Name: cell-free production of proteoliposomes for functional analysis and antibody development targeting membrane proteins
Uploaded: 2020-09-22T15:00:00
Description: Watch this Scientific Journal Video about Cell-Free Production of Proteoliposomes for Functional Analysis and Antibody Development Targeting Membrane Proteins at JoVE.com

This research was supported by Platform Project for Supporting Drug Discovery and Life Science Research (Basis for Supporting Innovative Drug Discovery and Life Science Research (BINDS)) from AMED under Grant Number JP20am0101077. This work was also partially supported by JSPS KAKENHI Grant Number 20K05709.

1. Preparation of pEU expression plasmid
NOTE: pEU expression plasmid should include start codon, open reading frame of target membrane protein, and stop codon in the fragment (see Figure 1). Add detection/purification tag sequence(s) at the appropriate position when required. Either restriction enzyme digestion or seamless cloning is applicable for subcloning. Here we describe a protocol using a seamless cloning method.
<ol>
	<li>Prepare insert DNA fragment.
	<...

The presented protocol provides a method of producing membrane proteins at a high success rate. This protocol is simple, highly reproducible, and easy to scale up. It also has the potential to reduce the time and cost of experiments that consume a large amount of membrane proteins. The bilayer-dialysis method improves the productivity by 4&#8211;10 times compared with bilayer method or dialysis method (Figure 2B)45. In an extreme case, the yield of an ion channel and ...

Membrane proteins are one of the most important drug targets in diagnosis and therapeutics. Indeed, half of small compound drugs target are membrane proteins, such as G-protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) and ion channels1. Over the years, researchers have been working on biochemical, biophysical, and structural studies of membrane proteins to elucidate their structure and function2,3. Development of monoclonal antibodies against membrane proteins is also performed actively in order to accelerate functional and structural studies and to develop therapeutic and diagnostic applications4,5,6,7,8,9. All these studies require a large amount of high quality membrane proteins10. For example, several milligrams of purified membrane proteins with natural conformation are needed for antibody development. A much larger quantity of highly purified membrane proteins are required for X-ray crystallography. However, mass production of membrane proteins remains a bottleneck in membrane protein research11. Membrane proteins have complicated structures with one or more transmembrane helices and play important roles in cell homeostasis. Heterologous overexpression of membrane proteins leads to multiple obstacles such as aggregation of membrane proteins that accumulate at high local concentrations or disturbance of cellular signal pathways. Even if the expression is successful, subsequent steps of sample preparation also face difficulty. For instance, preparation of proteoliposome, requires high-level skills and professional experiences in solubilization, purification, and stabilization of membrane proteins, and costs much effort and time as well12,13.
On the other hand, some advanced technologies have emerged in recent decades to produce proteins without the use of living cells14,15,16,17,18. Cell-free protein synthesis technology reconstitutes translation reaction in a test tube. Since there are no limitations that the cellular expression system has, cell-free systems have potential to synthesize a variety of proteins that are difficult to express or show toxicity in cells. Purified cell extract or reconstituted translational machinery is mixed with template mRNAs, amino acids, and energy sources, and recombinant proteins are synthesized in a short time. Regarding the membrane protein synthesis, some kinds of scaffolds composed of lipids or amphiphiles, such as liposomes, bicelles, nanodiscs, or copolymers are added to the cell-free reaction19,20,21,22,23,24. Synthesized membrane proteins interact with the scaffolds and can be stabilized in water. Cell-free synthesized membrane proteins are used widely in functional studies and antibody production25,26,27,28,29,30,31.
In this protocol, we describe an efficient cell-free method of proteoliposome production using wheat cell-free system and liposomes. Wheat cell-free protein synthesis system is a powerful in vitro translation system using extract from wheat germ15,32,33. Wheat germ contains a large amount of translational machinery and few translation inhibitors. The translational machinery in wheat, a member of eukaryotes, is suitable for translating eukaryotic proteins, and its translation efficiency is hardly affected by codon usage of the template mRNA. Using wheat cell-free system, we have synthesized a variety of proteins including protein kinases34,35, ubiquitin ligases36, transcription factors37, and membrane proteins with high success rates. For membrane protein production, we add lipid vesicle liposome into the translation mixture as scaffold19,38. Hydrophobic domains of membrane protein interact with lipid bilayer and are spontaneously integrated with liposome. Density gradient centrifugation is used to strictly separate proteoliposome from endogenous wheat proteins, even though a common centrifugation of the translation reaction mixture is sufficient for a simple purification of proteoliposome20. Many kinds of integral membrane proteins have been synthesized using wheat cell-free system and applied for various researches and developments25,38,39,40,41,42,43,44. Moreover, we developed the &#8220;bilayer-dialysis method&#8221; for large scale production45,46. In this method, cup-type dialysis device is immersed in the substrate feeding buffer, and two layers of translation reaction mixture and substrate feeding buffer are formed in the cup as shown in Figure 1. Continuous supply of substrates and removal of the byproduct can be efficiently conducted at both the top and the bottom of the reaction mixture for a long time, which leads to excellent translation efficacy (Figure 2A and Figure 2B)45.

