Publications

Glycoprotein gp120 is a surface antigen and virulence factor of human immunodeficiency virus 1. Broadly neutralizing antibodies (bNAbs) that react to gp120 from a variety of HIV isolates offer hope for the development of broadly effective immunogens for vaccination purposes, if the interactions between gp120 and bNAbs can be understood. From a structural perspective, gp120 is a particularly difficult system because of its size, the presence of multiple flexible regions, and the large amount of glycosylation, all of which are important in gp120-bNAb interactions. Here, the interaction of full-length, glycosylated gp120 with bNAb b12 is probed using high-resolution hydroxyl radical protein footprinting (HR-HRPF) by fast photochemical oxidation of proteins. HR-HRPF allows for the measurement of changes in the average solvent accessible surface area of multiple amino acids without the need for measures that might alter the protein conformation, such as mutagenesis. HR-HRPF of the gp120-b12 complex coupled with computational modeling shows a novel extensive interaction of the V1/V2 domain, probably with the light chain of b12. Our data also reveal HR-HRPF protection in the C3 domain caused by interaction of the N330 glycan with the b12 light chain. In addition to providing information about the interactions of full-length, glycosylated gp120 with b12, this work serves as a template for the structural interrogation of full-length glycosylated gp120 with other bNAbs to better characterize the interactions that drive the broad specificity of the bNAb.

Here, we describe the first sequencing method of a complex mixture of heparan sulfate tetrasaccharides by LC-MS/MS. Heparin and heparan sulfate (HS) are linear polysaccharides that are modified in a complex manner by N- and O-sulfation, N-acetylation, and epimerization of the uronic acid. Heparin and HS are involved in various essential cellular communication processes. The structural analysis of these glycosaminoglycans is challenging due to the lability of their sulfate groups, the high heterogeneity of modifications, and the epimerization of the uronic acids. While advances in liquid chromatography (LC) and mass spectrometry (MS) have enabled compositional profiling of HS oligosaccharide mixtures, online separation and detailed structural analysis of isomeric and epimeric HS mixtures has not been achieved. Here, we report the development and evaluation of a chemical derivatization and tandem mass spectrometry method that can separate and identify isomeric and epimeric structures from complex mixtures. A series of well-defined synthetic HS tetrasaccharides varying in sulfation patterns and uronic acid epimerization were analyzed by chemical derivatization and LC-MS/MS. These synthetic compounds made it possible to establish relationships between HS structure, chromatographic behavior and MS/MS fragmentation characteristics. Using the analytical characteristics determined through the analysis of the synthetic HS tetrasaccharide standards, an HS tetrasacharide mixture derived from natural sources was successfully sequenced. This method represents the first sequencing of complex mixtures of HS oligosaccharides, an essential milestone in the analysis of structure-function relationships of these carbohydrates.

One difficult problem in the analysis of peptide modifications is quantifying isomeric modifications that differ by the position of the amino acid modified. HPLC separation using C18 reverse phase chromatography coupled with electron transfer dissociation (ETD) in tandem mass spectrometry has recently been shown to be able to relatively quantify how much of a given modification occurs at each amino acid position for isomeric mixtures; however, the resolution of reverse phase chromatography greatly complicates quantification of isomeric modifications by ETD because of the chromatographic separation of peptides with identical modifications at different sequence positions. Using peptide oxidation as a model system, we investigated the use of size exclusion chromatography coupled with ETD fragmentation to separate peptide sequences. This approach allows for the benefits of chromatographic separation of peptide sequences while ensuring co-elution of modification isomers for accurate relative quantification of modifications using standard data-dependent acquisitions. Using this method, the relative amount of modification at each amino acid can be accurately measured from single ETD MS/MS spectra in a standard data-dependent acquisition experiment. Graphical Abstract ᅟ.

