Ligand-directed dibromophenyl benzoate chemistry for rapid and selective acylation of intracellular natural proteins

A rapid and selective ligand-directed chemical reaction was developed for the acylation of proteins in living cells on the basis of ligand-directed chemistry. By fine tuning the reactivity and stability of the phenyl ester derivatives, we successfully identified ortho-dibromophenyl benzoate as the optimal reactive motif. It was sufficiently stable in an aqueous buffer, hydrolyzing less than 10% after 13 h of incubation, but reactive enough for efficient and selective protein labeling in living mammalian cells, as well as in vitro (referred to as ligand-directed dibromophenyl benzoate (LDBB) chemistry). Using this chemistry, various fluorophores can be tethered to the target protein directly, which allows fluorescence visualization of the labeled protein in live cells using different colored fluorophore groups (including coumarin, fluorescein and rhodamine). Furthermore, this labeling is applicable to not only an overexpressed protein (E. coli dihydrofolate reductase) but also endogenous human carbonic anhydrase II and XII under living cell conditions. LDBB chemistry is a new entry of ligand-directed protein labeling methods, and should be particularly useful for the imaging of natural proteins in living cells

Ligand–receptor interactions in plant hormone signaling

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Specific Cell Surface Protein Imaging by Extended Self-Assembling Fluorescent Turn-on Nanoprobes

Visualization of tumor-specific protein biomarkers on cell membranes has the potential to contribute greatly to basic biological research and therapeutic applications. We recently reported a unique supramolecular strategy for specific protein detection using self-assembling fluorescent nanoprobes consisting of a hydrophilic protein ligand and a hydrophobic BODIPY fluorophore in test tube settings. This method is based on recognition-driven disassembly of the nanoprobes, which induces a clear turn-on fluorescent signal. In the present study, we have successfully extended the range of applicable fluorophores to the more hydrophilic ones such as fluorescein or rhodamine by introducing a hydrophobic module near the fluorophore. Increasing the range of available fluorophores allowed selective imaging of membrane-bound proteins under live cell conditions. That is, overexpressed folate receptor (FR) or hypoxia-inducible membrane-bound carbonic anhydrases (CA) on live cell surfaces as cancer-specific biomarkers were fluorescently visualized using the designed supramolecular nanoprobes in the turn-on manner. Moreover, a cell-based inhibitor-assay platform for CA on a live cell surface was constructed, highlighting the potential applicability of the self-assembling turn-on probes

Intracellular Protein-Responsive Supramolecules: Protein Sensing and In-Cell Construction of Inhibitor Assay System

Supramolecular nanomaterials responsive to specific intracellular proteins should be greatly promising for protein sensing and imaging, controlled drug release or dynamic regulation of cellular processes. However, valid design strategies to create useful probes are poorly developed, particularly for proteins inside living cells as targets. We recently reported a unique supramolecular strategy for specific protein detection using self-assembling fluorescent probes consisting of a protein ligand and a fluorophore on the live cell surface, as well as in test tube settings. Herein, we discovered that our self-assembled supramolecular probes having a rhodamine derivative (tetramethylrhodamine or rhodamine-green) can incorporate and stay as less-fluorescent aggregates inside the living cells, so as to sense the protein activity in a reversible manner. Using the overexpressed model protein (dihydrofolate reductase), we demonstrated that this turn-on/off mode is controlled by selective ligand–protein recognition inside the live cells. Not only such a model protein, but also endogenous human carbonic anhydrase and heat shock protein 90 were specifically visualized in living mammalian cells, by use of the similar ligand-tethered supramolecular probes. Furthermore, such reversibility allowed us to intracellularly construct a unique system to evaluate the inhibitors affinity toward specific endogenous proteins in live cells, highlighting the potential of dynamic supramolecules as novel intelligent biomaterials

Analysis of Cell-Surface Receptor Dynamics through Covalent Labeling by Catalyst-Tethered Antibody

A general technique for introducing biophysical probes into selected receptors in their native environment is valuable for the study of their structure, dynamics, function, and molecular interactions. A number of such techniques rely on genetic engineering, which is not applicable for the study of endogenous proteins, and such approaches often suffer from artifacts due to the overexpression and bulky size of the probes/protein tags used. Here we designed novel catalyst-antibody conjugates capable of introducing small chemical probes into receptor proteins such as epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) and human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) in a selective manner on the surface of living cells. Because of the selectivity and efficiency of this labeling technique, we were able to monitor the cellular dynamics and lifetime of HER2 endogenously expressed on cancer cells. More significantly, the current labeling technique comprises a stable covalent bond, which combined with a peptide mass fingerprinting analysis allowed epitope mapping of antibodies on living cells and identification of potential binding sites of anti-EGFR affibody. Although as yet unreported in the literature, the binding sites predicted by our labeling method were consistently supported by the subsequent mutation and binding assay experiments. In addition, this covalent labeling method provided experimental evidence that HER2 exhibits a more dynamic structure than expected on the basis of crystallographic analysis alone. Our novel catalyst-antibody conjugates are expected to provide a general tool for investigating the protein trafficking, fluctuation, and molecular interactions of an important class of cell-surface receptors on live cell surfaces