Combined precursor isotopic labeling and isobaric tagging (cPILOT) is a quantitative proteomics strategy that enhances sample multiplexing capabilities of isobaric tags. This protocol describes the application of cPILOT to tissues from an Alzheimer’s disease mouse model and wild-type controls.
There is an increasing demand to analyze many biological samples for disease understanding and biomarker discovery. Quantitative proteomics strategies that allow simultaneous measurement of multiple samples have become widespread and greatly reduce experimental costs and times. Our laboratory developed a technique called combined precursor isotopic labeling and isobaric tagging (cPILOT), which enhances sample multiplexing of traditional isotopic labeling or isobaric tagging approaches. Global cPILOT can be applied to samples originating from cells, tissues, bodily fluids, or whole organisms and gives information on relative protein abundances across different sample conditions. cPILOT works by 1) using low pH buffer conditions to selectively dimethylate peptide N-termini and 2) using high pH buffer conditions to label primary amines of lysine residues with commercially-available isobaric reagents (see Table of Materials/Reagents). The degree of sample multiplexing available is dependent on the number of precursor labels used and the isobaric tagging reagent. Here, we present a 12-plex analysis using light and heavy dimethylation combined with six-plex isobaric reagents to analyze 12 samples from mouse tissues in a single analysis. Enhanced multiplexing is helpful for reducing experimental time and cost and more importantly, allowing comparison across many sample conditions (biological replicates, disease stage, drug treatments, genotypes, or longitudinal time-points) with less experimental bias and error. In this work, the global cPILOT approach is used to analyze brain, heart, and liver tissues across biological replicates from an Alzheimer's disease mouse model and wild-type controls. Global cPILOT can be applied to study other biological processes and adapted to increase sample multiplexing to greater than 20 samples.
Proteomics often involves the analysis of many samples used to better understand disease processes, enzyme kinetics, post-translational modifications, response to environmental stimuli, response to therapeutic treatments, biomarker discovery, or drug mechanisms. Quantitative methods can be employed to measure relative differences in protein levels across the samples and can be label-free or involve isotopic labeling (metabolic, chemical, or enzymatic). Stable isotope labeling methods have grown in popularity because they allow many samples to be analyzed simultaneously and are suitable for samples from different cells, tissues, bodily fluids, or whole organisms. Isotope labeling methods1,2,3,4,5,6,7 increase experimental throughput, while reducing acquisition time, costs, and experimental error. These methods use precursor mass spectra to measure relative abundances of proteins from peptide peaks. In contrast, isobaric tagging reagents8,9,10 generate reporter ions that are either detected in MS/MS or MS3 11 spectra and these peaks are used to report on relative abundances of proteins.
The current state-of-the-art in proteomics multiplexing is either a 10-plex12 or 12-plex isobaric tag analysis13. Enhanced sample multiplexing (i.e. >10 samples) methods have been developed by our laboratory for tissues14,15,16,17, and by others for the analysis of cells18,19,20, tissues 21, or targeted peptides22. We developed an enhanced multiplexing technique called combined precursor isotopic labeling with isobaric tagging (cPILOT). Global cPILOT is useful for getting information about the relative concentrations of all proteins across different sample conditions (≥12)14. Figure 1 shows a general cPILOT workflow. Tryptic or Lys-C peptides are selectively labeled at the N-terminus with dimethylation using low pH2 and at lysine residues with 6-plex reagents using high pH. This strategy doubles the number of samples that can be analyzed with isobaric reagents which helps to reduce experimental costs and additionally, reduces experimental steps and time.
cPILOT is flexible as we have developed other methods to study oxidative post-translational modifications, including 3-nitrotyrosine-modified proteins14 and cysteine containing peptides with S-nitrosylation (oxcyscPILOT)23. We have also developed an amino acid selective approach, cysteine cPILOT (cyscPILOT)17. MS3 acquisition with a top-ion11 or selective-y1-ion method15 can help reduce reporter ion interference and improve quantitative accuracy of cPILOT. The use of MS3 in the acquisition method requires a high-resolution instrument with an orbitrap mass analyzer although low resolution ion trap instruments may also work24.
Previously, cPILOT has been used to study liver proteins16 from an Alzheimer's disease mouse model. Here, we describe how to perform global cPILOT analysis using brain, heart, and liver homogenates to study the role of the periphery in Alzheimer's disease. This experiment incorporates biological replication. Because of the versatility of cPILOT, interested users can use the technique to study other tissues for a range of biological problems and systems.