<table>
	<tbody>
		<tr>
			<td>&#215;3 SDS-PAGE sample buffer</td>
			<td></td>
			<td></td>
			<td>Containing 10% 2-mercaptoethanol</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>5-20% gradient SDS-PAGE gel</td>
			<td>ATTO</td>
			<td>E-D520L</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>70% ethanol</td>
			<td></td>
			<td></td>
			<td>Diluted ethanol by ultrapure water.</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Agarose</td>
			<td>Takara Bio</td>
			<td></td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Ammonium acetate</td>
			<td>Nakalai tesque</td>
			<td>02406-95</td>
			<td>As this reagent is deliquescent, dissolve all of it in water once opened and store it at -30&#176;C.</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Ampicillin Sodium</td>
			<td>Nakalai tesque</td>
			<td>02739-74</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Asolectin Liposome, lyophilized</td>
			<td>CellFree Sciences</td>
			<td>CFS-PLE-ASL</td>
			<td>A vial contains 10 mg of lyophilized liposomes.</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>BSA standard</td>
			<td></td>
			<td></td>
			<td>1000 ng, 500 ng, 250 ng, 125 ng BSA / 10 &#181;L &#215;1 SDS-PAGE sample buffer</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>CBB gel stain</td>
			<td></td>
			<td></td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>cDNA clone of interest</td>
			<td></td>
			<td></td>
			<td>Plasmid harboring cDNA clone or synthetic DNA fragment</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Chloroform</td>
			<td>Nakalai tesque</td>
			<td>08402-84</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Cooled incubator</td>
			<td></td>
			<td></td>
			<td>Temperature ranging from 0 to 40 &#176;C or wider.</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Creatine kinase</td>
			<td>Roche Diagnostics</td>
			<td>04524977190</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Dialysis cup (0.1 mL)</td>
			<td>Thermo Fisher Scientific</td>
			<td>69570</td>
			<td>Slide-A-Lyzer MINI Dialysis Device, 10K MWCO, 0.1 mL</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Dialysis cup (2 mL)</td>
			<td>Thermo Fisher Scientific</td>
			<td>88404</td>
			<td>Slide-A-Lyzer MINI Dialysis Device, 10K MWCO, 2 mL</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>DNA ladder marker</td>
			<td>Thermo Fisher Scientific</td>
			<td>SM0311</td>
			<td>GeneRuler 1 kb DNA Ladder</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>DpnI</td>
			<td>Thermo Fisher Scientific</td>
			<td>FD1703</td>
			<td>FastDigest DpnI</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>E. coli strain JM109</td>
			<td></td>
			<td></td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Electrophoresis chamber</td>
			<td>ATTO</td>
			<td></td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Ethanol (99.5%)</td>
			<td>Nakalai tesque</td>
			<td>14713-95</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Ethidium bromide</td>
			<td></td>
			<td></td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Evaporation flask, 100 mL</td>
			<td></td>
			<td></td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Gel imager</td>
			<td></td>
			<td></td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Gel scanner</td>
			<td></td>
			<td></td>
			<td>We use document scanner and LED immuninator as a substitute.</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>LB broth</td>
			<td></td>
			<td></td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Lipids of interest</td>
			<td>Avanti Polar Lipids</td>
			<td></td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Micro centrifuge</td>
			<td>TOMY</td>
			<td>MX-307</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>NTP mix</td>
			<td>CellFree Sciences</td>
			<td>CFS-TSC-NTP</td>
			<td>Mixture of ATP, GTP, CTP, UTP, at 25 mM each</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Nuclease-free 25 mL tube</td>
			<td>IWAKI</td>
			<td>362-025-MYP</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Nucrease-free plastic tubes</td>
			<td>Watson bio labs</td>
			<td></td>
			<td>Do not autoclave. Use them separately from other experiments.</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Nucrease-free tips</td>
			<td>Watson bio labs</td>
			<td></td>
			<td>Do not autoclave. Use them separately from other experiments.</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>PBS buffer</td>
			<td></td>
			<td></td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>PCR purification kit</td>
			<td>MACHEREY-NAGEL</td>
			<td>740609</td>
