Sakari Joenväärä

N-Glycoproteomics – An automated workflow approach

Glycan decorations dictate protein functions and thus have crucial importance in life sciences. Previously glycoprotein analysis was mainly focused on the analysis of the liberated glycans allowing detailed structural, but lacking positional information. Analysis of intact glycopeptides required purified glycoproteins and manual interpretation of spectra. We developed an approach where mixtures of native glycopeptides were analyzed with tandem mass spectrometry and the spectra were analyzed with automated in silico workflows. The latter included combination of the original spectra, generation of a human N-glycopeptide library, matching the glycopeptide spectra to the theoretical peptide fragments, scoring the observations, predicting the glycan composition, which were then matched against the observed spectra, statistical validation of the results with target-decoy filtering, and finally the calculation of glycan structures. We verified this approach with the 150 serotransferrin glycopeptide spectra, where we automatically generated 10(5) putative interpretations from >10(9) theoretical glycopeptides. After scoring 62 glycopeptide spectra obtained validated interpretation with concomitant amino acid sequences, glycan compositions, and structures. When applying this method to an unknown mixture of human plasma glycoproteins we identified 80 glycopeptides with their glycan compositions or structures. Instead of weeks and months of interpretation work of mass spectrometry files our automated workflow can be executed in few hours and provide information concomitantly from both the amino acid and glycan moieties of intact glycopeptides in mixtures. No advanced computational skills were needed to use these preformed and tested workflows. In case users want to add complexity to the analysis they are allowed to alter all parameters and rebuild the workflows.

Caveolar transport through nasal epithelium of birch pollen allergen Bet v 1 in allergic patients.

BACKGROUND Previous work in type I pollen allergies has focused on aberrant immunoresponses. OBJECTIVE Our systems-level analyses explore the role of epithelium in early pathogenesis of type I allergic reactions. METHODS We began top-down analyses of differences in human nasal epithelial cells and biopsy specimens obtained from patients with birch allergy and healthy control subjects in the resting state and after intranasal in vivo birch pollen challenges. Immunohistochemistry, immunotransmission electron microscopy, mass spectrometry, transcriptomics, and integration of data to a pathway were conducted. RESULTS Bet v 1 allergen bound to epithelium immediately after in vivo birch pollen challenge during winter only in allergic individuals. It also travelled through epithelium with caveolae to mast cells. Sixteen unique proteins were found to bind to the Bet v 1 column only in lysates from allergic epithelial cells; 6 of these were caveolar and 6 were cytoskeletal proteins. The nasal epithelial transcriptome analysis from allergic and healthy subjects differed during the winter season, and these subjects also responded differentially to birch pollen challenge. Within this pollen-induced response, the gene ontology categories of cytoskeleton and actin cytoskeleton were decreased in allergic patients, whereas the actin-binding category was enriched in healthy subjects. Integration of microscopic, mass spectrometric, and transcriptomic data to a common protein-protein binding network showed how these were connected to each other. CONCLUSION We propose a hypothesis of caveolae-dependent uptake and transport of birch pollen allergen in the epithelium of allergic patients only. Application of discovery-driven methodologies can provide new hypotheses worth further analysis of complex multifactorial diseases, such as type I allergy.

De novo glycan structure search with the CID MS/MS spectra of native N-glycopeptides

The aim of our study is to automatically analyze the glycan and peptide structures of N-glycopeptides without a need to release glycans from the glycopeptides. Our wet laboratory raw data represent a series of MS/MS mass spectra obtained from a reverse-phase liquid chromatography run of size-exclusion-enriched tryptic-digested glycopeptides from glycoproteins. The MS/MS spectra are first analyzed in order to identify glycosylated peptides and N-glycan monosaccharide compositions present on each glycopeptide. We further developed a Branch-and-Bound algorithm to search de novo N-glycan structures, i.e., monosaccharide compositions and their ordered sequences from native glycopeptides. Our de novo algorithm is based on iterative growth and selection of a population of glycan structures and it does not use databases of known glycan structures. We validate the algorithm with (i) in silico-generated spectra, with or without deteriorating deletions, (ii) with a purified glycoprotein transferrin, and (iii) with a complex mixture of N-glycopeptides enriched from human plasma. Our Branch-and-Bound algorithm depicted glycan structures from all the above-mentioned three input data types. Due to the large diversity of glycan structures, the results typically contained several proposed structures matching almost equally well to the spectra. In conclusion, this algorithm automatically identifies glycopeptides and their structures from the MS/MS spectra and thus greatly reduces the number of possible glycan structures from the vast amount of potential ones.

