Versatile Strategy for Biochemical, Electrochemical and Immunoarray Detection of Protein Phosphorylations

Protein kinases catalyze the phosphorylation of cellular proteins involved in the regulation of many cellular processes and have emerged as promising targets for the treatment of several diseases. Conventional assays to monitor protein kinase activity are limited because they typically rely on transfer of radioactive phosphate or phospho-specific antibodies that recognize specific substrates or sequence motifs. To overcome the limitations of conventional assays, we have developed a versatile approach based on transfer of ferrocene-phosphate that can be readily monitored using electrochemical detection or detection with antiferrocene antibodies in an immunoarray format. This assay is readily adapted to multiplex arrays and can be employed for monitoring kinase activity in complex mixtures and for kinase inhibitor profiling

Unbiased Functional Proteomics Strategy for Protein Kinase Inhibitor Validation and Identification of <i>bona fide</i> Protein Kinase Substrates: Application to Identification of EEF1D as a Substrate for CK2

Protein kinases have emerged as attractive targets for treatment of several diseases prompting large-scale phosphoproteomics studies to elucidate their cellular actions and the design of novel inhibitory compounds. Current limitations include extensive reliance on consensus predictions to derive kinase–substrate relationships from phosphoproteomics data and incomplete experimental validation of inhibitors. To overcome these limitations in the case of protein kinase CK2, we employed functional proteomics and chemical genetics to enable identification of physiological CK2 substrates and validation of CK2 inhibitors including TBB and derivatives. By 2D electrophoresis and mass spectrometry, we identified the translational elongation factor EEF1D as a protein exhibiting CK2 inhibitor-dependent decreases in phosphorylation in ³²P-labeled HeLa cells. Direct phosphorylation of EEF1D by CK2 was shown by performing CK2 assays with EEF1D-FLAG from HeLa cells. Dramatic increases in EEF1D phosphorylation following λ–phosphatase treatment and phospho-EEF1D antibody recognizing EEF1D pS162 indicated phosphorylation at the CK2 site in cells. Furthermore, phosphorylation of EEF1D in the presence of TBB or TBBz is restored using CK2 inhibitor-resistant mutants. Collectively, our results demonstrate that EEF1D is a <i>bona fide</i> physiological CK2 substrate for CK2 phosphorylation. Furthermore, this validation strategy could be adaptable to other protein kinases and readily combined with other phosphoproteomic methods