An integrated methodology is described to establish ligand requirements for heparan sulfate (HS) binding proteins based on a workflow in which HS octasaccharides are produced by partial enzymatic degradation of natural HS followed by size exclusion purification, affinity enrichment using an immobilized HS-binding protein of interest, putative structure determination of isolated compounds by a hydrophilic interaction chromatography-high-resolution mass spectrometry platform, and chemical synthesis of well-defined HS oligosaccharides for structure-activity relationship studies. The methodology was used to establish the ligand requirements of human Roundabout receptor 1 (Robo1), which is involved in a number of developmental processes. Mass spectrometric analysis of the starting octasaccharide mixture and the Robo1-bound fraction indicated that Robo1 has a preference for a specific set of structures. Further analysis was performed by sequential permethylation, desulfation, and pertrideuteroacetylation followed by online separation and structural analysis by MS/MS. Sequences of tetrasaccharides could be deduced from the data, and by combining the compositional and sequence data, a putative octasaccharide ligand could be proposed (GlA-GlcNS6S-IdoA-GlcNS-IdoA2S-GlcNS6S-IdoA-GlcNAc6S). A modular synthetic approach was employed to prepare the target compound, and binding studies by surface plasmon resonance (SPR) confirmed it to be a high affinity ligand for Robo1. Further studies with a number of tetrasaccharides confirmed that sulfate esters at C-6 are critical for binding, whereas such functionalities at C-2 substantially reduce binding. High affinity ligands were able to reverse a reduction in endothelial cell migration induced by Slit2-Robo1 signaling.

Interaction of transmembrane receptors of the Robo family and the secreted protein Slit provides important signals in the development of the central nervous system and regulation of axonal midline crossing. Heparan sulfate, a sulfated linear polysaccharide modified in a complex variety of ways, serves as an essential co-receptor in Slit-Robo signaling. Previous studies have shown that closely related heparin octasaccharides bind to Drosophila Robo directly, and surface plasmon resonance analysis revealed that Robo1 binds more tightly to full-length unfractionated heparin. For the first time, we utilized electron transfer dissociation-based high spatial resolution hydroxyl radical protein footprinting to identify two separate binding sites for heparin interaction with Robo1: one binding site at the previously identified site for heparin dp8 and a second binding site at the N terminus of Robo1 that is disordered in the x-ray crystal structure. Mutagenesis of the identified N-terminal binding site exhibited a decrease in binding affinity as measured by surface plasmon resonance and heparin affinity chromatography. Footprinting also indicated that heparin binding induces a minor change in the conformation and/or dynamics of the Ig2 domain, but no major conformational changes were detected. These results indicate a second low affinity binding site in the Robo-Slit complex as well as suggesting the role of the Ig2 domain of Robo1 in heparin-mediated signal transduction. This study also marks the first use of electron transfer dissociation-based high spatial resolution hydroxyl radical protein footprinting, which shows great utility for the characterization of protein-carbohydrate complexes.

Heparin and heparan sulfate are very large linear polysaccharides that undergo a complex variety of modifications and are known to play important roles in human development, cell-cell communication and disease. Sequencing of highly sulfated glycosaminoglycan oligosaccharides like heparin and heparan sulfate by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) remains challenging because of the presence of multiple isomeric sequences in a complex mixture of oligosaccharides, the difficulties in separation of these isomers, and the facile loss of sulfates in MS/MS. We have previously introduced a method for structural sequencing of heparin/heparan sulfate oligosaccharides involving chemical derivatizations that replace labile sulfates with stable acetyl groups. This chemical derivatization scheme allows the use of reversed phase LC for high-resolution separation and MS/MS for sequencing of isomeric heparan sulfate oligosaccharides. However, because of the large number of analytes present in complex mixtures of heparin/HS oligosaccharides, the resulting LC-MS/MS data sets are large and cannot be annotated with existing glycomics software because of the specifically designed chemical derivatization strategy. We have developed a tool, called GAG-ID, to automate the interpretation of derivatized heparin/heparan sulfate LC-MS/MS data based on a modified multivariate hypergeometric distribution to weight the annotation of more intense peaks. The software is tested on a LC-MS/MS data set collected from a mixture of 21 synthesized heparan sulfate tetrasaccharides. By testing the discrimination of scoring with this system, we show that stratifying peaks into different intensity classes benefits the discrimination of scoring, and GAG-ID is able to properly assign all 21 synthetic tetrasaccharides in a defined mixture from a single LC-MS/MS run.

