage of being able to measure X-ray diffraction from a 'crystal lattice free' single molecule, with or without temporal resolved structural changes. This is altogether very challenging R&D. So as to assist this effort we have undertaken studies of metal clusters that bind to proteins, both 'fresh' and after repeated X-ray irradiation to assess their X-ray-photo-dynamics, namely Ta6Br12, K2PtI6 and K2PtBr6 bound to a test protein, hen egg white lysozyme. These metal complexes have the major advantage of being very recognisable shapes (pseudo spherical or octahedral) and thereby offer a start to (probably very difficult) single molecule electron density map interpretations, both static and dynamic. A further approach is to investigate the X-ray laser beam diffraction strength of a well scattering nano-cluster; an example from nature being the iron containing ferritin. Electron crystallography and single particle electron microscopy imaging offers alternatives to X-ray structural studies; our structural studies of crustacyanin, a 320 kDa protein carotenoid complex, can be extended either by electron based techniques or with the X-ray laser representing a fascinating range of options. General outlook remarks concerning X-ray, electron and neutron macromolecular crystallography as well as 'NMR crystallography' conclude the article.

Urinary tract effects of HPSE2 mutations.

Urofacial syndrome (UFS) is an autosomal recessive congenital disease featuring grimacing and incomplete bladder emptying. Mutations of HPSE2, encoding heparanase 2, a heparanase 1 inhibitor, occur in UFS, but knowledge about the HPSE2 mutation spectrum is limited. Here, seven UFS kindreds with HPSE2 mutations are presented, including one with deleted asparagine 254, suggesting a role for this amino acid, which is conserved in vertebrate orthologs. HPSE2 mutations were absent in 23 non-neurogenic neurogenic bladder probands and, of 439 families with nonsyndromic vesicoureteric reflux, only one carried a putative pathogenic HPSE2 variant. Homozygous Hpse2 mutant mouse bladders contained urine more often than did wild-type organs, phenocopying human UFS. Pelvic ganglia neural cell bodies contained heparanase 1, heparanase 2, and leucine-rich repeats and immunoglobulin-like domains-2 (LRIG2), which is mutated in certain UFS families. In conclusion, heparanase 2 is an autonomic neural protein implicated in bladder emptying, but HPSE2 variants are uncommon in urinary diseases resembling UFS.

Chemical conversion of cisplatin and carboplatin with histidine in a model protein crystallized under sodium iodide conditions.

Cisplatin and carboplatin are platinum anticancer agents that are used to treat a variety of cancers. Previous X-ray crystallographic studies of carboplatin binding to histidine in hen egg-white lysozyme (HEWL) showed a partial chemical conversion of carboplatin to cisplatin owing to the high sodium chloride concentration used in the crystallization conditions. Also, the co-crystallization of HEWL with carboplatin in sodium bromide conditions resulted in the partial conversion of carboplatin to the transbromoplatin form, with a portion of the cyclobutanedicarboxylate (CBDC) moiety still present. The results of the co-crystallization of HEWL with cisplatin or carboplatin in sodium iodide conditions are now reported in order to determine whether the cisplatin and carboplatin converted to the iodo form, and whether this took place in a similar way to the partial conversion of carboplatin to cisplatin in NaCl conditions or to transbromoplatin in NaBr conditions as seen previously. It is reported here that a partial chemical transformation has taken place to a transplatin form for both ligands. The NaI-grown crystals belonged to the monoclinic space group P21 with two molecules in the asymmetric unit. The chemically transformed cisplatin and carboplatin bind to both His15 residues, i.e. in each asymmetric unit. The binding is only at the N(δ) atom of His15. A third platinum species is also seen in both conditions bound in a crevice between symmetry-related molecules. Here, the platinum is bound to three I atoms identified based on their anomalous difference electron densities and their refined occupancies, with the fourth bound atom being a Cl atom (in the cisplatin case) or a portion of the CBDC moiety (in the carboplatin case).

The binding of platinum hexahalides (Cl, Br and I) to hen egg-white lysozyme and the chemical transformation of the PtI6 octahedral complex to a PtI3 moiety bound to His15.

This study examines the binding and chemical stability of the platinum hexahalides K2PtCl6, K2PtBr6 and K2PtI6 when soaked into pre-grown hen egg-white lysozyme (HEWL) crystals as the protein host. Direct comparison of the iodo complex with the chloro and bromo complexes shows that the iodo complex is partly chemically transformed to a square-planar PtI3 complex bound to the N(δ) atom of His15, a chemical behaviour that is not exhibited by the chloro or bromo complexes. Each complex does, however, bind to HEWL in its octahedral form either at one site (PtI6) or at two sites (PtBr6 and PtCl6). As heavy-atom derivatives of a protein, the octahedral shape of the hexahalides could be helpful in cases of difficult-to-interpret electron-density maps as they would be recognisable 'objects'.