			<td>NucleoSpin Gel and PCR Clean-up</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>pEU-E01-MCS vector</td>
			<td>CellFree Sciences</td>
			<td>CFS-11</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Phenol/chloroform/isoamyl alcohol (25:24:1)</td>
			<td>Nippon Gene</td>
			<td>311-90151</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Plasmid prep Midi kit</td>
			<td>MACHEREY-NAGEL</td>
			<td>740410</td>
			<td>NucleoBond Xtra Midi</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Primer 1</td>
			<td>Thermo Fisher Scientific</td>
			<td>Custom oligo synthesis</td>
			<td>5&#8217;-CCAAGATATCACTAGnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn-3&#8217; 
			Gene specific primer, forward. Upper case shows overlap sequence to be added for seamless cloning. Lower case nnnn&#8230;. (20-30 bp) shows gene specific sequence.</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Primer 2</td>
			<td>Thermo Fisher Scientific</td>
			<td>Custom oligo synthesis</td>
			<td>5&#39;-CCATGGGACGTCGACnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn-3&#8217; 
			Gene specific primer, reverse. Upper case shows overlap sequence to be added for seamless cloning. Lower case nnnn&#8230;. (20-30 bp) shows gene specific sequence.</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Primer 3</td>
			<td>Thermo Fisher Scientific</td>
			<td>Custom oligo synthesis</td>
			<td>5&#39;-GTCGACGTCCCATGGTTTTGTATAGAAT-3&#39; 
			Forward primer for vector linearization. Underline works as overlap in seamless cloning.</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Primer 4</td>
			<td>Thermo Fisher Scientific</td>
			<td>Custom oligo synthesis</td>
			<td>5&#39;-CTAGTGATATCTTGGTGATGTAGATAGGTG-3&#39; 
			Reverse primer for vector linearization. Underline works as overlap in seamless cloning.</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Primer 5</td>
			<td>Thermo Fisher Scientific</td>
			<td>Custom oligo synthesis</td>
			<td>5&#8217;-CAGTAAGCCAGATGCTACAC-3&#8217; 
			Sequencing primer, forward</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Primer 6</td>
			<td>Thermo Fisher Scientific</td>
			<td>Custom oligo synthesis</td>
			<td>5&#8217;- CCTGCGCTGGGAAGATAAAC-3&#8217; 
			Sequencing primer, reverse</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Protein size marker</td>
			<td>Bio-Rad</td>
			<td>1610394</td>
			<td>Precision Plus Protein Standard</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Rotary evaporator</td>
			<td></td>
			<td></td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>seamless cloning enzyme mixture</td>
			<td>New England BioLabs</td>
			<td>E2611L</td>
			<td>Gibson Assembly Master Mix 
			Other seamless cloning reagents are also avairable.</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>SP6 RNA Polymerase &#38; RNase Inhibitor</td>
			<td>CellFree Sciences</td>
			<td>CFS-TSC-ENZ</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Submarine Electrophoresis system</td>
			<td></td>
			<td></td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>TAE buffer</td>
			<td></td>
			<td></td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Transcription Buffer LM</td>
			<td>CellFree Sciences</td>
			<td>CFS-TSC-5TB-LM</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Translation buffer</td>
			<td>CellFree Sciences</td>
			<td>CFS-SUB-SGC</td>
			<td>SUB-AMIX SGC (&#215;40) stock solution (S1, S2, S3, S4). 
			Prepare &#215;1 translation buffer before use by mixing stock S1, S2, S3, S4 stock and ultrapure water.</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Ultrapure water</td>
			<td></td>
			<td></td>
			<td>We recommend to prepare ultrapure water by using ultrapure water production system every time you do experiment. Do not autoclave. 
			We preparaed ultrapure water by using Milli-Q Reference and Elix10 system. 
			Commercially available nuclease-free water (not DEPC-treated water) can be used as a substitute. Take care of contamination after open the bottle.</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Ultrasonic homogenizer</td>
			<td>Branson</td>
			<td>SONIFIER model 450D-Advanced</td>
			<td>Ultrasonic cleaner can be used as a substitute.</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>UV transilluminator</td>
			<td></td>
			<td></td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Vacuum desiccator</td>
			<td></td>
			<td></td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Wheat germ extract</td>
			<td>CellFree Sciences</td>
			<td>CFS-WGE-7240</td>
			<td>WEPRO7240</td>
		</tr>
	</tbody>
</table>

