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Zhra M, Qasem RJ, Aldossari F, Saleem R, Aljada A. A Comprehensive Exploration of Caspase Detection Methods: From Classical Approaches to Cutting-Edge Innovations. Int J Mol Sci 2024; 25:5460. [PMID: 38791499 PMCID: PMC11121653 DOI: 10.3390/ijms25105460] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/30/2024] [Revised: 05/07/2024] [Accepted: 05/09/2024] [Indexed: 05/26/2024] Open
Abstract
The activation of caspases is a crucial event and an indicator of programmed cell death, also known as apoptosis. These enzymes play a central role in cancer biology and are considered one promising target for current and future advancements in therapeutic interventions. Traditional methods of measuring caspase activity such as antibody-based methods provide fundamental insights into their biological functions, and are considered essential tools in the fields of cell and cancer biology, pharmacology and toxicology, and drug discovery. However, traditional methods, though extensively used, are now recognized as having various shortcomings. In addition, these methods fall short of providing solutions to and matching the needs of the rapid and expansive progress achieved in studying caspases. For these reasons, there has been a continuous improvement in detection methods for caspases and the network of pathways involved in their activation and downstream signaling. Over the past decade, newer methods based on cutting-edge state-of-the-art technologies have been introduced to the biomedical community. These methods enable both the temporal and spatial monitoring of the activity of caspases and their downstream substrates, and with enhanced accuracy and precision. These include fluorescent-labeled inhibitors (FLIs) for live imaging, single-cell live imaging, fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) sensors, and activatable multifunctional probes for in vivo imaging. Recently, the recruitment of mass spectrometry (MS) techniques in the investigation of these enzymes expanded the repertoire of tools available for the identification and quantification of caspase substrates, cleavage products, and post-translational modifications in addition to unveiling the complex regulatory networks implicated. Collectively, these methods are enabling researchers to unravel much of the complex cellular processes involved in apoptosis, and are helping generate a clearer and comprehensive understanding of caspase-mediated proteolysis during apoptosis. Herein, we provide a comprehensive review of various assays and detection methods as they have evolved over the years, so to encourage further exploration of these enzymes, which should have direct implications for the advancement of therapeutics for cancer and other diseases.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mahmoud Zhra
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Medicine, College of Medicine, Alfaisal University, Riyadh 11533, Saudi Arabia
| | - Rani J. Qasem
- Department of Pharmacology and Pharmacy Practice, College of Pharmacy, Middle East University, Amman 11831, Jordan
| | - Fai Aldossari
- Zoology Department, College of Science, King Saud University, Riyadh 12372, Saudi Arabia
| | - Rimah Saleem
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Medicine, College of Medicine, Alfaisal University, Riyadh 11533, Saudi Arabia
| | - Ahmad Aljada
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Medicine, College of Medicine, Alfaisal University, Riyadh 11533, Saudi Arabia
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Šebela M. The use of matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization mass spectrometry in enzyme activity assays and its position in the context of other available methods. MASS SPECTROMETRY REVIEWS 2023; 42:1008-1031. [PMID: 34549449 DOI: 10.1002/mas.21733] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/08/2021] [Revised: 08/28/2021] [Accepted: 08/30/2021] [Indexed: 06/13/2023]
Abstract