Ethics Statement: Mice were purchased from an independent, non-profit biomedical research institution and housed in the Division of Laboratory Animal Resources at the University of Pittsburgh. All animal protocols were approved by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee at the University of Pittsburgh.
1. Protein Extraction and Generation of Peptides for Chemical-tagging
2. Sample Digestion
3. Sample Desalting
4. Dimethylation Labeling (N-termini)
5. Isobaric Tagging (Lys residues)
6. Strong Cation Exchange
7. Liquid Chromatography–Tandem Mass Spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) and MS3
8. Data Analysis16
cPILOT uses amine-based chemistry to chemically label peptides at the N-terminus and lysine residues and enhances sample multiplexing capabilities. Figure 2 shows representative MS data that is obtained from a 12-plex cPILOT analysis of brain, heart, and liver tissues from an Alzheimer's disease mouse model and wild-type controls. As shown in Table 1, two biological replicates for the Alzheimer's disease and wild-type mice are included in this 12-plex analysis. Figure 2A shows a doubly-charged peak pair that is separated by m/z spacing of 4 indicating a single dimethyl group was incorporated into the peptide. Both the light and heavy dimethylated peaks in this pair are independently isolated and fragmented with CID. The MS/MS data for each of the dimethylated peptides is shown in Figures 2B and C. Search results indicate this pair of peaks belongs to the T(dimethyl)ELNYFAK(isobaric-tag6) peptide of the protein phosphoglycerate kinase 1. The most intense fragment ion is y3+ which is similar for both the light and heavy dimethylated peaks. These peaks are isolated further for HCD-MS3 and the reporter ions (m/z 126-131) are observed as shown in Figures 2D and 2E. Both sets of MS3 spectra are necessary to get information about the 12 samples. In this example, the reporter ion ratios (AD/WT) (Alzheimer's disease/Wild-type control) for brain, liver, and heart tissues are similar across the two biological replicates. The fold-change values for each comparison suggest that phosphoglycerate kinase 1 levels in brain and heart are higher in AD mice, whereas in liver the levels are lower.
Figure 1: Proteomics workflow using cPILOT. As an example, this workflow outlines the analysis of 12 individual samples. Proteins from tissues, cells, or bodily fluids are extracted and a suitable protein standard (e.g. bovine alpha-casein) is added. Proteins are digested using trypsin. Peptides are labeled at the N-terminus by using light or heavy dimethylation (pH ~2.5) and at lysine residues by using TMT6-plex (pH ~8.5). Labeled peptides are pooled into a single mixture and subject to SCX RP-LC-MS/MS and MS3. Please click here to view a larger version of this figure.
Figure 2: Example cPILOT data of peptides from brain, heart, and liver tissues of an Alzheimer's disease mouse model and wild-type controls. Precursor data (A) shows light and heavy dimethylated peptides, represented by the peaks at m/z 643.854 and 647.875. These peptides were selected, isolated, and fragmented, thus generating CID-MS/MS spectra (B and C), which provided peptide identification. An additional selection, isolation, and fragmentation of the most intense fragment ion of the light and heavy dimethylated peptides at the MS/MS stage generated HCD-MS3 spectra (D and E), respectively. The peptide sequence is T(dimethyl)ELNYFAK(isobaric-tag6) and belongs to phosphoglycerate kinase 1. Please click here to view a larger version of this figure.
Isobaric Reagent | ||||||
126 | 127 | 128 | 129 | 130 | 131 | |
Light Dimethylation | WTa | ADb | WT | AD | WT | AD |
brain | heart | liver | ||||
Heavy Dimethylation | WT | AD | WT | AD | WT | AD |
heart | liver | brain | ||||
The tissue is either from a wild-type control (WT)a or Alzheimer's disease mouse (AD)b. |
Table 1: cPILOT grouping of AD and WT Brain, Heart, and Liver Tissues.