cell-free production of proteoliposomes for functional analysis and antibody development targeting membrane proteins

Membrane proteins play essential roles in a variety of cellular processes and perform vital functions. Membrane proteins are medically important in drug discovery because they are the targets of more than half of all drugs. An obstacle to conducting biochemical, biophysical, and structural studies of membrane proteins as well as antibody development has been the difficulty in producing large amounts of high-quality membrane protein with correct conformation and activity. Here we describe a &#8220;bilayer-dialysis method&#8221; using a wheat germ cell-free system, liposomes, and dialysis cups to efficiently synthesize membrane proteins and prepare purified proteoliposomes in a short time with a high success rate. Membrane proteins can be produced as much as in several milligrams, such as GPCRs, ion channels, transporters, and tetraspanins. This cell-free method contributes to reducing the time, cost and effort for preparing high-quality proteoliposomes, and provides suitable means for functional analysis of membrane proteins, drug targets screening, and antibody development.

Using this protocol, partially purified proteoliposomes can be obtained in a short time. Representative results are shown in Figure 2A. Twenty five GPCRs of Class A, B, and C were successfully synthesized using the bilayer-dialysis method (small scale) and partially purified by centrifugation and buffer wash. Although the amount of synthesized proteins varies according to the type of protein, 50 to 400 &#181;g of membrane proteins usually can be synthesized per reaction when large dialysis c...

Watch this Scientific Journal Video about Cell-Free Production of Proteoliposomes for Functional Analysis and Antibody Development Targeting Membrane Proteins at JoVE.com

Cell-Free Production of Proteoliposomes for Functional Analysis and Antibody Development Targeting Membrane Proteins

This protocol describes an efficient cell-free method for production of high-quality proteoliposome by bilayer-dialysis method using wheat cell-free system and liposomes. This method provides suitable means for functional analysis of membrane proteins, drug targets screening, and antibody development.

Membrane proteins play essential roles in a variety of cellular processes and perform vital functions. Membrane proteins are medically important in drug ...