Carboplatin binding to histidine.

Carboplatin is a second-generation platinum anticancer agent used for the treatment of a variety of cancers. Previous X-ray crystallographic studies of carboplatin binding to histidine (in hen egg-white lysozyme; HEWL) showed the partial conversion of carboplatin to cisplatin owing to the high NaCl concentration used in the crystallization conditions. HEWL co-crystallizations with carboplatin in NaBr conditions have now been carried out to confirm whether carboplatin converts to the bromine form and whether this takes place in a similar way to the partial conversion of carboplatin to cisplatin observed previously in NaCl conditions. Here, it is reported that a partial chemical transformation takes place but to a transplatin form. Thus, to attempt to resolve purely carboplatin binding at histidine, this study utilized co-crystallization of HEWL with carboplatin without NaCl to eliminate the partial chemical conversion of carboplatin. Tetragonal HEWL crystals co-crystallized with carboplatin were successfully obtained in four different conditions, each at a different pH value. The structural results obtained show carboplatin bound to either one or both of the N atoms of His15 of HEWL, and this particular variation was dependent on the concentration of anions in the crystallization mixture and the elapsed time, as well as the pH used. The structural details of the bound carboplatin molecule also differed between them. Overall, the most detailed crystal structure showed the majority of the carboplatin atoms bound to the platinum centre; however, the four-carbon ring structure of the cyclobutanedicarboxylate moiety (CBDC) remained elusive. The potential impact of the results for the administration of carboplatin as an anticancer agent are described.

Structural dynamics of cisplatin binding to histidine in a protein.

The platinum anti-cancer agents cisplatin and carboplatin bind to the histidine 15 residue in the model protein hen egg white lysozyme. By using temperatures either side of the protein glass transition state (∼180 K), several platinum binding modes are seen and show that not all these platinum modes are stable. In particular, the mean square displacement vibration amplitudes of the cisplatin and of the histidine to which it is bound are analysed in detail. As well as the multiple platinum peaks, the electron density for the His-15 side chain is weak to absent at 150 K and 200 K, which points to the imidazole ring of the His side chain sampling multiple positions. Most interestingly, the His-15 imidazole becomes more ordered at room temperature.

Experiences with archived raw diffraction images data: capturing cisplatin after chemical conversion of carboplatin in high salt conditions for a protein crystal.

The archiving of raw diffraction images data is the focus of an IUCr Diffraction Data Deposition Working Group (see http://forums.iucr.org/). Experience in archiving and sharing of raw diffraction images data in collaboration between Manchester and Utrecht Universities, studying the binding of the important anti-cancer agents, cisplatin and carboplatin to histidine in a protein, has recently been published. Subsequently, these studies have been expanded due to further analyses of each data set of raw diffraction images using the diffraction data processing program XDS. The raw diffraction images, measured at Manchester University, are available for download at Utrecht University and now also mirrored at the Tardis Raw Diffraction Data Archive in Australia. Thus a direct comparison of processed diffraction and derived protein model data from XDS with the published results has been made. The issue of conversion of carboplatin to cisplatin under a high chloride salt concentration has been taken up and a detailed crystallographic assessment is provided. Overall, these new structural chemistry research results are presented followed by a short summary of developing raw data archiving policy and practicalities as well as documenting the challenge of making appropriate and detailed recording of the metadata for crystallography.

Experience with exchange and archiving of raw data: comparison of data from two diffractometers and four software packages on a series of lysozyme crystals.

The International Union of Crystallography has for many years been advocating archiving of raw data to accompany structural papers. Recently, it initiated the formation of the Diffraction Data Deposition Working Group with the aim of developing standards for the representation of these data. A means of studying this issue is to submit exemplar publications with associated raw data and metadata. A recent study on the effects of dimethyl sulfoxide on the binding of cisplatin and carboplatin to histidine in 11 different lysozyme crystals from two diffractometers led to an investigation of the possible effects of the equipment and X-ray diffraction data processing software on the calculated occupancies and B factors of the bound Pt compounds. 35.3 Gb of data were transferred from Manchester to Utrecht to be processed with EVAL. A systematic comparison shows that the largest differences in the occupancies and B factors of the bound Pt compounds are due to the software, but the equipment also has a noticeable effect. A detailed description of and discussion on the availability of metadata is given. By making these raw diffraction data sets available via a local depository, it is possible for the diffraction community to make their own evaluation as they may wish.

