Matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization mass spectrometric studies on protein glycation. 2. The reaction of ribonuclease with hexoses

1-Amino-1-deoxy-d-fructose ("fructosamine") and its derivatives

Fructosamine has long been considered as a key intermediate of the Maillard reaction, which to a large extent is responsible for specific aroma, taste, and color formation in thermally processed or dehydrated foods. Since the 1980s, however, as a product of the Amadori rearrangement reaction between glucose and biologically significant amines such as proteins, fructosamine has experienced a boom in biomedical research, mainly due to its relevance to pathologies in diabetes and aging. In this chapter, we assess the scope of the knowledge on and applications of fructosamine-related molecules in chemistry, food, and health sciences, as reflected mostly in publications within the past decade. Methods of fructosamine synthesis and analysis, its chemical, and biological properties, and degradation reactions, together with fructosamine-modifying and -recognizing proteins are surveyed.

Thirty years of fruitful collaborations between a physician and mass spectrometrists in diabetes field

The nonenzymatic protein glycation and the subsequent formation of advanced glycation end products is a process involved in the long-term complications of diabetes. In this context the collaboration, in the last 30 years, between my research group, operating in the DPT of Medicine of Padua University, and the mass spectrometric group, operating in CNR of Padua, are described and discussed. The development of new mass spectrometric techniques has allowed investigation more indepth, starting from the applications on small molecules responsible for the browning observed in the interactions between sugars and proteins, and growing up to intact proteins as albumin, immunoglobulin, hemoglobin, and so forth, with the determination of their glycation levels as well as their glycation sites. This study has helped to clarify the role of advanced glycation end products in the pathogenesis of the chronic complications of diabetes. In particular the results obtained in diabetic nephropathy, diabetic cardiovascular disease and in placenta samples of patients affected by gestational diabetes are described in this review.

The role of mass spectrometry in studies of glycation processes and diabetes management

In the last decade, mass spectrometry has been widely employed in the study of diabetes. This was mainly due to the development of new, highly sensitive, and specific methods representing powerful tools to go deep into the biochemical and pathogenetic processes typical of the disease. The aim of this review is to give a panorama of the scientifically valid results obtained in this contest. The recent studies on glycation processes, in particular those devoted to the mechanism of production and to the reactivity of advanced glycation end products (AGEs, AGE peptides, glyoxal, methylglyoxal, dicarbonyl compounds) allowed to obtain a different view on short and long term complications of diabetes. These results have been employed in the research of effective markers and mass spectrometry represented a precious tool allowing the monitoring of diabetic nephropathy, cardiovascular complications, and gestational diabetes. The same approaches have been employed to monitor the non-insulinic diabetes pharmacological treatments, as well as in the discovery and characterization of antidiabetic agents from natural products. © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Mass Spec Rev 38:112-146, 2019.

Glycated human serum albumin isolated from poorly controlled diabetic patients impairs cholesterol efflux from macrophages: an investigation by mass spectrometry

Advanced glycation end-products impair ABCA-1-mediated cholesterol efflux by eliciting inflammation, the generation of reactive oxygen species and endoplasmatic reticulum (ER) stress. The glycation level of human serum albumin (HSA) from type 1 and type 2 diabetic patients was determined by matrix assisted laser desorption/ionization (MALDI) mass spectrometry and related to possible impairment of ER function and cellular cholesterol efflux. Comparison of the MALDI spectra from healthy and diabetic subjects allowed us to determine an increased HSA mean mass of 1297 Da for type 1 and 890 Da for type 2. These values reflect a mean condensation of at least 8 glucose units and 5 glucose units, respectively. Mouse peritoneal macrophages were treated with HSA from control, type 1 and type 2 diabetic subjects in order to measure the expression of Grp78, Grp94, protein disulfide isomerase (PDI), calreticulin (CRT) and ABCA-1. (14)C-cholesterol overloaded-J774 macrophages were treated with HSA from control and diabetic subjects and further incubated with apo A-1 to determine the cholesterol efflux. Combined analyses comprising HSA from type 1 and type 2 diabetic patients were performed in cellular functional assays. In macrophages, PDI expression increased 89% and CRT 3.4 times in comparison to HSA from the control subjects. ABCA-1 protein level and apo A-I mediated cholesterol efflux were, respectively, 50% and 60% reduced in macrophages exposed to HSA from type 1 and type 2 diabetic patients when compared to that exposed to HSA from control subjects. We provide evidence that the level of glycation that occurs in albumin in vivo damages the ER function related to the impairment in macrophage reverse cholesterol transport and so contributes to atherosclerosis in diabetes.

