核磁共振波谱法在蛋白质三维结构解析中的应用

蛋白质特定的三维结构与其生物功能密切相关,因此,研究蛋白质的三维结构有助于揭示其生物功能机制。将核磁共振（NMR）波谱法应用于研究溶液状态下蛋白质的三维结构,能够更加准确地揭示蛋白质结构与生物功能之间的关系。本文综述了NMR解析蛋白质三维结构的理论和技术方法,以及NMR结合其他生物物理手段,并辅以分子建模计算法研究蛋白质三维结构的研究进展和最新方法,为精准解析蛋白质的三维结构提供思路及策略。     

核磁共振技术在蛋白质领域的应用

简要叙述了核磁共振技术(NMR)在蛋白质领域的研究及应用。NMR法通过测定蛋白质在稀溶液状态下反应位点的特定参数来计算蛋白质的三级结构,并可深入了解一定时间范围内化学反应和蛋白质构象转变的动力学过程。通过NMR对抗原决定簇和抗体CDR作图,可以分析其一级结构和三维构象;对抗原抗体动力学的分析,对于设计基因疫苗、检测细胞表面抗原提呈以及分析抗原抗体复合物的构象变化也有着重要意义。     

基于液相色谱质谱联用的蛋白质组非标记定量研究策略的建立及应用

定量蛋白质组研究是蛋白质组研究的热点和难点,而液相色谱质谱技术已经被广泛地应用于蛋白质的定性和定量研究.该研究建立和优化了一种基于液相色谱质谱联用技术的蛋白质组非标记定量方法,并对两种肽段质谱检测计数的归一化算法进行了比较,结果发现ASC法要优于Rsc法.最后,将建立的方法应用于肝癌细胞模型HepG2和HepG2-HBx细胞系的差异蛋白质组表达研究.质谱鉴定结果用聚类分析软件cluster3.0进行分析,最后鉴定出107个重叠蛋白,其中9个蛋白质表达上调(Ratio>1.75),6个蛋白质表达下调(Ratio<0.5),这些蛋白质均与肝癌发生和恶化密切相关.结果表明,该技术操作简单、方便,具有较高的灵敏度和动态范围,利用该方法进行差异蛋白质组研究和发现生物标志物在理论和临床上具有十分重要的意义.     

蛋白质基因组学：运用蛋白质组技术注释基因组

随着高通量DNA测序技术的飞速发展,越来越多的物种完成了基因组测序．定位编码基因、确定编码基因结构是基因组注释的基本任务,然而以往的基因组注释方法主要依赖于DNA及RNA序列信息．为了更加精确地解读完成测序的基因组,我们需要整合多种类型的组学数据进行基因组注释．近年来,基于串联质谱技术的蛋白质组学已经发展成熟,实现了对蛋白质组的高覆盖,使得利用串联质谱数据进行基因组注释成为可能．串联质谱数据一方面可以对已注释的基因进行表达验证,另一方面还可以校正原注释基因,进而发现新基因,实现对基因组序列的重新注释．这正是当前进展较快的蛋白质基因组学的研究内容．利用该方法系统地注释已完成测序的基因组已成为解读基因组的一个重要补充．本文综述了蛋白质基因组学的主要研究内容和研究方法,并展望了该研究方向未来的发展．     

“自顶向下(top-down)”的蛋白质组学——蛋白质变体的规模化鉴定

高分辨率质谱技术的快速发展使得"自顶向下"的蛋白质组学(top-down proteomics)研究逐渐成熟起来.在完整蛋白质水平上研究蛋白质组可以提供更精准、更丰富的生物学信息,特别是对于蛋白质上发生了多种关联性的翻译后修饰的情况.另外,由于基因突变、RNA可变剪接和大量蛋白质翻译后修饰的存在,同一个基因往往最终会产生多个"蛋白质变体"(proteoform),而要准确地鉴定这些蛋白质变体,也离不开"自顶向下"的蛋白质组学.在蛋白质水平上的分离技术、质谱技术与生物信息学技术是完整蛋白质鉴定最关键的三项技术.高效的分离技术是实现规模化蛋白质变体鉴定的前提,有效的质谱碎裂是提供可靠鉴定的核心,而快速准确的质谱鉴定算法则是数据分析效率的保障.本文对这三项技术进行了详细总结,重点集中在生物信息学相关技术上,包括对完整蛋白质的质谱数据预处理、数据库搜索鉴定以及翻译后修饰定位等几个计算问题的讨论.     