All the membrane proteins are important targets in drug discovery. The largest scale production of membrane proteins remains a bottleneck to conducting biochemical, biophysical, and structural membrane protein studies. This method can be used to efficiently synthesize membrane proteins in-vitro and to prepare purified proteoliposomes in a short time with a high success rate.After adding the appropriate reagents, including the cell-free expression plasmid to generate a transcription reaction mixture, mix the tube contents by gentle inversion or tapping and perform a quick spin in a microcentrifuge. After the spin, incubate the transcription reaction mixture for six hours at 37 degrees Celsius followed by mixing and a spin down step. To prepare the translation buffer, dilute the stock solution by fresh ultrapure water.For small scale translation, use 100 microliter dialysis cups washed with ultrapure water to remove the glycerol from the dialysis membrane. Add one milliliter of ultrapure water to a new 1.5 milliliter tube and insert a small scale dialysis cup into the tube. Then add 500 microliters of ultrapure water to the cup for a 30-minute incubation at room temperature.To prepare liposomes, transfer a lipid solution containing 50 milligrams of lipids to an evaporation flask. Place the flask in a rotary evaporator to evaporate the solvent. When a thin, evenly spread layer of lipid has been generated on the surface of the flask bottom, transfer the flask to a vacuum desiccator under negative pressure overnight to remove the solvent completely.The next morning, remove the flasks from the desiccator and check the thin film of lipids. Add one milliliter of translation buffer to the flask and rotate the flask to spread the buffer over the thin lipid film. After five minutes, sonicate the flask changing the angle occasionally to allow the solution to contact the entire lipid film surface.Stop sonication when the lipid is completely stripped from the flask and the liposome suspension becomes uniform. Then transfer the liposome suspension to a new 1.5 milliliter tube. Before performing an in-vitro protein translation, float a tube of wheat germ extract from minus 80 degrees storage on water at room temperature for a few minutes to quickly thaw the material.Upon thawing the extract, immediately mix the tube contents by gentle inversion. Then spin down and place the tube on ice. Add the wheat germ extract mRNA and liposomes to generate a translation reaction mixture.Mix the tube contents by gentle inversion or tapping and perform a quick spin in a microcentrifuge. To conduct a small scale in-vitro protein translation, remove the water from the small scale dialysis cup and tube and add one milliliter of translation buffer to the tube and 300 microliters to the cup. Take 60 microliters of translation reaction mixture.Insert the pipette tip into the translation buffer in the dialysis cup. Then inject the mixture slowly and gently. The reaction mixture with higher density spontaneously sinks to the bottom of the cup and forms a layer.Cover the cup with a lid to prevent evaporation. To conduct a large scale translation, add 22 milliliters of translation buffer to a 25 milliliter tube and place a two milliliter dialysis cup into the tube. Add two milliliters of translation buffer to the dialysis cup.Take 500 microliters of the translation reaction mixture, slowly and gently inject the mixture into the translation buffer in the cup. Incubate the reactions for 24 hours at 15 degrees Celsius. The next day thoroughly mix the reaction in the dialysis cup by pipetting and transfer the crude proteoliposome suspensions to new tubes.To purify the proteoliposomes, sediment the proteoliposome in the crude suspensions by centrification. Then wash the proteoliposome by resuspending in the appropriate volume of ice cold PBS buffer three times. After washing, thoroughly resuspend the proteoliposome pellets in a small volume of PBS and measure the suspension volume by using a micropipette.Then add PBS to adjust the volume of suspension. Transfer each suspension into a new micro tube. To set up an SDS page analysis, add 70 microliters of water and 40 microliters of three time concentrated SDS page sample buffer to 10 microliters of each proteoliposome suspension.Set up a five to 20%gradient SDS page gel in an electrophoresis chamber. Load the gel with two microliters of the protein size marker three, six, and 12 microliters of each proteoliposome sample and 10 microliters of bovine serum albumin standards. After loading samples, run the electrophoresis followed by staining the gel with Coomassie Brilliant Blue dye.Finally, decolorize the gel in hot water with gentle shaking and scan the gel image. Using this protocol as demonstrated, a variety of membrane proteins with three or more transmembrane helices can be easily produced as proteoliposomes in a short time. In this bilayer dialysis method, a continuous supply of substrates and the removal of the byproduct can be efficiently conducted at both the top and bottom of the reaction mixture over a long period of time, leading to an excellent translation efficacy.The bilayer dialysis method results in a four to 10 times increase in the productivity compared to using the bilayer or dialysis methods alone. Collection of the synthesized proteoliposomes by centrification and their partially purification with a washing buffer greatly shortens the purification process of the membrane proteins. This cell-free system is easy to manipulate and highly scalable.It can also be used to produce memory proteins that are difficult to express using other methods. This method is extremely helpful for investigations and experiments that use or target membrane proteins such as antimembrane protein, antibody production, SPR, Elisa, and AlphaScreen.

cell-free-production-proteoliposomes-for-functional-analysis-antibody

Research

JoVE Journal

Biochemistry

Bacterial Inner-membrane Display for Screening a Library of Antibody Fragments

Antibodies engineered for intracellular function must not only have affinity for their target antigen, but must also be soluble and correctly folded in the cytoplasm. Commonly used methods for the display and screening of recombinant antibody libraries do not incorporate intracellular protein folding quality control, and, thus, the antigen-binding capability and cytoplasmic folding and solubility of antibodies engineered using these methods often must be engineered separately. Here, we describe a protocol to screen a recombinant library of single-chain variable fragment (scFv) antibodies for antigen-binding and proper cytoplasmic folding simultaneously. The method harnesses the intrinsic intracellular folding quality control mechanism of the Escherichia coli twin-arginine translocation (Tat) pathway to display an scFv library on the E. coli inner membrane. The Tat pathway ensures that only soluble, well-folded proteins are transported out of the cytoplasm and displayed on the inner membrane, thereby eliminating poorly folded scFvs prior to interrogation for antigen-binding. Following removal of the outer membrane, the scFvs displayed on the inner membrane are panned against a target antigen immobilized on magnetic beads to isolate scFvs that bind to the target antigen. An enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA)-based secondary screen is used to identify the most promising scFvs for additional characterization. Antigen-binding and cytoplasmic solubility can be improved with subsequent rounds of mutagenesis and screening to engineer antibodies with high affinity and high cytoplasmic solubility for intracellular applications.