Glyco-oxidation and cardiovascular complications in type 2 diabetes: a clinical update

Diabetes is associated with a greatly increased risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD), which cannot be explained only by known risk factors, such as smoking, hypertension, and atherogenic dyslipidemia, so other factors, such as advanced glycation end-products (AGEs) and oxidative stress, may be involved. In this frame, hyperglycemia and an increased oxidative stress (AGE formation, increased polyol and hexosamine pathway flux, and protein kinase C activation) lead to tissue damage, thus contributing to the onset of cardiovascular complications. Several studies have identified in various cell systems, such as monocytes/macrophages and endothelial cells, specific cellular receptors (RAGE) that bind AGE proteins. The binding of AGEs on RAGE induces the production of cytokines and intracellular oxidative stress, thus leading to vascular damage. Soluble RAGE levels have been identified as hypothetical markers of CVD, but, in this regard, there are sparse and conflicting data in the literature. The purpose of this review was to examine all the available information on this issue with a view to clarifying or at least highlighting the points that are still weak, especially from the point of clinical view.

Protein glycation in diabetes as determined by mass spectrometry

Diabetes is a common endocrine disorder characterized by hyperglycemia leading to nonenzymatic glycation of proteins, responsible for chronic complications. The development of mass spectrometric techniques able to give highly specific and reliable results in proteome field is of wide interest for physicians, giving them new tools to monitor the disease progression and the possible complications related to diabetes, as well as the effectiveness of therapeutic treatments. This paper reports and discusses some of the data pertaining protein glycation in diabetic subjects obtained by matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization (MALDI) mass spectrometry (MS). The preliminary studies carried out by in vitro protein glycation experiments show clear differences in molecular weight of glycated and unglycated proteins. Then, the attention was focused on plasma proteins human serum albumin (HSA) and immunoglobulin G (IgG). Enzymatic degradation products of in vitro glycated HSA were studied in order to simulate the in vivo enzymatic digestion of glycated species by the immunological system leading to the highly reactive advanced glycation end-products (AGEs) peptides. Further studies led to the evaluation of glycated Apo A-I and glycated haemoglobin levels. A different MALDI approach was employed for the identification of markers of disease in urine samples of healthy, diabetic, nephropathic, and diabetic-nephropathic subjects.

Some views on proteomics in diabetes

Mass spectrometry has been widely used in the field of diabetes. The development of new ionization methods and the effective coupling of mass spectrometry with liquid chromatography have enabled the protein modifications due to glycation processes to be investigated. Matrix assisted laser desorption/ionization mass spectrometry (MALDI/MS) has been used to evaluate the degree of glycation of specific plasma proteins. In contrast, the classic proteomic approach has been used to identify glycation sites and condensed sugar modifications. The same methods have been applied to studies on urinary protein profiles, enabling changes due to the development of long-term, diabetes-induced nephropathy to be identified. Published studies demonstrate that mass spectrometry is an important analytical tool for monitoring diabetes, capable of providing physicians with a new, more complete view of the physiopathological changes occurring as the disease develops.

Glyco-oxidation in diabetes and related diseases

BACKGROUND

Recent evidence has shown that hyperglycemia is able to cause increased production of superoxide on the mitochondrial transport chain, and that this is the key event which activates some events such as increased AGE formation, increased hexosamine and polyol flux, and activation of PKC, all believed to be important for the development of the chronic complications of diabetes, aging and uremia. In this context, non-enzymatic protein glyco-oxidation leads to the formation of a series of products whose intra- and extra-cellular accumulation is of key importance in the pathogenesis of these chronic diseases.

METHODS

Various spectrometric approaches, such as matrix-assisted laser desorption ionisation (MALDI), and liquid chromatography-electrospray ionisation (ESI) were used.

RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS

The latest mass spectrometric approaches have shown their power in proteomics, and we report here some applications of this technique in the study of in vitro and in vivo non-enzymatic protein glyco-oxidation.

Mass spectrometry of advanced glycation end products

Mass spectrometry, in particular matrix assisted laser desorption/ionisation, is a powerful analytical tool in studies devoted to protein non-enzymatic glycation. It has been firstly tested on in vitro glycated proteins, and looking at the reliable results so obtained, on in vivo glycated proteins in population of healthy, well-controlled and badly controlled diabetic patients. The comparison of the data so obtained in case of human serum albumin and IgG unequivocally demonstrates the highest glycation level for the third set of subjects. Further results obtained in the case of hemoglobin glycation showed that both alpha and beta globins are glycated in a similar extent and that the method can be employed to investigate on the "oxidative stress" experimented by the patients.

Diabetes and mass spectrometry

Mass spectrometry (MS) has been successfully employed to investigate non-enzymatic protein glycation, a process relevant in diabetic disease. The high sensitivity and specificity of this technique allowed the development of methods that can individuate and evaluate some glycation markers to be validly employed in monitoring diabetes. More recent mass spectrometric techniques, such as the matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization (MALDI), are able to determine the molecular weight of intact proteins. They were first employed in studying the in vitro reaction between hexoses and different proteins. Once the validity of the results obtained by this analytical approach was confirmed, a series of investigations on plasma proteins were undertaken in healthy and diabetic subjects. The method led to the evaluation of the number of glucose molecules condensed on the protein being studied, and consequently can be validly used for an accurate follow-up of metabolic control in diabetic patients. When applied to studies on haemoglobin glycation, the method showed that both alpha- and beta-globins are glycated to a similar extent and that the simply glycated molecules are accompanied by glyco-oxidized species therefore giving information on the oxidative stress experimented on in the subject. Furthermore, in the case of immunoglobulins, MALDI/MS was able to determine not only the total glycation level of IgG, but also to establish that the fragment antigen binding (Fab) moiety is the most glycated one, thus suggesting that the possible immunological impairment sometimes invoked in diabetes is related to the inhibition of the process of molecular recognition between antibody and antigen.

The role of mass spectrometry in the study of non-enzymatic protein glycation in diabetes

Mass spectrometry has been applied successfully to the study of non-enzymatic protein glycation, which is a topic of wide interest in the diabetes field. Low- and high-resolution mass spectra, GC/MS, and collisional activation spectroscopy allow the structural identification and quantitative evaluation of advanced glycation end-products, which represent important molecules for monitoring diabetes. More recently available techniques, such as ESI and MALDI/MS, have had a significant impact on analytical problems in diabetes. In particular, MALDI has been applied to the study of protein glycation in in vitro and in vivo conditions, because the number of glucose molecules that condense onto the protein can be easily determined by this approach. In the former case, glycation kinetics have been studied in various sugars and sugar concentrations, proteins, and buffer concentrations; in the latter, comparisons of MALDI spectra of circulating proteins from healthy and diabetic subjects determine the exposure of patients to high glucose levels. The method has been applied to an evaluation of the glycation level of immunoglobulins, and indicates that glycation takes place preferentially on the Fab fragment of the protein; data are relevant in relating immunological impairment with glycation-induced changes in the functionality of immunoglobulins.

Matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization mass spectrometry, enzymatic digestion, and molecular modeling in the study of nonenzymatic glycation of IgG

The glycation-induced functional change of immunoglobulins is of particular interest. The glycation levels of IgG in 10 healthy subjects and 20 diabetic patients with different degrees of metabolic control were studied by matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization (MALDI) mass spectrometry. It reveals the number of glucose molecules that have condensed on the protein, which range from 1 to 5 for healthy subjects, from 5 to 9 for well controlled diabetic patients, and from 10 to 25 for poorly controlled ones. The identification of the most favored glycation sites has been obtained by MALDI analysis of standard and in vitro glycated IgG and plasma protein fraction of a healthy subject after digestion with papain, releasing Fab and Fc fragments of the molecule. Both experiments, as well as molecular modeling of the whole protein, confirm that the most of glucose molecules have condensed on the Fab fragment of IgG, suggesting that the immune deficiency observed in diabetic patients may be explained at the molecular level by a more effective glycation of the Fab fragment, thus inhibiting the process of molecular recognition between antibody and antigen.

Matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization mass spectrometry of carbohydrates

This review describes the application of matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization (MALDI) mass spectrometry to carbohydrate analysis and covers the period 1991-1998. The technique is particularly valuable for carbohydrates because it enables underivatised, as well as derivatised compounds to be examined. The various MALDI matrices that have been used for carbohydrate analysis are described, and the use of derivatization for improving mass spectral detection limits is also discussed. Methods for sample preparation and for extracting carbohydrates from biological media prior to mass spectrometric analysis are compared with emphasis on highly sensitive mass spectrometric methods. Quantitative aspects of MALDI are covered with respect to the relationship between signal strength and both mass and compound structure. The value of mass measurements by MALDI to provide a carbohydrate composition is stressed, together with the ability of the technique to provide fragmentation spectra. The use of in-source and post-source decay and collision-induced fragmentation in this context is described with emphasis on ions that provide information on the linkage and branching patterns of carbohydrates. The use of MALDI mass spectrometry, linked with exoglycosidase sequencing, is described for N-linked glycans derived from glycoproteins, and methods for the analysis of O-linked glycans are also covered. The review ends with a description of various applications of the technique to carbohydrates found as constituents of glycoproteins, bacterial glycolipids, sphingolipids, and glycolipid anchors.

Direct evaluation of glycated and glyco-oxidized globins by matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization mass spectrometry

Matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization (MALDI) mass spectrometry (MS) has been applied to achieve a qualitative and quantitative evaluation of glycated globins on a wide number of healthy and diabetic subjects. The method allowed us to establish that both alpha- and beta-globins are glycated and that, in addition to simply glycated products, other species are detected. Investigations by different sample treatments and by analysis of the glycated beta-globin fraction obtained by preparative chromatography indicated that these species correspond to glyco-oxidized globins. Consequently MALDI-MS can be validly employed to evaluate not only the glycation level, but also the degree of oxidative stress. The percentages of glycated and glycooxidized species were calculated from the related MALDI spectra by the measurement of the related peak areas, without any other treatment of data. A linear relationship between HbA1c values and the total percentage of glycated and glyco-oxidized globins has been found, and its slope (< 1) has been rationalized by the uncorrected evaluation of glycated globins content in the standard samples employed for HbA1c measurements.

Glycosylation of the tandem repeat unit of the MUC2 polypeptide leading to the synthesis of the Tn antigen

A synthetic peptide corresponding to the human MUC2 tandem repeat domain containing 14 Thr residues was glycosylated in vitro using UDP-GalNAc and microsomal membranes of the colorectal cancer cell line, LS180. The products were fractionated by reverse phase HPLC, which gave seven glycopeptide fractions. Their molecular weights were estimated by matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization mass spectrometry, the values obtained corresponding to glycopeptides containing from one to ten GalNAc residues. On solid phase radioimmunoassaying involving a monoclonal anti-Tn antibody (MLS128), it was found that the glycopeptides containing nine or ten GalNAc residues were strongly immunoreactive, whereas the glycopeptides containing less than six GalNAc residues were inactive, indicating that a cluster of GalNAc-Thr is essential for the Tn antigenicity.

Post-translational non-enzymatic modification of proteins. I. Chromatography of marker adducts with special emphasis to glycation reactions

Analytical methods for marker compounds formed during post-translational modifications of proteins are reviewed. Only adducts arising either in vivo or under in vitro conditions simulating the in vivo situations are discussed. All of these compounds stem from either the reaction of free amino groups (i.e., lysine, arginine or N-terminal amino acid). In most cases the reactive counterpart is an aldehydic moiety containing endogenous compound; however, other functional groups containing metabolites are considered as well. The main demand put upon such marker compounds is that they are stable in acid or enzymatic hydrolysis or, alternatively, can be stabilized by simple sample pretreatment (e.g., by reduction). Practically all categories of separation procedures can be applied provided that the chemical characteristics of a particular marker are adequately respected; frequently combination of two different separation procedures based on different principles must be used. Because of the low level of such marker compounds under in vivo conditions, an appropriate sample enrichment step must be involved. Emphasis is put upon the analysis of Amadori products, pentosidine (and pentosidine related compounds), pyrraline, furosine, N-carboxymethylamino acids, amino acid hydantoins and stabilized dicarbonyl intermediates.