蛋白质组学中新蛋白质鉴定的研究方法和策略

当前,基于生物质谱进行蛋白质鉴定的技术已经成为蛋白质组学研究的支撑技术之一.产生的数据主要使用数据库搜索的方法进行处理,这种方法的一大缺陷是不能鉴定数据库中未包含的蛋白质,因此如何充分利用质谱数据对蛋白质组研究的意义很大,而新蛋白质鉴定更是其中一个重要的内容.新蛋白质鉴定是蛋白质鉴定的一个方面,新蛋白质的定义按照序列和功能的已知程度分为3个层次;以蛋白质鉴定的方法为基础,目前新蛋白质鉴定的方法可分为denovo测序和相似序列搜索结合的方法以及搜索EST、基因组等核酸数据库的方法2大类;两者各有利弊.存在各自的问题和相应处理的策略.不同的研究者可以根据具体目的应用和发展不同的鉴定方法,同时新蛋白质的鉴定也将随着蛋白质组学研究的发展而更加完善.     

利用EST序列构建Mascot本地数据库

对蛋白质质谱数据进行数据库比对和鉴定是蛋白质组学研究技术中的一个重要步骤。由于公共数据库蛋白质数据信息不全,有些蛋白质质谱数据无法得到有效的鉴定。而利用相关物种的EST序列构建专门的质谱数据库则可以增加鉴定未知蛋白的几率。本文介绍了利用EST序列构建Mascot本地数据库的具体方法和步骤,扩展了Mascot检索引擎对蛋白质质谱数据的鉴定范围,从数据库层面提高了对未知蛋白的鉴别几率,为蛋白质组学研究提供了一种较为实用的生物信息学分析技术。     

蛋白质结构与相互作用研究新方法——交联质谱技术

蛋白质的空间结构信息以及蛋白质间的相互作用信息对于研究蛋白质的功能有重要意义.研究蛋白质结构与相互作用的传统技术,如核磁共振技术、X射线晶体衍射技术等,对于蛋白质的纯度、结晶性和绝对量均有比较高的要求,限制了其广泛应用.交联质谱技术是近十多年来发展起来的新技术,它将质谱技术与交联技术相结合,在研究蛋白质结构与相互作用方面具有速度快、成本小、蛋白质各方面性状要求低等优势.本文就交联质谱技术各个环节的技术方法加以综述,包括交联质谱实验分离富集技术、常见交联剂特性、交联质谱数据库搜索算法、结果验证研究和交联质谱技术的应用等方面,并展望了该研究方向未来的发展.     

串联质谱图谱从头测序算法研究进展

近年来,基于质谱技术的高通量蛋白质组学研究发展迅速,利用串联质谱图谱鉴定蛋白质是其数据处理中一个基础而又重要的环节．由于不需要利用蛋白质序列数据库,从头测序方法能够分析新物种或者基因组未测序物种的串联质谱数据,具有数据库搜索方法不可替代的优势．简要介绍高通量串联质谱图谱从头测序问题及其研究现状．归纳出几种典型的计算策略并分析了各种策略的优缺点．总结常用的从头测序算法和软件,介绍算法评估的各种指标和常用评估数据集,概括各种算法的特点,展望未来研究可能的发展方向．     

代谢组学技术及其在临床研究中的应用

在后基因组时代, 系统生物学研究成为人们关注的焦点。转录组学、蛋白质组学等功能基因组学研究方法可同时检测药物或其他因素影响下大量基因或蛋白质的表达变化情况, 但这些变化不能与生物学功能的变化建立直接联系。代谢组学方法则可为代谢物含量变化与生物表型变化建立直接相关性。代谢组学研究的目的是定量分析一个生物系统内所有代谢物的含量, 进行全面代谢物分析需要分析化学技术的支撑, 核磁共振和基于质谱的分析技术是代谢组学研究的两种主要技术手段。代谢组学研究可产生大量数据信息, 对这些数据进行分析离不开化学统计学的应用, 比如主成分分析、多维缩放、各种聚类分析技术以及功能差异分析等。文章综述了近年来代谢组学分析技术及数据分析技术的研究进展, 在此基础上, 对代谢组学在临床研究及临床前研究中的应用研究进展进行了综述。对疾病代谢表型图谱的研究有助于人们了解疾病发生、发展以及致死的机制; 在临床条件下, 这些代谢图谱可以作为疾病诊断、预后以及治疗的评判标准。代谢物组成的变化是毒物胁迫对机体造成的最终影响, 利用代谢组技术可以直接反映毒物对机体的影响。质谱技术、核磁共振技术的应用使得药物筛选过程可以快速完成, 并有助于实现个性化用药。此外, 利用代谢组学技术还可以进行已知酶的新活性研究, 也可以研究未知酶。     