Allergy as an epithelial barrier disease.

The objective of this review is to focus on putative modified epithelial functions related to allergy. The dysregulation of the epithelial barrier might result in the allergen uptake, which could be the primary defect in the pathogenesis of allergic reaction. We review the literature of the role of respiratory epithelium as an active barrier, how allergens are transported through it and how it senses the hostile environmental allergens and other dangerous stimuli.

Time-series nasal epithelial transcriptomics during natural pollen exposure in healthy subjects and allergic patients.

To cite this article: Mattila P, Renkonen J, Toppila‐Salmi S, Parviainen V, Joenväärä S, Alff‐Tuomala S, Nicorici D, Renkonen R. Time‐series nasal epithelial transcriptomics during natural pollen exposure in healthy subjects and allergic patients. Allergy 2010; 65: 175–183.

Analytical and preanalytical validation of a new mass spectrometric serum 5-hydroxyindoleacetic acid assay as neuroendocrine tumor marker

BACKGROUND Serum 5-hydroxyindoleacetic acid (5-HIAA) could replace the determination of 24-h urinary 5-HIAA for diagnosis and follow-up of neuroendocrine tumors (NETs). We developed and validated a straightforward liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) assay for serum 5-HIAA. METHODS We used serum samples from healthy volunteers (n=136) and patients suspected or followed for NET (n=129). Samples were spiked with 5-HIAA-D2, extracted and quantified by LC-MS/MS. We studied the effects of sample storage, sample device, a meal and diurnal variation on serum 5-HIAA. Furthermore, we established a reference range for serum 5-HIAA and compared our assay with a urinary 5-HIAA HPLC assay and a commercial plasma chromogranin A (CgA) immunoassay. RESULTS Our LC-MS/MS assay is sensitive (LOQ 5 nmol/L), has a wide assay range (5-10,000 nmol/L) and short analysis time (7 min). 5-HIAA in serum is stable for several days in various temperatures and during five freeze-thaw cycles. We found no diurnal variation (p ≥ 0.20) and a meal had no effect on serum 5-HIAA (p=0.89). We suggest an upper reference limit of 123 nmol/L for serum 5-HIAA. The area under curve (AUC) in receiver operator characteristics (ROC) analysis was 0.83 for urinary 5-HIAA, 0.81 for serum 5-HIAA and 0.76 for CgA, respectively. CONCLUSIONS The LC-MS/MS assay for serum 5-HIAA discriminates between healthy individuals and patients with NET and is well suited for the diagnosis and follow-up of NETs.

Molecular Mechanisms of Nasal Epithelium in Rhinitis and Rhinosinusitis

Allergic rhinitis, nonallergic rhinitis, and chronic rhinosinusitis are multifactorial upper airway diseases with high prevalence. Several genetic and environmental factors are proposed to predispose to the pathogenesis of the inflammatory upper airway diseases. Still, the molecular mechanisms leading toward the onset and progression of upper airway diseases are largely unknown. The upper airway epithelium has an important role in sensing the environment and regulating the inhaled air. As such, it links environmental insults to the host immunity. Human sinonasal epithelium serves as an excellent target for observing induced early-phase events, in vivo, and with a systems biological perspective. Actually, increasing number of investigations have provided evidence that altered homeostasis in the sinonasal epithelium might be important in the chronic upper airway inflammation.