We provide a method to simultaneously screen a library of antibody fragments for binding affinity and cytoplasmic solubility by using the Escherichia coli twin-arginine translocation pathway, which has an inherent quality control mechanism for intracellular protein folding, to display the antibody fragments on the inner membrane.

Antibodies engineered for intracellular function must not only have affinity for their target antigen, but must also be soluble and correctly folded in ...

Laboratory Scale Production and Purification of a Therapeutic Antibody

Ensuring the successful production of a therapeutic antibody begins early on in the development process. The first stage is vector expression of the antibody genes followed by stable transfection into a suitable cell line. The stable clones are subjected to screening in order to select those clones with desired production and growth characteristics. This is a critical albeit time-consuming step in the process. This protocol considers vector selection and sourcing of antibody sequences for the expression of a therapeutic antibody. The methods describe preparation of vector DNA for stable transfection of a suspension variant of human embryonic kidney 293 (HEK-293) cell line, using polyethylenimine (PEI). The cells are transfected as adherent cells in serum-containing media to maximize transfection efficiency, and afterwards adapted to serum-free conditions. Large scale production, setup as batch overgrow cultures is used to yield antibody protein that is purified by affinity chromatography using an automated fast protein liquid chromatography (FPLC) instrument. The antibody yields produced by this method can provide sufficient protein to begin initial characterization of the antibody. This may include in vitro assay development or physicochemical characterization to aid in the time-consuming task of clonal screening for lead candidates. This method can be transferable to the development of an expression system for the production of biosimilar antibodies.

This protocol describes the production of a therapeutic antibody in a mammalian expression system. The methods described include preparation of vector DNA, stable transfection and serum-free adaptation of a human embryonic kidney 293 cell line, set up of large scale cultures and purification using affinity chromatography.

Ensuring the successful production of a therapeutic antibody begins early on in the development process. The first stage is vector expression of the ...

Analysis of Histone Antibody Specificity with Peptide Microarrays

Post-translational modifications (PTMs) on histone proteins are widely studied for their roles in regulating chromatin structure and gene expression. The mass production and distribution of antibodies specific to histone PTMs has greatly facilitated research on these marks. As histone PTM antibodies are key reagents for many chromatin biochemistry applications, rigorous analysis of antibody specificity is necessary for accurate data interpretation and continued progress in the field. This protocol describes an integrated pipeline for the design, fabrication and use of peptide microarrays for profiling the specificity of histone antibodies. The design and analysis aspects of this procedure are facilitated by ArrayNinja, an open-source and interactive software package we recently developed to streamline the customization of microarray print formats. This pipeline has been used to screen a large number of commercially available and widely used histone PTM antibodies, and data generated from these experiments are freely available through an online and expanding Histone Antibody Specificity Database. Beyond histones, the general methodology described herein can be applied broadly to the analysis of PTM-specific antibodies.

This manuscript describes methods for applying peptide microarray technology to specificity profiling of antibodies that recognize histones and their post-translational modifications.

Post-translational modifications (PTMs) on histone proteins are widely studied for their roles in regulating chromatin structure and gene expression. The ...

Detergent-free Ultrafast Reconstitution of Membrane Proteins into Lipid Bilayers Using Fusogenic Complementary-charged Proteoliposomes.

Detergents are indispensable for delivery of membrane proteins into 30-100 nm small unilamellar vesicles, while more complex, larger model lipid bilayers are less compatible with detergents.
Here we describe a strategy for bypassing this fundamental limitation using fusogenic oppositely charged liposomes bearing a membrane protein of interest. Fusion between such vesicles occurs within 5 min in a low ionic strength buffer. Positively charged fusogenic liposomes can be used as simple shuttle vectors for detergent-free delivery of membrane proteins into biomimetic target lipid bilayers, which are negatively charged. We also show how to reconstitute membrane proteins into fusogenic proteoliposomes with a fast 30-min protocol.
Combining these two approaches, we demonstrate a fast assembly of an electron transport chain consisting of two membrane proteins from E. coli, a primary proton pump bo3-oxidase and F1Fo ATP synthase, in membranes of vesicles of various sizes, ranging from 0.1 to &#62;10 microns, as well as ATP production by this chain.