New developments in protein structure-function analysis by MS and use of hydrogen-deuterium exchange microfluidics

The study of protein structure and function has evolved to become a leading discipline in the biophysical sciences. Although it is not yet possible to determine 3D protein structures from MS data alone, multiple MS-based techniques can be combined to obtain structural and functional data that are complementary to classical protein structure information obtained from NMR or X-ray crystallography. Monitoring gas-phase interactions of noncovalent complexes yields information on binding constants, complex stability, and the nature of interactions. Ion mobility MS and chemical crosslinking strategies can be applied to probe the architecture of macromolecular assemblies and protein-ligand complexes. MS analysis of hydrogen-deuterium exchange can be used to determine the localization of secondary structure elements, binding sites and conformational dynamics of proteins in solution. This minireview focuses first on new strategies that combine these techniques to gain insights into protein structure and function. Using one such strategy, we then demonstrate how a novel hydrogen-deuterium exchange microfluidics tool can be used online with an ESI mass spectrometer to monitor regional accessibility in a peptide, as exemplified with amyloid-β peptide 1-40.     

Validation of archived chemical shifts through atomic coordinates

The public archives containing protein information in the form of NMR chemical shift data at the BioMagResBank (BMRB) and of 3D structure coordinates at the Protein Data Bank are continuously expanding. The quality of the data contained in these archives, however, varies. The main issue for chemical shift values is that they are determined relative to a reference frequency. When this reference frequency is set incorrectly, all related chemical shift values are systematically offset. Such wrongly referenced chemical shift values, as well as other problems such as chemical shift values that are assigned to the wrong atom, are not easily distinguished from correct values and effectively reduce the usefulness of the archive. We describe a new method to correct and validate protein chemical shift values in relation to their 3D structure coordinates. This method classifies atoms using two parameters: the per‐atom solvent accessible surface area (as calculated from the coordinates) and the secondary structure of the parent amino acid. Through the use of Gaussian statistics based on a large database of 3220 BMRB entries, we obtain per‐entry chemical shift corrections as well as Z scores for the individual chemical shift values. In addition, information on the error of the correction value itself is available, and the method can retain only dependable correction values. We provide an online resource with chemical shift, atom exposure, and secondary structure information for all relevant BMRB entries ( http://www.ebi.ac.uk/pdbe/nmr/vasco ) and hope this data will aid the development of new chemical shift‐based methods in NMR. Proteins 2010. © 2010 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.     

Structural biology by NMR: structure, dynamics, and interactions

The function of bio-macromolecules is determined by both their 3D structure and conformational dynamics. These molecules are inherently flexible systems displaying a broad range of dynamics on time-scales from picoseconds to seconds. Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectroscopy has emerged as the method of choice for studying both protein structure and dynamics in solution. Typically, NMR experiments are sensitive both to structural features and to dynamics, and hence the measured data contain information on both. Despite major progress in both experimental approaches and computational methods, obtaining a consistent view of structure and dynamics from experimental NMR data remains a challenge. Molecular dynamics simulations have emerged as an indispensable tool in the analysis of NMR data.     

A partial set covering model for protein mixture identification using mass spectrometry data

Protein identification is a key and essential step in mass spectrometry (MS) based proteome research. To date, there are many protein identification strategies that employ either MS data or MS/MS data for database searching. While MS-based methods provide wider coverage than MS/MS-based methods, their identification accuracy is lower since MS data have less information than MS/MS data. Thus, it is desired to design more sophisticated algorithms that achieve higher identification accuracy using MS data. Peptide Mass Fingerprinting (PMF) has been widely used to identify single purified proteins from MS data for many years. In this paper, we extend this technology to protein mixture identification. First, we formulate the problem of protein mixture identification as a Partial Set Covering (PSC) problem. Then, we present several algorithms that can solve the PSC problem efficiently. Finally, we extend the partial set covering model to both MS/MS data and the combination of MS data and MS/MS data. The experimental results on simulated data and real data demonstrate the advantages of our method: 1) it outperforms previous MS-based approaches significantly; 2) it is useful in the MS/MS-based protein inference; and 3) it combines MS data and MS/MS data in a unified model such that the identification performance is further improved.     

