Lilla Turiák

Improved flow cytometric assessment reveals distinct microvesicle (cell-derived microparticle) signatures in joint diseases.

Introduction Microvesicles (MVs), earlier referred to as microparticles, represent a major type of extracellular vesicles currently considered as novel biomarkers in various clinical settings such as autoimmune disorders. However, the analysis of MVs in body fluids has not been fully standardized yet, and there are numerous pitfalls that hinder the correct assessment of these structures. Methods In this study, we analyzed synovial fluid (SF) samples of patients with osteoarthritis (OA), rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA). To assess factors that may confound MV detection in joint diseases, we used electron microscopy (EM), Nanoparticle Tracking Analysis (NTA) and mass spectrometry (MS). For flow cytometry, a method commonly used for phenotyping and enumeration of MVs, we combined recent advances in the field, and used a novel approach of differential detergent lysis for the exclusion of MV-mimicking non-vesicular signals. Results EM and NTA showed that substantial amounts of particles other than MVs were present in SF samples. Beyond known MV-associated proteins, MS analysis also revealed abundant plasma- and immune complex-related proteins in MV preparations. Applying improved flow cytometric analysis, we demonstrate for the first time that CD3+ and CD8+ T-cell derived SF MVs are highly elevated in patients with RA compared to OA patients (p = 0.027 and p = 0.009, respectively, after Bonferroni corrections). In JIA, we identified reduced numbers of B cell-derived MVs (p = 0.009, after Bonferroni correction). Conclusions Our results suggest that improved flow cytometric assessment of MVs facilitates the detection of previously unrecognized disease-associated vesicular signatures.

Proteomic characterization of thymocyte-derived microvesicles and apoptotic bodies in BALB/c mice

Several studies have characterized exosomes derived from different cell sources. In this work we set the goal of proteomic characterization of two less studied populations of membrane vesicles, microvesicles (100-800 nm) and apoptotic bodies (> 800 nm) released by thymus cells of BALB/c mice. The vesicles were isolated by the combination of differential centrifugation and gravity driven multistep filtration of the supernatant of thymus cell cultures. The size distribution of vesicle preparations was determined by transmission electron microscopy. Proteins were released from the vesicles, digested in solution, and analyzed using nano-HPLC/MS(MS). Ingenuity pathway analysis was used to identify functions related to membrane vesicle proteins. In apoptotic bodies and microvesicles we have identified 142 and 195 proteins, respectively. A striking overlap was detected between the proteomic compositions of the two subcellular structures as 108 proteins were detected in both preparations. Identified proteins included autoantigens implicated in human autoimmune diseases, key regulators of T-cell activation, molecules involved in known immune functions or in leukocyte rolling and transendothelial transmigration. The presence and abundance of proteins with high immunological relevance within thymocyte-derived apoptotic bodies and microvesicles raise the possibility that these subcellular structures may substantially modulate T-cell maturation processes within the thymus.

Low-density lipoprotein mimics blood plasma-derived exosomes and microvesicles during isolation and detection

Circulating extracellular vesicles have emerged as potential new biomarkers in a wide variety of diseases. Despite the increasing interest, their isolation and purification from body fluids remains challenging. Here we studied human pre-prandial and 4 hours postprandial platelet-free blood plasma samples as well as human platelet concentrates. Using flow cytometry, we found that the majority of circulating particles within the size range of extracellular vesicles lacked common vesicular markers. We identified most of these particles as lipoproteins (predominantly low-density lipoprotein, LDL) which mimicked the characteristics of extracellular vesicles and also co-purified with them. Based on biophysical properties of LDL this finding was highly unexpected. Current state-of-the-art extracellular vesicle isolation and purification methods did not result in lipoprotein-free vesicle preparations from blood plasma or from platelet concentrates. Furthermore, transmission electron microscopy showed an association of LDL with isolated vesicles upon in vitro mixing. This is the first study to show co-purification and in vitro association of LDL with extracellular vesicles and its interference with vesicle analysis. Our data point to the importance of careful study design and data interpretation in studies using blood-derived extracellular vesicles with special focus on potentially co-purified LDL.

