Aptamers as detection molecules on reverse phase protein microarrays for the analysis of cell lysates

This study presents and discusses the application of Cy3‐labeled aptamers (where Cy3 is indocarbocyanine) directed against the his‐tag (where his is histidine) for the detection of his‐tagged proteins on microarrays in a so‐called reverse phase assay. These types of assays are widely used tools in protein microarray technology. Up to now antibodies are usually applied as detection molecules. Here, two different spotting techniques, contact and noncontact spotting, as well as different types of slides, aldehyde‐modified glass slides and nitrocellulose membrane coated slides, were examined and compared. Through this study, we validated the importance of a high protein‐binding capacity of the microarray, and the labeling position of the fluorophore within the aptamer. Purified his‐tagged PFEI (Pseudomonas fluorescence esterase I) was used as a model system. Concentrations of PFEI‐his as low as 30 nM were detectable. These results demonstrate the applicability of aptamers as stable detection molecules in protein assays. Additionally, the reverse phase assay was found to be suitable for the detection of PFEI‐his in cell lysates. This might be of further interest in monitoring of protein production and purification processes.     

Evaluation of protein kinase activities of cell lysates using peptide microarrays based on surface plasmon resonance imaging

We developed a peptide microarray based on surface plasmon resonance (SPR) imaging for monitoring protein kinase activities in cell lysates. The substrate peptides of kinases were tethered to the microarray surface modified with a self-assembled monolayer of an alkanethiol with triethylene glycol terminus to create a low nonspecific binding surface. The phosphorylation of the substrate peptides immobilized on the surface was detected with the following phosphate specific binders by amplifying SPR signals: anti-phosphotyrosine antibody for tyrosine kinases and Phos-tag biotin (a phosphate-specific ligand with biotin tag) for serine/threonine kinases. Using the microarray, 9 kinds of protein kinases were evaluated as a pattern of phosphorylation of 26 kinds of substrate peptides. The pattern was unique for each protein kinase. The microarray could be used to evaluate the inhibitory activities of kinase inhibitors. The microarray was applied successfully for kinase activity monitoring of cell lysates. The chemical stimuli responsive activity changes of protein kinases in cell lysates could also be monitored by the peptide microarray. Thus, the peptide microarray based on SPR imaging would be applicable to cell-based drug discovery, diagnosis using tissue lysates, and biochemical studies to reveal signal transduction pathways.     

Design of recombinant antibody microarrays for membrane protein profiling of cell lysates and tissue extracts

Generating global protein expression profiles, including also membrane proteins, will be crucial for our understanding of biological processes in health and disease. In this study, we have expanded our antibody microarray technology platform and designed the first human recombinant antibody microarray for membrane proteins targeting crude cell lysates and tissue extracts. We have optimized all key technological parameters and successfully developed a setup for extracting, labeling and analyzing non-fractionated membrane proteomes under non-denaturing conditions. Finally, the platform was also extended and shown to be compatible with simultaneous profiling of both membrane proteins and water-soluble proteins.     

Two dimensional liquid phase separations of proteins using online fractionation and concentration between chromatographic dimensions

Multi-dimensional liquid chromatography is often presented as an alternative to two-dimensional (2-D) gel electrophoresis for separating complex protein mixtures. The vast majority of analytical-scale 2-D LC systems have employed either off-line fractionation or stepped gradients in the first dimension separation. The latter severely restrict flexibility in setting up the first dimension gradient. We propose a novel two-dimensional LC system that employs online fractionation of proteins into a series of small reversed phase trapping columns. These traps effectively decouple the two separation dimensions and avoid problems associated with off-line fraction collection. Flexibility in determining the gradient programs for the two separations is thus enhanced. The reduced diameter of the trapping columns concentrates analyte between chromatographic dimensions. The apparatus is coupled with online electrospray time-of-flight mass spectrometry to characterize ribosomal proteins of Caulobacter crescentus.     

Proteome profile of human urine with two-dimensional liquid phase fractionation

Two-dimensional liquid chromatography separation (2-DL), based on chromatofocusing for first dimension and hydrophobicity for second, can be used as a complementary method to two-dimensional gel electrophoresis (2-DE). A platform now available, ProteomeLab PF 2D provided by Beckman Coulter, (Fullerton, CA, USA), assembles these methods in automation. This system was applied to resolve large numbers of urine proteins. Reproducibility and sensitivity in protein resolution were evaluated in this study using urines collected from male blood donors. About 1000 peaks were detected at a pH range of 4.0-8.5 by applying 1 mg of proteins. Furthermore, the same fractions showing peaks with high absorbance intensities in second dimension were collected and subjected to matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization-time of flight/mass spectrometry analysis for identification. The results showed that the 2-DL provides high reproducibility of two-dimensional protein map, and lends fractions to subsequent mass spectrometry analysis without the further need for extraction or solubilization of samples as required for spots excised from 2-DE gels. In addition, this system also allows to separate particularly proteins with 40-9 kDa molecular weight.     

