Capillary electrophoresis analysis of different variants of the amyloidogenic protein β2 -microglobulin as a simple tool for misfolding and stability studies

Native Capillary Electrophoresis-Mass Spectrometry of Near 1 MDa Non-Covalent GroEL/GroES/Substrate Protein Complexes

Protein complexes are essential for proteins' folding and biological function. Currently, native analysis of large multimeric protein complexes remains challenging. Structural biology techniques are time-consuming and often cannot monitor the proteins' dynamics in solution. Here, a capillary electrophoresis-mass spectrometry (CE-MS) method is reported to characterize, under near-physiological conditions, the conformational rearrangements of ∽1 MDa GroEL upon complexation with binding partners involved in a protein folding cycle. The developed CE-MS method is fast (30 min per run), highly sensitive (low-amol level), and requires ∽10 000-fold fewer samples compared to biochemical/biophysical techniques. The method successfully separates GroEL14 (∽800 kDa), GroEL7 (∽400 kDa), GroES7 (∽73 kDa), and NanA4 (∽130 kDa) oligomers. The non-covalent binding of natural substrate proteins with GroEL14 can be detected and quantified. The technique allows monitoring of GroEL14 conformational changes upon complexation with (ATPγS)4-14 and GroES7 (∽876 kDa). Native CE-pseudo-MS3 analyses of wild-type (WT) GroEL and two GroEL mutants result in up to 60% sequence coverage and highlight subtle structural differences between WT and mutated GroEL. The presented results demonstrate the superior CE-MS performance for multimeric complexes' characterization versus direct infusion ESI-MS. This study shows the CE-MS potential to provide information on binding stoichiometry and kinetics for various protein complexes.

The residues 4 to 6 at the N-terminus in particular modulate fibril propagation of β-microglobulin

The ΔN6 truncation is the main posttranslational modification of β-microglobulin (βM) found in dialysis-related amyloid. Investigation of the interaction of wild-type (WT) βM with N-terminally truncated variants is therefore of medical relevance. However, it is unclear which residues among the six residues at the N-terminus are crucial to the interactions and the modulation of amyloid fibril propagation of βM. We herein analyzed homo- and heterotypic seeding of amyloid fibrils of WT human βM and its N-terminally-truncated variants ΔN1 to ΔN6, lacking up to six residues at the N-terminus. At acidic pH 2.5, we produced amyloid fibrils from recombinant, WT βM and its six truncated variants, and found that ΔN6 βM fibrils exhibit a significantly lower conformational stability than WT βM fibrils. Importantly, under more physiological conditions (pH 6.2), we assembled amyloid fibrils only from recombinant, ΔN4, ΔN5, and ΔN6 βM but not from WT βM and its three truncated variants ΔN1 to ΔN3. Notably, the removal of the six, five or four residues at the N-terminus leads to enhanced fibril formation, and homo- and heterotypic seeding of ΔN6 fibrils strongly promotes amyloid fibril formation of WT βM and its six truncated variants, including at more physiological pH 6.2. Collectively, these results demonstrated that the residues 4 to 6 at the N-terminus particularly modulate amyloid fibril propagation of βM and the interactions of WT βM with N-terminally truncated variants, potentially indicating the direct relevance to the involvement of the protein's aggregation in dialysis-related amyloidosis.

Evaluation of capillary electrophoresis-mass spectrometry for the analysis of the conformational heterogeneity of intact proteins using beta2-microglobulin as model compound

In this work we explored the feasibility of different CE-ESI-MS set-ups for the analysis of conformational states of an intact protein. By using the same background electrolyte at quasi physiological conditions (50 mM ammonium bicarbonate, pH 7.4) a sequential optimization was carried out, initially by evaluating a sheath-liquid interface with both a single quadrupole (SQ) and a time-of-flight (TOF) mass spectrometer; then a sheathless interface coupled with high-resolution QTOF MS was considered. Beta₂-microglobulin has been taken as a model, as it is an amyloidogenic protein and its conformational changes are strictly connected to the onset of a disease. The separation of two conformers at dynamic equilibrium is achieved all the way down to the MS detection. Notably, the equilibrium ratio of the protein conformers is maintained in the electrospray source after CE separation. Strengths and weaknesses of each optimized set-up are emphasized and their feasibility in unfolding studies is evaluated. In particular, ESI-TOF MS can assign protein forms that differ by 1 Da only and sheathless interfacing is best suited to preserve protein structure integrity. This demonstrates the CE-ESI-MS performance in terms of separation, detection and characterization of conformational species that co-populate a protein solution.

Monitoring antigenic protein integrity during glycoconjugate vaccine synthesis using capillary electrophoresis-mass spectrometry

A capillary electrophoresis-mass spectrometry (CE-MS) method was developed for the characterization and integrity assessment of the Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) antigens TB10.4 and Ag85B and their chemically produced glycoconjugates, which are glycovaccine candidates against tuberculosis (TB). In order to prevent protein adsorption to the inner capillary wall and to achieve efficient separation of the antigen proteoforms, a polyionic multilayer coating of polybrene-dextran sulfate-polybrene (PB-DS-PB) was used in combination with 1.5 M acetic acid as background electrolyte (BGE). Coupling of CE to high-resolution time-of-flight MS was achieved by a coaxial interface employing a sheath liquid of isopropanol-water (50:50, v/v) containing 0.1 % formic acid. The MTB antigens were exposed to experimental conditions used for chemical glycosylation (but no activated saccharide was added) in order to investigate their stability during glycovaccine production. CE-MS analysis revealed the presence of several closely related degradation products, including truncated, oxidized and conformational variants, which were assigned by accurate mass. Analysis of synthesized mannose conjugates of TB10.4 and Ag85B allowed the determination of the glycoform composition of the neo-glycoproteins next to the characterization of degradation products which were shown to be partly glycoconjugated. Moreover, the selectivity of CE-MS allowed specific detection of deamidated species (protein mass change of 1.0 Da only), indicating that chemical glycosylation increased susceptibility to deamidation. Overall, the results show that CE-MS represents a useful analytical tool for the detailed characterization and optimization of neo-glycoconjugate products. Graphical Abstract Flowchart illustrating Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) antigen glycosylation, glycoconjugate variant and degradation product separation by capillary electrophoresis (CE) and their characterization by intact mass spectrometry (MS).