Here we present two ultrafast protocols for reconstitution of membrane proteins into fusogenic proteoliposomes, and fusion of such proteoliposomes with target lipid bilayers for detergent-free delivery of these membrane proteins into the postfusion bilayer. The combination of these approaches enables fast and easily controlled assembly of complex multi-component membrane systems.

Detergents are indispensable for delivery of membrane proteins into 30-100 nm small unilamellar vesicles, while more complex, larger model lipid bilayers ...

Capture and Identification of RNA-binding Proteins by Using Click Chemistry-assisted RNA-interactome Capture (CARIC) Strategy

A comprehensive identification of RNA-binding proteins (RBPs) is key to understanding the posttranscriptional regulatory network in cells. A widely used strategy for RBP capture exploits the polyadenylation [poly(A)] of target RNAs, which mostly occurs on eukaryotic mature mRNAs, leaving most binding proteins of non-poly(A) RNAs unidentified. Here we describe the detailed procedures of a recently reported method termed click chemistry-assisted RNA-interactome capture (CARIC), which enables the transcriptome-wide capture of both poly(A) and non-poly(A) RBPs by combining the metabolic labeling of RNAs, in vivo UV cross-linking, and bioorthogonal tagging.

Capture and Identification of RNA-binding Proteins by Using Click Chemistry-assisted RNA-interactome Capture CARIC Strategy

A detailed protocol for applying the click chemistry-assisted RNA-interactome capture (CARIC) strategy to identify proteins binding to both coding and noncoding RNAs is presented.

A comprehensive identification of RNA-binding proteins (RBPs) is key to understanding the posttranscriptional regulatory network in cells. A widely used ...

A Fluorescence Fluctuation Spectroscopy Assay of Protein-Protein Interactions at Cell-Cell Contacts

A variety of biological processes involves cell-cell interactions, typically mediated by proteins that interact at the interface between neighboring cells. Of interest, only few assays are capable of specifically probing such interactions directly in living cells. Here, we present an assay to measure the binding of proteins expressed at the surfaces of neighboring cells, at cell-cell contacts. This assay consists of two steps: mixing of cells expressing the proteins of interest fused to different fluorescent proteins, followed by fluorescence fluctuation spectroscopy measurements at cell-cell contacts using a confocal laser scanning microscope. We demonstrate the feasibility of this assay in a biologically relevant context by measuring the interactions of the amyloid precursor-like protein 1 (APLP1) across cell-cell junctions. We provide detailed protocols on the data acquisition using fluorescence-based techniques (scanning fluorescence cross-correlation spectroscopy, cross-correlation number and brightness analysis) and the required instrument calibrations. Further, we discuss critical steps in the data analysis and how to identify and correct external, spurious signal variations, such as those due to photobleaching or cell movement.
In general, the presented assay is applicable to any homo- or heterotypic protein-protein interaction at cell-cell contacts, between cells of the same or different types and can be implemented on a commercial confocal laser scanning microscope. An important requirement is the stability of the system, which needs to be sufficient to probe diffusive dynamics of the proteins of interest over several minutes.

This protocol describes a fluorescence fluctuation spectroscopy-based approach to investigate interactions among proteins mediating cell-cell interactions, i.e. proteins localized in cell junctions, directly in living cells. We provide detailed guidelines on instrument calibration, data acquisition and analysis, including corrections to possible artefact sources.

A variety of biological processes involves cell-cell interactions, typically mediated by proteins that interact at the interface between neighboring ...

Fluorescent Silver Staining of Proteins in Polyacrylamide Gels

Silver staining is a colorimetric technique widely used to visualize protein bands in polyacrylamide gels following sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE). The classic silver stains have certain drawbacks, such as high background staining, poor protein recovery, low reproducibility, a narrow linear dynamic range for quantification, and limited compatibility with mass spectrometry (MS). Now, with the use of a fluorogenic Ag+ probe, TPE-4TA, we developed a fluorescent silver staining method for the total protein visualization in polyacrylamide gels. This new stain avoids the troublesome silver reduction step in traditional silver stains. Moreover, the fluorescent silver stain demonstrates good reproducibility, sensitivity, and linear quantification in protein detection, making it a useful and practical protein gel stain.

Here, we describe a detailed protocol outlining a new fluorescent staining technique for total protein detection in polyacrylamide gels. The protocol utilizes a silver ion-specific fluorescence turn-on probe, which detects Ag+-protein complexes, and eliminates certain limitations of traditional chromogenic silver stains.

