Here, it is demonstrated how the in situ Proximity Ligation Assay (PLA) can be used to detect and visualize the direct protein-protein interactions between ATM and p53 in suspension cell cultures exposed to genotoxic stress.
The DNA damage response orchestrates the repair of DNA lesions that occur spontaneously, are caused by genotoxic stress, or appear in the context of programmed DNA breaks in lymphocytes. The Ataxia-Telangiectasia Mutated kinase (ATM), ATM- and Rad3-Related kinase (ATR) and the catalytic subunit of DNA-dependent Protein Kinase (DNA-PKcs) are among the first that are activated upon induction of DNA damage, and are central regulators of a network that controls DNA repair, apoptosis and cell survival. As part of a tumor-suppressive pathway, ATM and ATR activate p53 through phosphorylation, thereby regulating the transcriptional activity of p53. DNA damage also results in the formation of so-called ionizing radiation-induced foci (IRIF) that represent complexes of DNA damage sensor and repair proteins that accumulate at the sites of DNA damage, which are visualized by fluorescence microscopy. Co-localization of proteins in IRIFs, however, does not necessarily imply direct protein-protein interactions, as the resolution of fluorescence microscopy is limited.
In situ Proximity Ligation Assay (PLA) is a novel technique that allows the direct visualization of protein-protein interactions in cells and tissues with unprecedented specificity and sensitivity. This technique is based on the spatial proximity of specific antibodies binding to the proteins of interest. When the interrogated proteins are within ~40 nm an amplification reaction is triggered by oligonucleotides that are conjugated to the antibodies, and the amplification product is visualized by fluorescent labeling, yielding a signal that corresponds to the subcellular location of the interacting proteins. Using the established functional interaction between ATM and p53 as an example, it is demonstrated here how PLA can be used in suspension cell cultures to study the direct interactions between proteins that are integral parts of the DNA damage response.
DNA damage triggers a highly regulated series of events involving protein-protein interactions and post-translational modifications that ensures the efficient and rapid repair of DNA, thereby safeguarding genomic integrity1. Typically, DNA repair is studied in cells exposed to ionizing radiation by monitoring the formation of so-called ionizing radiation-induced foci (IRIF) by (confocal) fluorescence microscopy. Many DNA repair and DNA damage-sensing proteins form IRIFs, which represent protein complexes that nucleate at chromatin sites sustaining DNA damage2,3. The location and resolution of IRIFs over time gives important insight into spatiotemporal organization of DNA repair, and may indicate the involvement of different DNA repair pathways. The nature of the DNA damage and the cell-cycle stage in which the damage is attained determines which DNA repair pathway is activated. For instance, in cells actively engaged in DNA replication (S-phase), homologous recombination (HR) is the dominant DNA repair pathway, whereas in cells in the G1- or G2/M-phase of the cell-cycle, the non-homologous end-joining (NHEJ) repair pathway predominates. One of the earliest events following DNA damage is the activation of the DNA damage-sensing kinases Ataxia Telangiectasia-Mutated protein (ATM), which is mostly active in the G1- and G2/M-phases of the cell-cycle and regulates NHEJ, and Ataxia Telangiectasia and Rad3-related protein (ATR), which acts in S-phase by activating HR. Both ATM and ATR are very pleiotropic kinases that phosphorylate many proteins that are involved in DNA repair, cell death and survival4. Both kinases have been shown to phosphorylate and activate the tumor-suppressor protein p53 following the exposure to genotoxic stress, indicating that these kinases are upstream mediators of a pivotal tumor suppressive signaling axis5,6.
The formation and composition of IRIFs is typically assessed by determining co-localization of different proteins using dual-color immunofluorescence staining and microscopy, however, not all proteins that are part of repair protein complexes form IRIFs, which limits the applicability of this approach. Moreover, (confocal) immunofluorescence microscopy is limited by the diffraction properties of light, resulting in a rather poor spatial resolution of about 200-300 nm, exceeding the size of most subcellular structures, which essentially prohibits the direct interrogation of protein-protein interactions at the molecular level. As such, the co-localization of immunofluorescence staining patterns as detected by (confocal) fluorescence microscopy is not necessarily indicative for direct protein-protein interactions. Recently, new super-resolution technologies have been developed, such as three-dimensional structured illumination microscopy (3D-SIM)7, which was successfully used to study 53BP1 and BRCA1 IRIF formation at nano-scale detail, revealing the spatial distribution characteristics of these proteins that could not detected by confocal laser scanning microscopy8.