PCR amplification of streptococcal DNA using crude cell lysates

Gram-positive organisms such as streptococci and enterococci are often difficult to lyse. Obtaining DNA for procedures such as PCR amplification usually requires a large scale isolation for each strain under investigation. We describe a simple procedure for small volumes of whole cells, involving pretreatment with detergent and proteinase that allows for efficient release of DNA for PCR amplification. This procedure is fast, reproducible, can be used with a large number of samples, and has been successfully applied to a variety of streptococcal and enterococcal strains.     

Protein fractionation using electrostatic interactions in membranel filtration

One of the critical factors limiting the development of membrane systems for protein fractionation has been the poor selectivity that has generally been obtained with these membrane devices. We have demonstrated that it is possible to dramatically improve the selectivity of available membrane systems by exploiting the different electrostatic interactions between the two proteins and the membrane. The separation factor for the albumin-hemoglobin system could be increased to more than 70 simply by reducing the salt concentration and adjusting the pH to around 7 (near the isoelectric point of hemoglobin). This very high selectivity was a direct result of the strong electrostatic exclusion of the charged albumin from the membrane pores under these conditions. This high selectivity makes it possible to very effectively separate these albumin-hemoglobin mixtures using membrane filtration, and this was demonstrated experimentally using both a simple batch filtration process and a continuous diafiltration system. The hemoglobin recovery in the diafiltration experiment was greater than 70% after a 3-diavolume filtration, with the Hb purification factor being around 100 under these conditions. These results clearly demonstrate the potential of membrane systems for the fractionation of proteins even with very similar molecular weights. (c) 1995 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

One-step fractionation of complex proteomes enables detection of low abundant analytes using antibody-based microarrays

Antibody-based microarray is a novel technology with great promise within high-throughput proteomics. The tremendous complexity of all proteomes will, however, pose major technological challenges, especially when targeting low-abundant analytes that remains to be resolved. In this paper, we have shown that antibody microarrays readily could be used for screening of low-abundant low molecular weight analytes in complex proteomes by optimizing the sample format. Focused antibody microarrays, based on human recombinant single-chain Fv anti-cytokine antibodies on Ni2+-NTA functionalized glass slides or black polymer Maxisorp substrates, and crude cell supernatants from activated dendritic cells, containing low levels of secreted cytokines, was used for evaluation. The proteome was pre-fractionated based on size in a simple one-step procedure using centrifugal filter devices of various molecular weight cutoffs. The results showed that the generation of a nondiluted low molecular weight (LMW) fraction, corresponding to less than 2% of the original protein content, was critical for the successful screening of cytokines in the sub pg/mL range. The reduced complexity of the LMW fraction significantly improved the assay sensitivity, by improving the fluorescent tagging step and/or reducing the nonspecific binding to the substrates.     

Protein arrays and microarrays

In the past, studies of protein activities have focused on studying a single protein at a time, which is often time-consuming and expensive. Recently, with the sequencing of entire genomes, large-scale proteome analysis has begun. Arrays of proteins have been used for the determination of subcellular localization, analysis of protein-protein interactions and biochemical analysis of protein function. New protein-microarray technologies have been introduced that enable the high-throughput analysis of protein activities. These have the potential to revolutionize the analysis of entire proteomes.     

Molecular and functional analysis using live cell microarrays

Understanding cellular behavior in both healthy and diseased states requires the ability to molecularly delineate the characteristics of individual cells from complex mixtures. The recent development of cellular microarrays allows such an undertaking. By immobilizing different cell capture and analysis reagents on a solid support, mixtures of cells can be rapidly interrogated for their composition and phenotype. Thus, one can identify and quantitate distinct cell types based on the expression of particular cell surface molecules, as well as analyze their response to defined signals through the secretion of specific factors or other measurable cellular activities. This review focuses on the use of cellular microarrays to detect antigen-specific T cells and their responsiveness, analyze cancer cell types and behavior and to investigate the control of stem cell differentiation.     

Protein microarrays and their applications

In recent years, the importance of proteomic works, such as protein expression, detection and identification, has grown in the fields of proteomic and diagnostic research. This is because complete genome sequences of humans, and other organisms, progress as cellular processing and controlling are performed by proteins as well as DNA or RNA. However, conventional protein analyses are time-consuming; therefore, high throughput protein analysis methods, which allow fast, direct and quantitative detection, are needed. These are so-called protein microarrays or protein chips, which have been developed to fulfill the need for high-throughput protein analyses. Although protein arrays are still in their infancy, technical development in immobilizing proteins in their native conformation on arrays, and the development of more sensitive detection methods, will facilitate the rapid deployment of protein arrays as high-throughput protein assay tools in proteomics and diagnostics. This review summarizes the basic technologies that are needed in the fabrication of protein arrays and their recent applications.     