Forward operation of adenine nucleotide translocase during F0F1-ATPase reversal: critical role of matrix substrate-level phosphorylation

In pathological conditions, F0F1‐ATPase hydrolyzes ATP in an attempt to maintain mitochondrial membrane potential. Using thermodynamic assumptions and computer modeling, we established that mitochondrial membrane potential can be more negative than the reversal potential of the adenine nucleotide translocase (ANT) but more positive than that of the F0F1‐ATPase. Experiments on isolated mitochondria demonstrated that, when the electron transport chain is compromised, the F0F1‐ATPase reverses, and the membrane potential is maintained as long as matrix substrate‐level phosphorylation is functional, without a concomitant reversal of the ANT. Consistently, no cytosolic ATP consumption was observed using plasmalemmal KATP channels as cytosolic ATP biosensors in cultured neurons, in which their in situ mitochondria were compromised by respiratory chain inhibitors. This finding was further corroborated by quantitative measurements of mitochondrial membrane potential, oxygen consumption, and extracellular acidification rates, indicating nonreversal of ANT of compromised in situ neuronal and astrocytic mitochondria; and by bioluminescence ATP measurements in COS‐7 cells transfected with cytosolicor nuclear‐targeted luciferases and treated with mitochondrial respiratory chain inhibitors in the presence of glycolytic plus mitochondrial vs. only mitochondrial substrates. Our findings imply the possibility of a rescue mechanism that is protecting against cytosolic/nuclear ATP depletion under pathological conditions involving impaired respiration. This mechanism comes into play when mitochondria respire on substrates that support matrix substrate‐level phosphorylation.—Chinopoulos, C, Gerencser, A A., Mandi, M., Mathe, K., Töröcsik, B., Doczi, J., Turiak, L., Kiss, G., Konràd, C, Vajda, S., Vereczki, V., Oh, R. J., Adam‐Vizi, V. Forward operation of adenine nucleotide translocase during F0F1‐ATPase reversal: critical role of matrix substrate‐level phosphorylation. FASEB J. 24, 2405–2416 (2010). www.fasebj.org

Mass spectrometry of extracellular vesicles

The review briefly summaries main features of extracellular vesicles, a joint terminology for exosomes, microvesicles, and apoptotic vesicles. These vesicles are in the center of interest in biology and medical sciences, and form a very active field of research. Mass spectrometry (MS), with its specificity and sensitivity, has the potential to identify and characterize molecular composition of these vesicles; but as yet there are only a limited, but fast-growing, number of publications that use MS workflows in this field. MS is the major tool to assess protein composition of extracellular vesicles: qualitative and quantitative proteomics approaches are both reviewed. Beside proteins, lipid and metabolite composition of vesicles might also be best assessed by MS techniques; however there are few applications as yet in this respect. The role of alternative analytical approaches, like gel-based proteomics and antibody-based immunoassays, are also mentioned. The objective of the review is to give an overview of this fast-growing field to help orient MS-based research on extracellular vesicles.

Confident Assignment of Site-Specific Glycosylation in Complex Glycoproteins in a Single Step

A glycoprotein may contain several sites of glycosylation, each of which is heterogeneous. As a consequence of glycoform diversity and signal suppression from nonglycosylated peptides that ionize more efficiently, typical reversed-phase LC–MS and bottom–up proteomics database searching workflows do not perform well for identification of site-specific glycosylation for complex glycoproteins. We present an LC–MS system for enrichment, separation, and analysis of glycopeptides from complex glycoproteins (>4 N-glycosylation sequons) in a single step. This system uses an online HILIC enrichment trap prior to reversed-phase C18-MS analysis. We demonstrated the effectiveness of the system using a set of glycoproteins including human transferrin (2 sequons), human alpha-1-acid glycoprotein (5 sequons), and influenza A virus hemagglutinin (9 sequons). The online enrichment renders glycopeptides the most abundant ions detected, thereby facilitating the generation of high-quality data-dependent tandem mass spectra. The tandem mass spectra exhibited product ions from both glycan and peptide backbone dissociation for a majority of the glycopeptides tested using collisionally activated dissociation that served to confidently assign site-specific glycosylation. We demonstrated the value of our system to define site-specific glycosylation using a hemagglutinin containing 9 N-glycosylation sequons from a single HILIC-C18-MS acquisition.

High-performance liquid chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry methodology for analyzing site-specific N-glycosylation patterns.