Several other methods can be used to detect protein-protein interactions in vivo, such as co-immunoprecipitation, pull-down methods and yeast two-hybrid screening approaches. However, these techniques are rather cumbersome, require large amounts of cells or proteins or involve overexpression of proteins, which introduces experimental artifacts. More recently, a novel technique has been developed that allows the visualization and quantification of protein-protein interactions in situ (i.e. in cells and in tissues), which is termed Proximity Ligation Assay (PLA)9,10. Primary antibodies that recognize two proteins of interest are detected by secondary antibodies that are conjugated to oligonucleotides (so-called PLA probes). If the two different secondary antibodies are sufficiently close due to interactions between the proteins recognized by the primary antibodies, the conjugated oligonucleotides hybridize and can be ligated to form a closed circular DNA substrate. This circular substrate is subsequently amplified by rolling circle amplification, and visualized with fluorochrome-conjugated complementary oligonucleotides. Using PLA, the subcellular localization of the protein-protein interaction is preserved as the fluorescently labeled rolling circle amplification-product remains attached to the PLA probes. The resolution of this assay is <50 nm, based on the finding that the diameter of an antibody is approximately 7-10 nm11. Rolling circle amplification can only take place in case two pairs of antibodies (primary + secondary) physically interact within the perimeter that is defined by their size (10 + 10 + 10 + 10 = 40 nm). The signal amplification step increases the sensitivity of the PLA assay and enables the detection of interactions of scarcely expressed proteins. PLA generates punctate, foci-like signals patterns that can be quantified on a per cell basis, by which the intra- and inter-cellular variation in protein-protein interactions can be assessed.
The formation and composition of DNA repair complexes and IRIFs is mostly studied in adherent cell lines such as the human bone osteosarcoma epithelial cell line U2OS, the human embryonic kidney cell line HEK293 and the retinal pigment epithelial cell line RPE-1, which are fast-growing and easy to transfect. Suspension cell cultures such a lymphoid and myeloid cell lines are used less frequently, as these are less amenable to transfection and generally do not adhere to coverslips, thus requiring additional/alternative steps for imaging. The resolution of DNA damage is however very relevant in the context of lymphoid and myeloid malignancies, as the DNA damage response is frequently affected by genomic (driver) aberrations in these tumors, playing a pivotal role in the malignant transformation of normal lymphoid and myeloid (progenitor) cells12,13,14.
This protocol describes how PLA can be used to assess and quantify protein-protein interactions following the induction of DNA damage in suspension cell cultures. Here, PLA is performed to determine and visualize the interactions between ATM and p53 upon DNA damage in human B-cell leukemia cells that are induced to undergo a G1-phase cell-cycle arrest. Of note, the protocol presented here is not restricted to studying ATM and p53 interactions in G1-arrested leukemia cells, but can also be used to visualize other protein-protein interactions in various cell types and suspension cell cultures.
1. Treatment of Cells and DNA Damage Induction
2. Cytocentrifugation, Fixation and Permeabilization
3. Blocking and Primary Antibody Incubation
4. PLA Probes, Ligation and Amplification
5. Mounting and Imaging
Phosphorylation of p53 at residue Ser15 was shown to be dependent on ATM kinase activity16. To demonstrate and confirm the specificity of the PLA technique on cytospin preparations of suspension cell cultures, it is shown that induction of DNA damage by 2 h NCS treatment of BCR-ABL+ B-ALL cells arrested in the G1-phase of the cell-cycle resulted in the specific interaction between ATM and phospho-Ser15-p53, as expected. Punctate PLA signals were observed in the nucleus of the majority of cells treated with NCS (Figure 1B), with an average of 7 PLA signals per cell15, whereas these signals were not detected in cells that were not treated with NCS (Figure 1A). Pre-treatment of the cells with the specific ATM kinase inhibitor KU55933 prior to induction of DNA damage clearly diminished the number of PLA signals to an average of 2 PLA signals/cell (Figure 1C). The ATM-phospho-Ser15-p53 PLA signals were exclusively detected in the nucleus, as expected. PLA experiments in which either the goat-anti-ATM or the rabbit-anti-phospho-Ser15-p53 antibody was omitted ('single-antibody' control) did not yield any specific PLA signals (Figures 1D and 1E). Quantification and statistical analyses of these results are presented in Figure 1F (adapted from Ochodnicka et al. J.Immunol. 2016)15.
Figure 1: In situ PLA for ATM/phospho-Ser15-p53 Interactions in BV173 Human BCR-ABL+ Cells. (A) Cells were treated overnight with 5 μM imatinib (specific Abl kinase inhibitor that provokes a G1-phase cell-cycle arrest in BCR-ABL+ cells), with imatinib and 50 ng/mL NCS, which induced DNA damage (B), or with imatinib and pre-treated with 5 μM of the specific ATM kinase inhibitor KU55933 prior to NCS treatment (C). Single-antibody control PLA experiments for the goat-anti-ATM (D) and rabbit-anti-phospho-Ser15-p53 antibodies (E) are shown. Red fluorescence punctate signals represent in situ protein proximity (<50 nm) of ATM and phospho-Ser15-p53 proteins. Scale bars = 5 μm (white lines). (F) Quantification of the number of PLA signals in at least 20 cells treated under different experimental conditions are shown. Horizontal lines represent means; statistical significances were determined by one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA; *** p <0.001). Please click here to view a larger version of this figure.