Activity assays are indispensable for studying biochemical properties of enzymes. The purposes of measuring activity are wide ranging from a simple detection of the presence of an enzyme to kinetic experiments evaluating the substrate specificity, reaction mechanisms, and susceptibility to inhibitors. Common activity assay methods include spectroscopy, electrochemical sensors, or liquid chromatography coupled with various detection techniques. This review focuses on the use of matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS) as a growing and modern alternative, which offers high speed of analysis, sensitivity, versatility, possibility of automation, and cost-effectiveness. It may reveal reaction intermediates, side products or measure more enzymes at once. The addition of an internal standard or calculating the ratios of the substrate and product peak intensities and areas overcome the inherent inhomogeneous distribution of analyte and matrix in the sample spot, which otherwise results in a poor reproducibility. Examples of the application of MALDI-TOF MS for assaying hydrolases (including peptidases and β-lactamases for antibiotic resistance tests) and other enzymes are provided. Concluding remarks summarize advantages and challenges coming from the present experience, and draw future perspectives such as a screening of large libraries of chemical compounds for their substrate or inhibitory properties towards enzymes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Marek Šebela
- Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Science, and CATRIN, Palacký University, Olomouc, Czech Republic
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Liu A, Kuang J, Zhou Y, Xu A, Tian C, Yu L. EPR-based in situ enzymatic activity detection of endogenous caspase-3 in apoptosis cell lysates. Chem Commun (Camb) 2022; 58:8528-8531. [PMID: 35801530 DOI: 10.1039/d2cc02361j] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/21/2022]
Abstract
Caspase-3 plays a vital role in cell apoptosis and related diseases. The detection and characterization of endogenous active caspase-3 are of immense value not only for mechanism studies of apoptosis but also for the diagnosis and treatment of apoptosis-related diseases. Here, an electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR)-based enzymatic assay was developed for the detection of caspase-3 activity both in vitro and in apoptosis cells. This assay uses a sandwich-like probe composed of a caspase-3-specific peptide segment (DEVD) conjugated to an EPR-detectable nitroxide spin label and magnetic beads (MBs). Cleavage of the "Nitroxide-Peptide-MBs" sandwich probe caspase-3 will release the nitroxide, which is readily detected by EPR after magnetic separation, resulting in a distinct EPR "off/on" transition. This assay takes advantage of the specific cleavage of DEVD-containing peptides by caspase-3 for high specificity, magnetic beads for fast magnetic separation, and EPR spectroscopy for considerably high detection sensitivity (LODs for caspase-3 are 116 nM at 60 min and 58 nM at 120 min). Importantly, the assay was proven to be compatible with complex biological samples and can detect the endogenous active caspase-3, thereby providing potential applications in the screening of protease-targeted drugs and the diagnosis of protease-associated diseases.
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Affiliation(s)
- Aokun Liu
- High Magnetic Field Laboratory, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Hefei, Anhui, 230031, China.
| | - Jian Kuang
- The First Affiliated Hospital of USTC, Division of Life Sciences and Medicine, Center for Bioanalytical Chemistry, Hefei National Laboratory of Physical Science at Microscale, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui, 230026, China
| | - Yemian Zhou
- High Magnetic Field Laboratory, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Hefei, Anhui, 230031, China.
| | - An Xu
- High Magnetic Field Laboratory, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Hefei, Anhui, 230031, China.
| | - Changlin Tian
- High Magnetic Field Laboratory, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Hefei, Anhui, 230031, China. .,The First Affiliated Hospital of USTC, Division of Life Sciences and Medicine, Center for Bioanalytical Chemistry, Hefei National Laboratory of Physical Science at Microscale, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui, 230026, China
| | - Lu Yu
- High Magnetic Field Laboratory, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Hefei, Anhui, 230031, China.
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Rodriguez-Rios M, Megia-Fernandez A, Norman DJ, Bradley M. Peptide probes for proteases - innovations and applications for monitoring proteolytic activity. Chem Soc Rev 2022; 51:2081-2120. [PMID: 35188510 DOI: 10.1039/d1cs00798j] [Citation(s) in RCA: 23] [Impact Index Per Article: 11.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/28/2022]
Abstract
Proteases are excellent biomarkers for a variety of diseases, offer multiple opportunities for diagnostic applications and are valuable targets for therapy. From a chemistry-based perspective this review discusses and critiques the most recent advances in the field of substrate-based probes for the detection and analysis of proteolytic activity both in vitro and in vivo.