cPILOT allows for the simultaneous measurement of more than 12 unique samples. In order to ensure successful tagging at both the N-terminus and lysine residues of peptides, it is imperative to have the correct pH for each set of reactions and to perform the dimethylation reaction first for peptide labeling. Selective dimethylation at the N-terminus is performed by having a pH at ~2.5 (±0.2). This is achieved by exploiting the differences of the pKA's of the amino groups on lysine and the N-terminus. At pH 2.5, lysine is inactive (pKA ~10.5); however, if the pH is mildly acidic (i.e. pH 5-7) or basic, both the N-termini and lysine residues will be dimethylated. In addition, if isobaric tagging is performed first at a low pH, the N-termini will have the isobaric label and lysine residues will be dimethylated. This may result in less fragments being selected for MS3 as b-ions would need to be selected. The relative costs of the dimethylation reactions are inexpensive compared to the commercial isobaric reagents. While one can use an entire isobaric reagent vial per 100 µg, we have also had success using half of the reagent vial per 100 µg with comparable labeling efficiency. This helps to significantly reduce the costs for individual cPILOT experiments and allows more samples to be analyzed. Also it is important to note that other isobaric tagging reagents can be used in place of the isobaric reagent used in this protocol as we have previously demonstrated14. To ensure high labeling and tagging efficiencies, it is important to add reagents to samples quickly. This will allow for samples to have approximately the same reaction time. For quantitative purposes, each sample should be treated identically especially prior to pooling samples at the dimethylation and isobaric labeling steps. Finally, it should be noted that working with many samples simultaneously in the initial steps requires careful user skill and attention to sample handling.
The most ideal scenario is to obtain reporter ions for every protein in the mixture across the 12 samples. However, this is not the case for a large number of proteins. The number of peptides detected with quantitation information for cPILOT and other enhanced multiplexing approaching depends on several factors including sample type, sample fractionation and processing steps, MS data acquisition methods, and instrument type. Although both dimethylation and isobaric tagging steps have a high peptide labeling efficiency of ~95-99%, there is still ~20% of the MS3 data which will not contain reporter ion information. This is due in part to using trypsin which generates arginine-terminated peptides that result in no incorporation of isobaric reagent. This can be solved using other enzymes, such as LysC, with a potential tradeoff in protein identifications25. Also for heavy dimethylated peptides, the peak selected for fragmentation can be the M or M-1 peak, which have different intensities and will affect the reporter ion intensities observed in the MS3 stage. Thus there may be some low intensity reporter ions that are not detected for some samples. Such situations are often commonly observed for low intensity MS/MS fragments that are isolated for MS3 steps. A great solution to this issue has been incorporated into tribrid mass spectrometers, which, instead of using single-notch selection for MS3, use multi-notch or multiple MS/MS fragments26.
There is a lot of versatility in the cPILOT approach especially with regards to the number of samples that can be compared in a single analysis (i.e., up to 20 with commercial isobaric reagents) and the types of tissues used. We demonstrated that it is easy to obtain accurate quantitative information from brain, heart, and liver tissues in the same analysis in the context of a disease. This method, similarly to other multiplexing methods, allows for the analysis of multiple samples at once, and is applicable to samples originating from cells, tissues, bodily fluids, or whole organisms. In addition, cPILOT labeled peptides are able to be analyzed using either a low24 or high resolution (60,000) instrument. In comparison, obtaining successful measurement using other multiplexing methods may be limited to a specific type of sample (i.e. cells)18, may require an instrument with very high resolution20, or access to stable isotope labels. cPILOT is great for users interested in disease understanding, biomarker discovery, response to a drug or therapeutic intervention, or longitudinal changes across many time points. Furthermore, for large shotgun proteomics analyses of clinical samples (where N is large, hundreds to thousands), cPILOT may also be suitable to help reduce experimental costs and time. In the future, cPILOT will be expanded to multiplex a larger number of samples by using existing and novel isotopic and isobaric labels.
The authors have nothing to disclose.
The authors acknowledge the University of Pittsburgh Start-up Funds and NIH, NIGMS R01 grant (GM 117191-01) to RASR.