The crystal structure analysis of the relative binding of cisplatin and carboplatin in a mixture with histidine in a protein studied at 100 and 300 K with repeated X-ray irradiation.

The anticancer agents cisplatin and carboplatin bind to histidine in a protein. This crystal structure study at data-collection temperatures of 100 and 300 K examines their relative binding affinities to a histidine side chain and the effect of a high X-ray radiation dose of up to ∼1.8 MGy on the stability of the subsequent protein-Pt adducts. Cisplatin binding is visible at the histidine residue, but carboplatin binding is not. Five refined X-ray crystal structures are presented: one at 100 K as a reference and four at 300 K. The diffraction resolutions are 1.8, 2.0, 2.8, 2.9 and 3.5 Å.

Room-temperature X-ray diffraction studies of cisplatin and carboplatin binding to His15 of HEWL after prolonged chemical exposure.

The anticancer complexes cisplatin and carboplatin are known to bind to both the Nδ and the Nℇ atoms of His15 of hen egg-white lysozyme (HEWL) in the presence of dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO). However, neither binds in aqueous media after 4 d of crystallization and crystal growth, suggesting that DMSO facilitates cisplatin/carboplatin binding to the N atoms of His15 by an unknown mechanism. Crystals of HEWL cocrystallized with cisplatin in both aqueous and DMSO media, of HEWL cocrystallized with carboplatin in DMSO medium and of HEWL cocrystallized with cisplatin and N-acetylglucosamine (NAG) in DMSO medium were stored for between seven and 15 months. X-ray diffraction studies of these crystals were carried out on a Bruker APEX II home-source diffractometer at room temperature. Room-temperature X-ray diffraction data collection removed the need for cryoprotectants to be used, ruling out any effect that the cryoprotectants might have had on binding to the protein. Both cisplatin and carboplatin still bind to both the Nδ and Nℇ atoms of His15 in DMSO media as expected, but more detail for the cyclobutanedicarboxylate (CBDC) moiety of carboplatin was observed at the Nℇ binding site. However, two molecules of cisplatin were now observed to be bound to His15 in aqueous conditions. The platinum peak positions were identified using anomalous difference electron-density maps as a cross-check with Fo-Fc OMIT electron-density maps. The occupancies of each binding site were calculated using SHELXTL. These results show that over time cisplatin binds to both N atoms of His15 of HEWL in aqueous media, whereas this binding is speeded up in the presence of DMSO. The implication of cisplatin binding to proteins after a prolonged period of time is an important consideration for the length of treatment in patients who are given cisplatin.

Structural studies of the effect that dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) has on cisplatin and carboplatin binding to histidine in a protein.

The anticancer complexes cisplatin and carboplatin target the DNA major groove, forming intrastrand and interstrand cross-links between guanine bases through their N7 atoms, causing distortion of the DNA helix and apoptotic cell death. A major side effect of these drugs is toxicity, which is caused via binding to many proteins in the body. A range of crystallographic studies have been carried out involving the cocrystallization of hen egg-white lysozyme (HEWL) as a test protein with cisplatin and carboplatin in aqueous and dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) conditions. Different cryoprotectants, glycerol and Paratone, were used for each of the cisplatin and carboplatin cocrystallization cases, while silicone oil was used for studies involving N-acetylglucosamine (NAG). Both cisplatin and carboplatin do not bind to HEWL in aqueous media on the timescales of the conditions used here, but upon addition of DMSO two molecules of cisplatin or carboplatin bind either side of His15, which is the only His residue in lysozyme and is assumed to be an imidazolyl anion or a chemical resonance moiety, i.e. both imidazole N atoms are chemically reactive. To identify the platinum-peak positions in the 'with DMSO conditions', anomalous scattering maps were calculated as a cross-check with the F(o) - F(c) OMIT maps. Platinum-occupancy σ values were established using three different software programs in each case. The use of EVAL15 to process all of the diffraction data sets provided a consistent platform for a large ensemble of data sets for the various protein and platinum-compound model refinements with REFMAC5 and then SHELXTL. Overall, this extensive set of crystallization and cryoprotectant conditions allowed a systematic evaluation of cisplatin and carboplatin binding to lysozyme as a test protein via detailed X-ray crystal structure characterizations. DMSO is used as a super-solvent for drug delivery as it is deemed to cause no effect upon drug binding. However, these results show that addition of DMSO causes the platinum anticancer drugs to bind to HEWL. This effect should be considered in toxicity assessments of these drugs and perhaps more widely.