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Affiliation(s)
- Maria Rodriguez-Rios
- EaStCHEM School of Chemistry, University of Edinburgh, David Brewster Road, EH9 3FJ Edinburgh, UK.
| | - Alicia Megia-Fernandez
- EaStCHEM School of Chemistry, University of Edinburgh, David Brewster Road, EH9 3FJ Edinburgh, UK.
| | - Daniel J Norman
- Technical University of Munich, Trogerstrasse, 30, 81675, Munich, Germany
| | - Mark Bradley
- EaStCHEM School of Chemistry, University of Edinburgh, David Brewster Road, EH9 3FJ Edinburgh, UK.
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Surface Plasmon Resonance for Protease Detection by Integration of Homogeneous Reaction. BIOSENSORS-BASEL 2021; 11:bios11100362. [PMID: 34677318 PMCID: PMC8534046 DOI: 10.3390/bios11100362] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/07/2021] [Revised: 09/25/2021] [Accepted: 09/27/2021] [Indexed: 12/25/2022]
Abstract
The heterogeneous assays of proteases usually require the immobilization of peptide substrates on the solid surface for enzymatic hydrolysis reactions. However, immobilization of peptides on the solid surface may cause a steric hindrance to prevent the interaction between the substrate and the active center of protease, thus limiting the enzymatic cleavage of the peptide. In this work, we reported a heterogeneous surface plasmon resonance (SPR) method for protease detection by integration of homogeneous reaction. The sensitivity was enhanced by the signal amplification of streptavidin (SA)-conjugated immunoglobulin G (SA-IgG). Caspase-3 (Cas-3) was determined as the model. A peptide labeled with two biotin tags at the N- and C-terminals (bio-GDEVDGK-bio) was used as the substrate. In the absence of Cas-3, the substrate peptide was captured by neutravidin (NA)-covered SPR chip to facilitate the attachment of SA-IgG by the avidin-biotin interaction. However, once the peptide substrate was digested by Cas-3 in the aqueous phase, the products of bio-GDEVD and GK-bio would compete with the substrate to bond NA on the chip surface, thus limiting the attachment of SA-IgG. The method integrated the advantages of both heterogeneous and homogeneous assays and has been used to determine Cas-3 inhibitor and evaluate cell apoptosis with satisfactory results.
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Yu L, Liu A, Zhang B, Kuang J, Guo X, Tian C, Lu Y. Dipolar coupling-based electron paramagnetic resonance method for protease enzymatic characterization and inhibitor screening. Chem Commun (Camb) 2021; 57:9602-9605. [PMID: 34546243 DOI: 10.1039/d1cc03301h] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/24/2022]
Abstract
Herein, we report an EPR-based method for protease enzymatic characterization and inhibitor screening. This method utilizes dual paramagnetically-labeled probes consisting of a nitroxide spin probe and a Gd3+ ion flanking a peptide that could be specifically cleaved by protease caspase-3. Distance-dependent dipolar coupling between the two paramagnetic centers can be modulated by the protease cleavage activity, thus providing a straightforward and convenient method for protease activity detection using EPR spectroscopy under ambient conditions. Moreover, time-course monitoring of the protease-catalyzed cleavage reaction demonstrated that this EPR-based method could not only allow a direct quantitative enzymatic kinetic assessment, but also could be used for protease inhibitor screening, thus holding great potential in drug discovery studies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lu Yu
- The Anhui Provincial Key Laboratory of High Field Magnetic Resonance Image, High Magnetic Field Laboratory, Chinese Academy of Science, Hefei, Anhui 230031, P. R. China.