Detection and quantitation of beta-2-microglobulin glycosylated end products in human serum by matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization mass spectrometry

beta-2-Microglobulin (beta 2M) is a major protein component found in the amyloid deposits of dialysis-related amyloidosis (DRA) patients. Evidence has been shown that the advanced glycosylated end-products (AGEs) of beta 2M present in sera were related to DRA. We demonstrated that matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization mass spectrometry (MALDI-MS) is a useful tool to investigate the nature of glycosylation of beta 2M and detection of beta 2M or beta 2M-AGEs in human serum. The high-mass end of beta 2M-AGE distribution was found to extend to the neighborhood of 12,868 Da, corresponding to condensations with seven glucose molecules. We also have shown that both beta 2M and beta 2M-AGEs can be detected at low picomole levels directly in bovine serum. Based on these findings, the sera of DRA patients were studied to determine whether beta 2M-AGEs can be detected by MALDI-MS. In an attempt to investigate the possibility of quantitation with MALDI, human sera samples with different concentrations of beta 2M-AGE were examined. We were able to correlate the concentration of beta 2M-AGE with the number of detected AGE products, pointing to the feasibility of MALDI as a quantitative tool.

Matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionisation mass spectrometry of oligosaccharides and glycoconjugates

The technique of matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization mass spectrometry (MALDI) is described and examples are given of its use for the examination of glycoproteins, glycopeptides, glycolipids and oligosaccharides. Abundant [M+H]+ ions are produced by the glycoproteins and glycopeptides, whereas glycolipids and oligosaccharides give mainly [M+Na]+ ions. Resolution on time-of-flight (TOF) instruments is poor but improved resolution can be obtained by use of ion cyclotron resonance or magnetic sector instruments. Although the technique gives mainly [M+Na]+ ions from neutral, underivatised oligosaccharides, with little fragmentation when implemented on TOF systems, the use of a reflectron enables fragment ions produced by post-source decay to be obtained. Acidic sugars give less satisfactory positive ion spectra with TOF analysers, but generally produce abundant negative ions. Extensive fragmentation is observed with these compounds when the spectra are recorded with magnetic sector instruments. Neutral glycolipids produce strong spectra from several matrices but acidic glycolipids show extensive fragmentation as the result of sialic acid loss.

A new effective method for the evaluation of glycated intact plasma proteins in diabetic subjects

The molecular weights of plasma proteins from healthy subjects and from patients with well-or badly-controlled diabetes mellitus have been determined by use of a matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization method, representing a highly accurate technique for the determination of the molecular weight of large biomolecules. Using this approach, different molecular weights of human serum albumin have been found for healthy (66,572-66,694 dalton) and diabetic (66,785-68,959 dalton) subjects. Such differences can be rationalized as being due to the different number of glucose molecules condensed on the protein and/or their further oxidation products; in the case of our diabetic patients this number is in the range of 1.4-14.8. The data show the high validity and specificity of the technique, which allows us to evaluate, without any protein degradation procedure, the number of glucose molecules condensed on a specific protein and ascertain the relationship of this number to the physiopathogenetic conditions of the subjects studied.

Matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization capabilities in the study of non-enzymatic protein glycation

Matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization mass spectrometry has been successfully applied in the study of non-enzymatic glycation of different proteins. In the case of bovine serum albumin, glycated by in vitro experiments performed under pseudophysiological conditions, a clear increase in molecular weight is observed with respect to both glucose concentrations and incubation time. The in vitro glycation of ribonuclease with glucose and fructose shows some peculiar differences either in terms of the number of condensed sugar molecules or in terms of the reaction kinetics. The same approach, applied to plasma proteins of healthy and diabetic subjects, provides evidence for the occurrence of glycation of human serum albumin for the latter subjects.