Silver staining is a colorimetric technique widely used to visualize protein bands in polyacrylamide gels following sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide ...

Identification of Functional Protein Regions Through Chimeric Protein Construction

The goal of this protocol encompasses the design of chimeric proteins in which distinct regions of a protein are replaced by their corresponding sequences in a structurally similar protein, in order to determine the functional importance of these regions. Such chimeras are generated by means of a nested PCR protocol using overlapping DNA fragments and adequately designed primers, followed by their expression within a mammalian system to ensure native secondary structure and post-translational modifications. 
The functional role of a distinct region is then indicated by a loss of activity of the chimera in an appropriate readout assay. In consequence, regions harboring a set of critical amino acids are identified, which can be further screened by complementary techniques (e.g. site-directed mutagenesis) to increase molecular resolution. Although limited to cases in which a structurally related protein with differing functions can be found, chimeric proteins have been successfully employed to identify critical binding regions in proteins such as cytokines and cytokine receptors. This method is particularly suitable in cases in which the protein's functional regions are not well defined, and constitutes a valuable first step in directed evolution approaches to narrow down the regions of interest and reduce the screening effort involved.

Structurally related proteins frequently exert distinct biological functions. The exchange of equivalent regions of these proteins in order to create chimeric proteins constitutes an innovative approach to identify critical protein regions that are responsible for their functional divergence.

The goal of this protocol encompasses the design of chimeric proteins in which distinct regions of a protein are replaced by their corresponding sequences ...

Characterization of Membrane Transporters by Heterologous Expression in E. coli and Production of Membrane Vesicles

Several methods have been developed to functionally characterize novel membrane transporters. Polyamines are ubiquitous in all organisms, but polyamine exchangers in plants have not been identified. Here, we outline a method to characterize polyamine antiporters using membrane vesicles generated from the lysis of Escherichia coli cells heterologously expressing a plant antiporter. First, we heterologously expressed AtBAT1 in an E. coli strain deficient in polyamine and arginine exchange transporters. Vesicles were produced using a French press, purified by ultracentrifugation and utilized in a membrane filtration assay of labeled substrates to demonstrate the substrate specificity of the transporter. These assays demonstrated that AtBAT1 is a proton-mediated transporter of arginine, &#947;-aminobutyric acid (GABA), putrescine and spermidine. The mutant strain that was developed for the assay of AtBAT1 may be useful for the functional analysis of other families of plant and animal polyamine exchangers. We also hypothesize that this approach can be used to characterize many other types of antiporters, as long as these proteins can be expressed in the bacterial cell membrane. E. coli is a good system for the characterization of novel transporters, since there are multiple methods that can be employed to mutagenize native transporters.

Characterization of Membrane Transporters by Heterologous Expression in E. coli and Production of Membrane Vesicles

We describe a method for the characterization of proton-driven membrane transporters in membrane vesicle preparations produced by heterologous expression in E. coli and lysis of cells using a French press.

Several methods have been developed to functionally characterize novel membrane transporters. Polyamines are ubiquitous in all organisms, but polyamine ...

Native Cell Membrane Nanoparticles System for Membrane Protein-Protein Interaction Analysis

Protein-protein interactions in cell membrane systems play crucial roles in a wide range of biological processes- from cell-to-cell interactions to signal transduction; from sensing environmental signals to biological response; from metabolic regulation to developmental control. Accurate structural information of protein-protein interactions is crucial for understanding the molecular mechanisms of membrane protein complexes and for the design of highly specific molecules to modulate these proteins. Many in vivo and in vitro approaches have been developed for the detection and analysis of protein-protein interactions. Among them the structural biology approach is unique in that it can provide direct structural information of protein-protein interactions at the atomic level. However, current membrane protein structural biology is still largely limited to detergent-based methods. The major drawback of detergent-based methods is that they often dissociate or denature membrane protein complexes once their native lipid bilayer environment is removed by detergent molecules. We have been developing a&#160;native cell membrane nanoparticle system for membrane protein structural biology. Here, we demonstrate the use of this system in the analysis of protein-protein interactions on the cell membrane with a case study of the oligomeric state of AcrB.

Presented here is a protocol for the determination of oligomeric state of membrane proteins that utilizes a native cell membrane nanoparticle system in conjunction with electron microscopy.

Protein-protein interactions in cell membrane systems play crucial roles in a wide range of biological processes- from cell-to-cell interactions to signal ...