Analysis of protein glycosylation is a major challenge in biochemistry, here we present a nano-UHPLC-MS(MS) based methodology, which is suitable to determine site-specific N-glycosylation patterns. A few pmol glycoprotein is sufficient to determine glycosylation patterns (which opens the way for biomedical applications) and requires at least two separate chromatographic runs. One is using tandem mass spectrometry (for structure identification); the other single stage MS mode (for semi-quantitation). Analysis relies heavily on data processing. The previously developed GlycoMiner algorithm and software was used to identify glycopeptides in MS/MS spectra. We have developed a new algorithm and software (GlycoPattern), which evaluates single stage mass spectra, both in terms of glycopeptide identification (for minor glycoforms) and semi-quantitation. Identification of glycopeptide structures based on MS/MS analysis has a false positive rate of 1%. Minor glycoforms (when sensitivity is insufficient to obtain an MS/MS spectrum) can be identified in single stage MS using GlycoPattern; but in such a case the false positive rate is increased to 5%. Glycosylation is studied at the glycopeptide level (i.e. following proteolytic digestion). This way the sugar chains can be unequivocally assigned to a given glycosylation site (site-specific glycosylation pattern). Glycopeptide analysis has the further advantage that protein-specific glycosylation patterns can be identified in complex mixtures and not only in purified samples. This opens the way for medium high throughput analysis of glycosylation. Specific examples of site-specific glycosylation patterns of alpha-1-acid glycoprotein, haptoglobin and on a therapeutic monoclonal antibody, Infliximab are also discussed.

Workflow for combined proteomics and glycomics profiling from histological tissues.

Extracellular matrixes comprise glycoproteins, glycosaminoglycans and proteoglycans that order the environment through which cells receive signals and communicate. Proteomic and glycomic molecular signatures from tissue surfaces can add diagnostic power to the immunohistochemistry workflows. Acquired in a spatially resolved manner, such proteomic and glycomic information can help characterize disease processes and be easily applied in a clinical setting. Our aim toward obtaining integrated omics datasets was to develop the first workflow applicable for simultaneous analysis of glycosaminoglycans, N-glycans and proteins/peptides from tissue surface areas as small as 1.5 mm in diameter. Targeting small areas is especially important in the case of glycans, as their distribution can be very heterogeneous between different tissue regions. We first established reliable and reproducible digestion protocols for the individual compound classes by applying standards on the tissue using microwave irradiation to achieve reduced digestion times. Next, we developed a multienzyme workflow suitable for analysis of the different compound classes. Applicability of the workflow was demonstrated on serial mouse brain and liver sections, both fresh frozen and formalin-fixed. The glycomics data from the 1.5 mm diameter tissue surface area was consistent with data published on bulk mouse liver and brain tissues, which demonstrates the power of the workflow in obtaining combined molecular signatures from very small tissue regions.

Digestion protocol for small protein amounts for nano-HPLC-MS(MS) analysis

A miniaturized tryptic digestion protocol for protein analysis has been developed, which works well for small amounts of proteins using small volume of reagents. The protocol starts from 10μL sample volume with total protein content in the low pmol or fmol range (alternatively expressed, in the low ng range). After adding various reagents the total volume of the tryptic digest will increase to 15μL only. This is especially advantageous for nano-HPLC-MS or MALDI analysis which requires (and allows) analysis of few μL aliquots only. Efficiency of the protocol was tested using nano-HLPC-MS(MS). The results show that the developed miniaturized digestion protocol performs at least as well, possibly even better, than conventional protocols using large sample amounts; and is far superior to digestion performed in larger volumes followed by solvent evaporation/resolvation. This is reflected both in signal intensities in MS and in the number of proteins identified by MS/MS.

Degrees of freedom effect on fragmentation in tandem mass spectrometry of singly charged supramolecular aggregates of sodium sulfonates

The characteristic collision energy (CCE) to obtain 50% fragmentation of positively and negatively single charged noncovalent clusters has been measured. CCE was found to increase linearly with the degrees of freedom (DoF) of the precursor ion, analogously to that observed for synthetic polymers. This suggests that fragmentation behavior (e.g. energy randomization) in covalent molecules and clusters are similar. Analysis of the slope of CCE with molecular size (DoF) indicates that activation energy of fragmentation of these clusters (loss of a monomer unit) is similar to that of the lowest energy fragmentation of protonated leucine-enkephalin. Positively and negatively charged aggregates behave similarly, but the slope of the CCE versus DoF plot is steeper for positive ions, suggesting that these are more stable than their negative counterparts.