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Determining the effect of chemotherapeutic treatment on changes in protein expression can provide important targets for overcoming resistance. Due to challenges in simultaneously measuring large numbers of proteins, a paucity of data exists on global changes. To overcome these challenges, we utilized microwestern arrays that allowed us to measure the abundance and modification state of hundreds of cell signaling and transcription factor proteins in cells following drug exposure. HapMap lymphoblastoid cell lines (LCLs) were exposed to cisplatin, a chemotherapeutic agent commonly used to treat testicular, head and neck, non-small cell lung, and gynecological cancers. We evaluated the expression of 259 proteins following 2, 6, and 12 h of cisplatin treatment in two LCLs with discordant sensitivity to cisplatin. Of these 259 proteins, 66 displayed significantly different protein expression changes (p0.05). Fifteen of these proteins were evaluated in a second pair of LCLs with discordant sensitivities to cisplatin; six demonstrated significant differences in expression. We then evaluated a subset of 63 proteins in a second set of LCLs with discordant sensitivity, and 40% of those that were significant in the first pair were also significant in the second part with concordant directionality (p0.05). We functionally validated one of the top proteins identified, PDK1, and demonstrated a synergistic relationship between cisplatin and a PDK1 inhibitor in multiple lung cancer lines. This study highlights the potential for identifying novel targets through an understanding of cellular changes in protein expression and modification following drug treatments.

The focus of this study was on the assessment of technology that might be of clinical utility in identification, quantification, characterization of carbonylation in human plasma proteins. Carbonylation is widely associated with oxidative stress diseases. Breast cancer patient samples were chosen as a stress positive case based on the fact that oxidative stress has been reported to be elevated in this disease. Measurements of 8-isoprostane in plasma confirmed that breast cancer patients in this study were indeed experiencing significant oxidative stress. Carbonyl groups in proteins from freshly drawn blood were derivatized with biotin hydrazide after which the samples were dialyzed and the biotinylated proteins subsequently selected, digested and labeled with iTRAQ™ heavy isotope coding reagent(s). Four hundred sixty proteins were identified and quantified, 95 of which changed 1.5 fold or more in concentration. Beyond confirming the utility of the analytical method, association of protein carbonylation was examined as well. Nearly one fourth of the selected proteins were of cytoplasmic, nuclear, or membrane origin. Analysis of the data by unbiased knowledge assembly methods indicated the most likely disease associated with the proteins was breast neoplasm. Pathway analysis showed the proteins which changed in carbonylation were strongly associated with Brca1, the breast cancer type-1 susceptibility protein. Pathway analysis indicated the major molecular functions of these proteins are defense, immunity and nucleic acid binding.

Excessive oxidative stress leaves a protein carbonylation fingerprint in biological systems. Carbonylation is an irreversible post-translational modification (PTM) that often leads to the loss of protein function and can be a component of multiple diseases. Protein carbonyl groups can be generated directly (by amino acids oxidation and the alpha-amidation pathway) or indirectly by forming adducts with lipid peroxidation products or glycation and advanced glycation end-products. Studies of oxidative stress are complicated by the low concentration of oxidation products and a wide array of routes by which proteins are carbonylated. The development of new selection and enrichment techniques coupled with advances in mass spectrometry are allowing the identification of hundreds of new carbonylated protein products from a broad range of proteins located at many sites in biological systems. The focus of this review is on the use of proteomics tools and methods to identify oxidized proteins along with specific sites of oxidative damage and the consequences of protein oxidation.

This study reports the first proteomic-based identification and characterization of oxidized proteins in human plasma. The study was conducted by isolating carbonylated proteins from the plasma of male subjects (age 32-36) with avidin affinity chromatography subsequent to biotinylation of carbonyl groups with biotin hydrazide and sodium cyanoborohydride reduction of the resulting Schiff's bases. Avidin selected proteins were digested with trypsin, and the peptide fragments were separated by C18 reversed phase chromatography and identified and characterized by both electrospray ionization and matrix assisted laser desorption ionization mass spectrometry. Approximately 0.2% of the total protein in plasma was selected with this method. Sixty-five high, medium, and low abundance proteins were identified, the majority appearing in all subjects. An interesting feature of the oxidized proteins isolated was that in addition to carbonylation they often bore other types of oxidative modification. Twenty-four oxidative modifications were mapped in 14 proteins. Fifteen carbonylation sites carried on 7 proteins were detected. Methionine oxidation was the most frequent single type of oxidative modification followed by tryptophan oxidation. Apolipoprotein B-100 had 20 oxidative modifications, the largest number for any protein observed in this study. Among the organs contributing oxidized proteins to plasma, kidney, liver, and soft tissues were the most frequent donors. One of the more important outcomes of this work was that mass spectral analysis allowed differentiation between different biological mechanisms of oxidation in individual proteins. For the first time, oxidation products arising from direct ROS oxidation of amino acid side chains in proteins, formation of advanced glycation endproducts (AGEs) adducts, and formation of adducts with lipid peroxidation products were simultaneously recognized and assigned to specific sites in proteins.

Pathological levels of oxidative stress (OS) have been implicated in a broad spectrum of diseases. Carbonylation is an irreversible PTM that is considered as a universal indicator of OS. The development of new enrichment techniques coupled with the introduction of highly sensitive mass spectrometers has allowed the identification of carbonylated proteins in biological systems. In this study, Deng et al. (Proteomics 2015, 15, 148-159) utilized one of these methods to isolate and identify carbonylated proteins that are involved in tetracycline-induced steatosis. They identified 26 proteins that are targets of OS and most of them were located in the mitochondria. A key carbonylated protein that was identified is long chain specific acyl-CoA dehydrogenase, which has a major role in the β-oxidation of fatty acids. The researchers concluded that tetracycline-induced steatosis is a two-step process that involves lipid overload followed by OS.

Proteolysis is a central component of most proteomics methods. Unfortunately much of the information relating to the structural diversity of proteins is lost during digestion. This paper describes a method in which the native proteome of yeast was subjected to preliminary fractionation by size exclusion chromatography (SEC) prior to trypsin digestion of SEC fractions and reversed phase chromatography-mass spectral analysis to identify tryptic peptides thus generated. Through this approach proteins associated with other proteins in high molecular mass complexes were recognized and identified. A focus of this work was on the identification of Hub proteins that associate with multiple interaction partners. A critical component of this strategy is to choose methods and conditions that maximize retention of native structure during the various stages of analysis prior to proteolysis, especially during cell lysis. Maximum survival of protein complexes during lysis was obtained with the French press and bead-beater methods of cell disruption at approximately pH 8 with 200 mM NaCl in the lysis buffer. Structure retention was favored by higher ionic strength, suggesting that hydrophobic effects are important in maintaining the structure of protein complexes. Recovery of protein complexes declined substantially with storage at any temperature, but storage at -20°C was best when low temperature storage was necessary. Slightly lower recovery was obtained with storage at -80°C while lowest recovery was achieved at 4°C. It was concluded that initial fractionation of native proteins in cell lysates by SEC prior to RPC-MS/MS of tryptic digests can be used to recognize and identify proteins in complexes along with their interaction partners in known protein complexes.