Protein fractionation using fast flow immobilized metal chelate affinity membranes

A new group-specific affinity membrane using metal chelates as ligands and inorganic glass hollow fiber microfiltration membranes as support matrices is developed and tested. The study focused on developing the optimum activation and coupling procedures to bind the chelating agent (iminodiacetic acid, IDA) to the surface of the microporous glass hollow fiber membrane and testing the resultant affinity membrane. Starting with three different glass surfaces, five modification reactions were evaluated. All the modified "active surfaces" were first tested for their protein adsorptive properties in batch mode with suspended microporous glass grains using model proteins with known binding characteristics with Cu-IDA systems. The metal loading capacities of the surfaces exhibiting favorable fractionation were then measured by atomic absorption spectroscopy.The results were compared with the results obtained with a commercial material used in immobilized metal affinity column chromatography. The protein binding characteristics of the hollow fiber affinity membranes were also evaluated under conditions of convective flow. This was performed by flowing single solute protein solutions through the microporous membrane at different flow rates. These results were then used to estimate the optimum loading and elution times for the process. A mathematical model incorporating radial diffusion was solved using a finite difference discretization method. Comparison between model predictions and experimental results was performed for four different proteins at one flow rate. These results suggested that the kinetics of adsorption was concentration dependent. Finally, the hollow fiber affinity membranes were challenged with two component mixtures to test their ability to fractionate mixed protein solutions. Efficient separation and good purity were obtained.The results presented here represent the development of a new fast flow affinity membrane process-immobilized metal affinity membranes (IMAM). (c) 1994 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Simulation and visualization of flow pattern in microarrays for liquid phase oligonucleotide and peptide synthesis

Microfluidic microarrays have been developed for economical and rapid parallel synthesis of oligonucleotide and peptide libraries. For a synthesis system to be reproducible and uniform, it is crucial to have a uniform reagent delivery throughout the system. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) is used to model and simulate the microfluidic microarrays to study geometrical effects on flow patterns. By proper design geometry, flow uniformity could be obtained in every microreactor in the microarrays.     

Unveiling mRNP composition by fluorescence correlation and cross-correlation spectroscopy using cell lysates

Understanding the mRNA life cycle requires information about the dynamics and macromolecular composition and stoichiometry of mRNPs. Fluorescence correlation and cross-correlation spectroscopy (FCS and FCCS) are appealing technologies to study these macromolecular structures because they have single molecule sensitivity and readily provide information about their molecular composition and dynamics. Here, we demonstrate how FCS can be exploited to study cytoplasmic mRNPs with high accuracy and reproducibility in cell lysates. Cellular lysates not only recapitulate data from live cells but provide improved readings and allow investigation of single mRNP analysis under particular conditions or following enzymatic treatments. Moreover, FCCS employing minute amounts of cells closely corroborated previously reported RNA dependent interactions and provided estimates of the relative overlap between factors in the mRNPs, thus depicting their heterogeneity. The described lysate-based FCS and FCCS analysis may not only complement current biochemical approaches but also provide novel opportunities for the quantitative analysis of the molecular composition and dynamics of single mRNPs.     

Clinical and functional target validation using tissue and cell microarrays

Expression levels of thousands of genes or proteins can be readily determined using microarray techniques. However, this represents only the first step in understanding the biological and medical significance of these molecules. New high-throughput techniques, such as tissue and cell microarrays, will facilitate clinical and functional analysis of molecular targets.     

High resolution mapping of the cardiac transmural proteome using reverse phase protein microarrays

The expression level of proteins governing the electrical excitability of and conduction within ventricular myocardium are known to vary as a function of distance through the heart wall. The expression patterns of a subset of these proteins are altered in disease. Precise measurement of such patterns is therefore essential to understanding structure-function relationships within the heart in health and disease. Here, we report a new experimental approach using reverse-phase protein microarrays to map the left ventricular transmural proteome. This approach can yield submillimeter spatial resolution, and when coupled with the method of array microenvironment normalization, reduces nonbiological components of variability to ～10% of overall study variability. In addition, the experimental design provides sufficient statistical power to detect small, yet potentially biologically significant expression changes on the order of 1.1-fold. The usefulness of this technique is demonstrated by mapping the transmural expression of Serca2a in the left ventricle of 12 canine hearts, each in one of three states: normal, dyssynchronous heart failure, and dyssynchronous heart failure followed by cardiac resynchronization therapy. We confirm the existence of a 40% transmural gradient (epi>endo) of Serca2a, and demonstrate the ability of this technique to yield highly significant transmural expression differences within each individual heart.     

Facile generation of cell microarrays using vacuum degassing and coverslip sweeping

A simple method to generate cell microarrays with high-percentage well occupancy and well-defined cell confinement is presented. This method uses a synergistic combination of vacuum degassing and coverslip sweeping. The vacuum degassing step dislodges air bubbles from the microwells, which in turn enables the cells to enter the microwells, while the physical sweeping step using a glass coverslip removes the excess cells outside the microwells. This low-cost preparation method provides a simple solution to generating cell microarrays that can be performed in basic research laboratories and point-of-care settings for routine cell-based screening assays.