Comparison of sialylated N‐glycopeptide levels in serum of pancreatic cancer patients, acute pancreatitis patients, and healthy controls

Serum protein glycosylation is known to be affected by pathological conditions, including cancer and inflammatory diseases. Pancreatic cancer patients would benefit from early diagnosis, as the disease is often detected in an advanced stage and has poor prognosis. Searching for changes in serum protein site‐specific glycosylation could reveal novel glycoprotein biomarkers. We used Sambucus nigra lectin affinity chromatography to enrich α‐2,6 sialylated tryptic N‐glycopeptides from albumin‐depleted sera of pancreatic cancer patients, acute pancreatitis patients, and healthy individuals, and compared their relative abundance using ultra performance LC‐MS. Relative quantitation was done using the spectrum processing software MZmine. Identification was performed on the web‐based tool GlycopeptideID, developed for in silico analysis of intact N‐glycopeptides. Seventeen high‐abundance serum proteins, mainly acute‐phase proteins, and immunoglobulins, with total 27 N‐glycosylation sites, and 62 glycoforms, were identified. Pancreatitis patient sera contained 38, and pancreatic cancer patients sera contained 13 glycoform changes with statistical significance (p < 0.05). In pancreatitis, up to tenfold changes were found in some glycoforms, and in pancreatic cancer, threefold. Analysis showed that the changes often concerned one or two, but not all, N‐glycosylation sites in a specific glycoprotein. In conclusion, the analysis shows that pancreatic cancer, and acute pancreatitis are associated with changes in concentrations of intact sialylated N‐glycopeptides derived from acute‐phase proteins, and immunoglobulins, and that changes are site specific.

Human Spermatozoa Quantitative Proteomic Signature Classifies Normo- and Asthenozoospermia

Scarcely understood defects lead to asthenozoospermia, which results in poor fertility outcomes. Incomplete knowledge of these defects hinders the development of new therapies and reliance on interventional therapies, such as in vitro fertilization, increases. Sperm cells, being transcriptionally and translationally silent, necessitate the proteomic approach to study the sperm function. We have performed a differential proteomics analysis of human sperm and seminal plasma and identified and quantified 667 proteins in sperm and 429 proteins in seminal plasma data set, which were used for further analysis. Statistical and mathematical analysis combined with pathway analysis and self-organizing maps clustering and correlation was performed on the data set. It was found that sperm proteomic signature combined with statistical analysis as opposed to the seminal plasma proteomic signature can differentiate the normozoospermic versus the asthenozoospermic sperm samples. This is despite the results that some of the seminal plasma proteins have big fold changes among classes but they fall short of statistical significance. S-Plot of the sperm proteomic data set generated some high confidence targets, which might be implicated in sperm motility pathways. These proteins also had the area under the curve value of 0.9 or 1 in ROC curve analysis. Various pathways were either enriched in these proteomic data sets by pathway analysis or they were searched by their constituent proteins. Some of these pathways were axoneme activation and focal adhesion assembly, glycolysis, gluconeogenesis, cellular response to stress and nucleosome assembly among others. The mass spectrometric data is available via ProteomeXchange with identifier PXD004098.

N-linked (N-) Glycoproteomics of Urinary Exosomes

Epithelial cells lining the urinary tract secrete urinary exosomes (40–100 nm) that can be targeted to specific cells modulating their functionality. One potential targeting mechanism is adhesion between vesicle surface glycoproteins and target cells. This makes the glycopeptide analysis of exosomes important. Exosomes reflect the physiological state of the parent cells; therefore, they are a good source of biomarkers for urological and other diseases. Moreover, the urine collection is easy and noninvasive and urinary exosomes give information about renal and systemic organ systems. Accordingly, multiple studies on proteomic characterization of urinary exosomes in health and disease have been published. However, no systematic analysis of their glycoproteomic profile has been carried out to date, whereas a conserved glycan signature has been found for exosomes from urine and other sources including T cell lines and human milk. Here, we have enriched and identified the N-glycopeptides from these vesicles. These enriched N-glycopeptides were solved for their peptide sequence, glycan composition, structure, and glycosylation site using collision-induced dissociation MS/MS (CID-tandem MS) data interpreted by a publicly available software GlycopeptideId. Released glycans from the same sample was also analyzed with MALDI-MS. We have identified the N-glycoproteome of urinary exosomes. In total 126 N-glycopeptides from 51 N-glycosylation sites belonging to 37 glycoproteins were found in our results. The peptide sequences of these N-glycopeptides were identified unambiguously and their glycan composition (for 125 N-glycopeptides) and structures (for 87 N-glycopeptides) were proposed. A corresponding glycomic analysis with released N-glycans was also performed. We identified 66 unique nonmodified N-glycan compositions and in addition 13 sulfated/phosphorylated glycans were also found. This is the first systematic analysis of N-glycoproteome of urinary exosomes.