Hydroxyl radical protein footprinting (HRPF) by fast photochemical oxidation of proteins (FPOP) is a powerful benchtop tool used to probe protein structure, interactions, and conformational changes in solution. However, the reproducibility of all HRPF techniques is limited by the ability to deliver a defined concentration of hydroxyl radicals to the protein. This ability is impacted by both the amount of radical generated and the presence of radical scavengers in solution. In order to compare HRPF data from sample to sample, a hydroxyl radical dosimeter is needed that can measure the effective concentration of radical that is delivered to the protein, after accounting for both differences in hydroxyl radical generation and nonanalyte radical consumption. Here, we test three radical dosimeters (Alexa Fluor 488, terepthalic acid, and adenine) for their ability to quantitatively measure the effective radical dose under the high radical concentration conditions of FPOP. Adenine has a quantitative relationship between UV spectrophotometric response, effective hydroxyl radical dose delivered, and peptide and protein oxidation levels over the range of radical concentrations typically encountered in FPOP. The simplicity of an adenine-based dosimeter allows for convenient and flexible incorporation into FPOP applications, and the ability to accurately measure the delivered radical dose will enable reproducible and reliable FPOP across a variety of platforms and applications.

Hydroxyl radical protein footprinting (HRPF) is an MS-based technique for analyzing protein structure based on measuring the oxidation of amino acid side chains by hydroxyl radicals diffusing in solution. Spatial resolution of HRPF is limited by the smallest portion of the protein for which oxidation amounts can be accurately quantitated. Previous work has shown electron transfer dissociation (ETD) to be the most reliable method for quantifying the amount of oxidation of each amino acid side chain in a mixture of peptide oxidation isomers, but efficient ETD requires high peptide charge states, which limits its applicability for HRPF. Supercharging reagents have been used to enhance peptide charge state for ETD analysis, but previous work has shown supercharging reagents to enhance charge state differently for different peptides sequences; it is currently unknown if different oxidation isomers will experience different charge enhancement effects. Here, we report the effect of m-nitrobenzyl alcohol (m-NBA) on the ETD-based quantification of peptide oxidation. The addition of m-NBA to both a defined mixture of synthetic isomeric oxidized peptides and Robo-1 protein subjected to HRPF increased the abundance of higher charge state ions, improving our ability to perform efficient ETD of the mixture. No differences in the reported quantitation by ETD were noted in the presence or absence of m-NBA, indicating that all oxidation isomers were charge-enhanced to a similar extent. These results indicate the utility of m-NBA for residue-level quantification of peptide oxidation in HRPF and other applications.

Protein oxidation is typically associated with oxidative stress and aging and affects protein function in normal and pathological processes. Additionally, deliberate oxidative labeling is used to probe protein structure and protein-ligand interactions in hydroxyl radical protein footprinting (HRPF). Oxidation often occurs at multiple sites, leading to mixtures of oxidation isomers that differ only by the site of modification. We utilized sets of synthetic, isomeric "oxidized" peptides to test and compare the ability of electron-transfer dissociation (ETD) and collision-induced dissociation (CID), as well as nano-ultra high performance liquid chromatography (nanoUPLC) separation, to quantitate oxidation isomers with one oxidation at multiple adjacent sites in mixtures of peptides. Tandem mass spectrometry by ETD generates fragment ion ratios that accurately report on relative oxidative modification extent on specific sites, regardless of the charge state of the precursor ion. Conversely, CID was found to generate quantitative MS/MS product ions only at the higher precursor charge state. Oxidized isomers having multiple sites of oxidation in each of two peptide sequences in HRPF product of protein Robo-1 Ig1-2, a protein involved in nervous system axon guidance, were also identified and the oxidation extent at each residue was quantified by ETD without prior liquid chromatography (LC) separation. ETD has proven to be a reliable technique for simultaneous identification and relative quantification of a variety of functionally different oxidation isomers, and is a valuable tool for the study of oxidative stress, as well as for improving spatial resolution for HRPF studies.

Chemokines are small proteins best known for their role in controlling the migration of diverse cells, particularly leukocytes. Upon binding to their G-protein-coupled receptors on the leukocytes, chemokines stimulate the signaling events that cause cytoskeletal rearrangements involved in cell movement, and migration of the cells along chemokine gradients. Depending on the cell type, chemokines also induce many other types of cellular responses including those related to defense mechanisms, cell proliferation, survival, and development. Historically, most research efforts have focused on the interaction of chemokines with their receptors, where monomeric forms of the ligands are the functionally relevant state. More recently, however, the importance of chemokine interactions with cell surface glycosaminoglycans has come to light, and in most cases appears to involve oligomeric chemokine structures. This review summarizes existing knowledge relating to the structure and function of chemokine oligomers, and emerging methodology for determining structures of complex chemokine assemblies in the future.