Water – MS Grade | Fisher Scientific | W6-4 | 4 L quantity is not necessary |
Acetonitrile – MS Grade | Fisher Scientific | A955-4 | 4 L quantity is not necessary |
Acetic Acid | J.T. Baker | 9508-01 | |
Ammonium hydroxide solution (28 – 30%) | Sigma Aldrich | 320145-500ML | |
Ammonium formate | Acros Organics | 208-753-9 | |
Formic Acid | Fluka Analytical | 94318-250ML-F | |
BCA protein assay kit | Pierce Thermo Fisher Scientific | 23227 | |
Urea | Biorad | 161-0731 | |
Tris | Biorad | 161-0716 | |
Dithiothreiotol (DTT) | Fisher Scientific | BP172-5 | |
Iodoacetamide (IAM) | Acros Organics | 144-48-9 | |
L-Cysteine | Sigma Aldrich, Chemistry | 168149-25G | |
L-1-tosylamido-2 phenylethyl cholormethyl ketone (TPCK)-treated Trypsin from bovine pancreas | Sigma Aldrich, Life Science | T1426-100MG | |
Formaldehyde (CH2O) solution; 36.5 – 38% in H2O | Sigma Aldrich, Life Science | F8775-25ML | |
Formaldehyde (13CD2O) solution; 20 wt % in D2O, 98 atom % D, 99 atom % 13 C | Sigma Aldrich, Chemistry | 596388-1G | |
Sodium Cyanoborohydride; reagent grade, 95% | Sigma Aldrich | 156159-10G | |
Sodium Cyanoborodeuteride; 96 atom % D, 98% CP | Sigma Aldrich, Chemistry | 190020-1G | |
Strong Cation Exchange (SCX) spin tips sample prep kit | Protea BioSciences | SP-155-24kit | |
Triethyl ammonium bicarbonate (TEAB) buffer | Sigma Aldrich, Life Science | T7408-100ML | |
Isobaric Tagging Kit (TMT 6 plex) – 6 reactions (1 x 0.8 mg) | Thermo Fisher Scientific | 90061 | |
Hydroxylamine hydrochloride | Sigma Aldrich, Chemistry | 255580-100G | |
Standard vortex mixer | Fisher Scientific | 2215365 | any mixer can be used |
Oasis HLB 1cc (10 mg) extraction cartridges | Waters | 186000383 | These are C18 cartridges |
Visiprep SPE vacuum manifold, DL (disposable liner), 24 port model | Sigma Aldrich | 57265 | A 12 port model is also sufficient |
Speed-vac | Thermo Scientific | SPD1010 | any brand of speed vac is sufficient |
Water bath chamber | Thermo Scientific | 2825/2826 | Any brand of a water bath chamber with controlled temperatures is sufficient. |
Mechanical Homogenizer (i.e. FastPrep-24 5G) | MP Biomedicals | 116005500 | |
Eksigent Nano LC – Ultra 2D with Nano LC AS-2 autosampler | Sciex | – | This model is no longer available. Any nano LC with an autosampler is sufficient. |
LTQ Orbitrap Velos Mass Spectrometer | Thermo Scientific | – | This model is no longer available. Other high resolution instruments (e.g. Orbitrap Elite, Orbitrap Fusion, or Orbitrap Fusion Lumos) can be used. |
Protein software (e.g. Proteome Discoverer) | Thermo Scientific | IQLAAEGABSFAKJMAUH | |
Analytical balance | Mettler Toledo | AL54 | |
Stir plate | VWR | 12365-382 | Any brand of stir plates are sufficient. |
pH meter (Tris compatiable) | Fisher Scientific (Accumet) | 13-620-183 | Any brand of a ph meter is sufficient |
pH 10 buffer | Fisher Scientific | 06-664-261 | Any brand of ph buffer 10 is sufficient |
pH 7 buffer | Fisher Scientific | 06-664-260 | Any brand ph buffer 7 is sufficient |
1.5 mL eppendorf tubes, 500pk | Fisher Scientific | 05-408-129 | Any brand of 1.5 mL eppendorf tubes are sufficient |
0.6 mL eppendorf tubes, 500pk | Fisher Scientific | 04-408-120 | Any brand of 0.6 mL eppendorf tubes are sufficient |
0.65µm Ultrafree MC DV centrifugal filter units | EMD Millipore | UFC30DV00 | |
2 mL microcentrifuge tubes, 72 units | Thermo Scientific | 69720 | |
C18 packing material (5 µm, 100 Å) | Bruker | PM5/61100/000 | This item is no longer available from Bruker. Alternative packing material with listed specifications will be sufficient. |
C18 packing material (5 µm, 200 Å) | Bruker | PM5/61200/000 | This item is no longer available from Bruker. Alternative packing material with listed specifications will be sufficient. |