Constituents of Acacia cedilloi and Acacia gaumeri. Revised structure and complete NMR assignments of resinone

The rare lupene derivative named resinone has only been isolated before from Fluorensia resinosa. We now report the isolation of this compound from the bark of the new recently described Acacia cedilloi (Fabaceae), and the revision of its structure to 16beta-hydroxylup-20(29)-en-3-one, based on NMR and MS spectral data. The detailed 1H and 13C NMR assignments of resinone and its acetate achieved by 1D and 2D NMR experiments (including DEPT, COSY, HMQC and HMBC) are reported. In addition, the study of A. cedilloi and A. gaumeri afforded the known related lupenes lupeol and lupenone, the acyclic squalene, the sterols beta-sitosterol, stigmasta-7,22-dien-3beta-ol (spinasterol) and stigmasta-5,22,25-trien-3beta-ol (22-dehydroclerosterol) as well as alpha-tocopherol and beta-carotene.     

Intact protein profiling in breast cancer biomarker discovery: Protein identification issue and the solutions based on 3D protein separation,bottom‐up and top‐down mass spectrometry

Proteomics profiling of intact proteins based on MALDI‐TOF MS and derived platforms has been used in cancer biomarker discovery studies. This approach suffers from a number of limitations such as low resolution, low sensitivity, and that no knowledge is available on the identity of the respective proteins in the discovery mode. Nevertheless, it remains the most high‐throughput, untargeted mode of clinical proteomics studies to date. Here we compare key protein separation and MS techniques available for protein biomarker identification in this type of studies and define reasons of uncertainty in protein peak identity. As a result of critical data analysis, we consider 3D protein separation and identification workflows as optimal procedures. Subsequently, we present a new protocol based on 3D LC‐MS/MS with top‐down at high resolution that enabled the identification of HNRNP A2/B1 intact peptide as correlating with the estrogen receptor expression in breast cancer tissues. Additional development of this general concept toward next generation, top‐down based protein profiling at high resolution is discussed.     

Global urinary metabolic profiling procedures using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry

The role of urinary metabolic profiling in systems biology research is expanding. This is because of the use of this technology for clinical diagnostic and mechanistic studies and for the development of new personalized health care and molecular epidemiology (population) studies. The methodologies commonly used for metabolic profiling are NMR spectroscopy, liquid chromatography mass spectrometry (LC/MS) and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC/MS). In this protocol, we describe urine collection and storage, GC/MS and data preprocessing methods, chemometric data analysis and urinary marker metabolite identification. Results obtained using GC/MS are complementary to NMR and LC/MS. Sample preparation for GC/MS analysis involves the depletion of urea via treatment with urease, protein precipitation with methanol, and trimethylsilyl derivatization. The protocol described here facilitates the metabolic profiling of ～400-600 metabolites in 120 urine samples per week.     

NMR studies on fully hydrated membrane proteins, with emphasis on bacteriorhodopsin as a typical and prototype membrane protein

The 3D structures or dynamic feature of fully hydrated membrane proteins are very important at ambient temperature, in relation to understanding their biological activities, although their data, especially from the flexible portions such as surface regions, are unavailable from X-ray diffraction or cryoelectron microscope at low temperature. In contrast, high-resolution solid-state NMR spectroscopy has proved to be a very convenient alternative means to be able to reveal their dynamic structures. To clarify this problem, we describe here how we are able to reveal such structures and dynamic features, based on intrinsic probes from high-resolution solid-state NMR studies on bacteriorhodopsin (bR) as a typical membrane protein in 2D crystal, regenerated preparation in lipid bilayer and detergents. It turned out that their dynamic features are substantially altered upon their environments where bR is present. We further review NMR applications to study structure and dynamics of a variety of membrane proteins, including sensory rhodopsin, rhodopsin, photoreaction centers, diacylglycerol kinases, etc.     

NMR studies on fully hydrated membrane proteins, with emphasis on bacteriorhodopsin as a typical and prototype membrane protein

The 3D structures or dynamic feature of fully hydrated membrane proteins are very important at ambient temperature, in relation to understanding their biological activities, although their data, especially from the flexible portions such as surface regions, are unavailable from X-ray diffraction or cryoelectron microscope at low temperature. In contrast, high-resolution solid-state NMR spectroscopy has proved to be a very convenient alternative means to be able to reveal their dynamic structures. To clarify this problem, we describe here how we are able to reveal such structures and dynamic features, based on intrinsic probes from high-resolution solid-state NMR studies on bacteriorhodopsin (bR) as a typical membrane protein in 2D crystal, regenerated preparation in lipid bilayer and detergents. It turned out that their dynamic features are substantially altered upon their environments where bR is present. We further review NMR applications to study structure and dynamics of a variety of membrane proteins, including sensory rhodopsin, rhodopsin, photoreaction centers, diacylglycerol kinases, etc.