| | - Aokun Liu
- The Anhui Provincial Key Laboratory of High Field Magnetic Resonance Image, High Magnetic Field Laboratory, Chinese Academy of Science, Hefei, Anhui 230031, P. R. China. .,The First Affiliated Hospital of USTC, Division of Life Sciences and Medicine, Center for BioAnalytical Chemistry, and Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at Microscale, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230026, P. R. China
| | - Bingbo Zhang
- Department of Medical Ultrasound, Shanghai Tenth People's Hospital, Tongji University Cancer Center, The Institute for Biomedical Engineering & Nano Science, Tongji University School of Medicine, Shanghai, 200072, P. R. China
| | - Jian Kuang
- The First Affiliated Hospital of USTC, Division of Life Sciences and Medicine, Center for BioAnalytical Chemistry, and Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at Microscale, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230026, P. R. China
| | - Xiaoqi Guo
- The First Affiliated Hospital of USTC, Division of Life Sciences and Medicine, Center for BioAnalytical Chemistry, and Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at Microscale, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230026, P. R. China
| | - Changlin Tian
- The Anhui Provincial Key Laboratory of High Field Magnetic Resonance Image, High Magnetic Field Laboratory, Chinese Academy of Science, Hefei, Anhui 230031, P. R. China. .,The First Affiliated Hospital of USTC, Division of Life Sciences and Medicine, Center for BioAnalytical Chemistry, and Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at Microscale, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230026, P. R. China
| | - Yi Lu
- Department of Chemistry, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, 61801, USA.
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Xia N, Sun Z, Ding F, Wang Y, Sun W, Liu L. Protease Biosensor by Conversion of a Homogeneous Assay into a Surface-Tethered Electrochemical Analysis Based on Streptavidin-Biotin Interactions. ACS Sens 2021; 6:1166-1173. [PMID: 33480678 DOI: 10.1021/acssensors.0c02415] [Citation(s) in RCA: 24] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/21/2022]
Abstract
This work proposed a new sensing strategy for protease detection by converting a homogeneous assay into a surface-tethered electrochemical analysis. Streptavidin (SA), a tetramer protein, was used as the sensing unit based on the SA-biotin coupling chemistry. Caspase-3 was used as the model analyte, and a biotinylated peptide with a sequence of biotin-GDEVDGK-biotin was designed as the substrate. Specifically, the peptide substrate could induce an assembly of SA to form (SA-biotin-GDEVDGK-biotin)n aggregates through SA-biotin interactions, which was confirmed by atomic force microscopy (AFM). The peptide substrate-induced assembly of SA was facilely initiated on an electrode-liquid surface by modification of the electrode with SA. The in situ formation of (SA-biotin-GDEVDGK-biotin)n aggregates created an insulating layer, thus limiting the electron transfer of ferricyanide. Once the peptide substrate was cleaved into two shorter fragments (biotin-GDEVD and GK-biotin) by caspase-3, the resulting products would compete with biotin-GDEVDGK-biotin to bind SA proteins immobilized on the electrode surface and distributed in a solution, thus preventing the in situ formation of (SA-biotin-GDEVDGK-biotin)n assemblies. With the simple principle of the substrate-induced assembly of SA, a dual-signal amplification was achieved with improved sensitivity. Taking advantage of high sensitivity, simple principle, and easy operation, this method can be augmented to design various surface-tethered biosensors for practical applications.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ning Xia
- Henan Province of Key Laboratory of New Optoelectronic Functional Materials, Anyang Normal University, Anyang, Henan 455000, People’s Republic of China
| | - Zhifang Sun
- Henan Province of Key Laboratory of New Optoelectronic Functional Materials, Anyang Normal University, Anyang, Henan 455000, People’s Republic of China
| | - Fangyuan Ding
- Henan Province of Key Laboratory of New Optoelectronic Functional Materials, Anyang Normal University, Anyang, Henan 455000, People’s Republic of China
| | - Yanan Wang
- Henan Province of Key Laboratory of New Optoelectronic Functional Materials, Anyang Normal University, Anyang, Henan 455000, People’s Republic of China
| | - Wenna Sun
- Henan Province of Key Laboratory of New Optoelectronic Functional Materials, Anyang Normal University, Anyang, Henan 455000, People’s Republic of China
| | - Lin Liu
- Henan Province of Key Laboratory of New Optoelectronic Functional Materials, Anyang Normal University, Anyang, Henan 455000, People’s Republic of China
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