In this report, it is demonstrated that PLA can be used to determine and visualize the specific interaction between proteins in suspension cell cultures. Of note, the protocol described here is not restricted to the study of DNA repair complexes but also applies to visualize and quantify other protein-protein interactions in suspension cell cultures. It is shown that the ATM kinase interacts with phosphorylated p53 in G1-arrested BCR-ABL+ B-ALL cells when exposed to a DNA damage-inducing agent. Previously, the PLA technique was used by us to show that ATM and the FOXO1 transcription factor interacted in BCR-ABL+ B-ALL cells, however, this interaction most likely did not result in the ATM-dependent phosphorylation of FOXO1. In support of the PLA data, it was confirmed by immunoprecipitation of endogenous ATM/ATR-phosphorylated proteins that, in contrast to the established ATM substrates p53 and NBS1, FOXO1 is not phosphorylated by ATM upon induction of DNA damage15. In addition, the PLA approach was successfully applied to study the formation of mismatch repair complexes (e.g. the interaction between MSH2 and MSH6) interactions in various human B-cell lymphoma cell lines (data not shown). In these particular contexts, the PLA technique offered an alternative approach to support our findings. It is demonstrated that PLA allows the semi-quantitative assessment of protein-protein interactions between experimental conditions and gives insight into the cell-to-cell variation in these interactions.
The analysis of specific protein-protein interactions in cells (exposed to different experimental conditions) has typically been challenging and is subject to experimental artifacts. Generally, protein co-immunoprecipitation has been the method of choice but requires large numbers of cells and/or proteins, essentially prohibiting the analysis of protein-protein interactions in rare cell types or between proteins that are expressed at low levels. Moreover, overexpression of proteins in (irrelevant) cell line models often leads to overexpression artifacts, and results can be very difficult to confirm/validate in vivo, or in the relevant cell types. Also, co-immunoprecipitation requires lysis of cells and solubilization of proteins, which can result in the loss of signal when protein-protein interactions are weak. Importantly, protein co-immunoprecipitation and yeast-two-hybrid approaches are unable to detect intra- and inter-cellular variation in protein-protein interactions. The PLA technique offers an attractive and easy alternative for these techniques, and provides important additional insight. PLA can be used in a standard (diagnostic) laboratory setting as it does not require highly specialized skills beyond the capability to perform immunohistochemistry.
The development of super-resolution microscopy has allowed the in-depth analysis of the molecular architecture of protein complexes. This technique, however, is not readily available and involves a dedicated research infrastructure. PLA offers an accessible, simple and cheap alternative approach for the study of protein complex formation, with a comparable resolution. An obvious limitation of the PLA technique is the availability of specific primary antibodies raised in different species. However, several companies now offer dedicated (and validated) antibody combinations that streamline the use of the PLA technique.
Studies on the involvement of proteins in DNA damage repair and the DNA damage response rely heavily on the analysis of IRIF formation and composition. However, it must be noted that co-localization of proteins in IRIFs does not necessarily imply direct protein-protein interactions. The PLA technique offers a unique opportunity to study DNA repair proteins and the formation of repair complexes in more detail. The spatiotemporal analysis of the formation of such complexes can be mapped in greater detail using PLA. Moreover, it will allow researchers to assess the formation of repair complexes in tissues and clinical specimens of patients that have been treated with DNA damaging agents or therapies, which may provide important insight into the efficacy of these treatment modalities and may even aid in the selection of patients that will benefit most from these treatments.
The authors have nothing to disclose.
Research in the Guikema laboratory is funded by the Innovational Research Incentives Scheme from The Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (VIDI grant 016126355) and the ‘Stichting Kinderen Kankervrij’ KiKA (project 252).
BV173 cell line | DSMZ | AC-20 | BCR-ABL+ B-ALL cell line |
SUP-B15 cell line | DSMZ | ACC-389 | BCR-ABL+ B-ALL cell line |
Iscove's Modified Dulbecco's Medium (IMDM) | Gibco (Life Technologies) | 21980-032 | |
Fetal Calf Serum | Sigma Aldrich | F7524 | lot #: 064M3396 |
L-glutamine | Gibco (Life Technologies) | 25030-024 | |
penicillin/streptomycin | Gibco (Life Technologies) | 15140-122 | |
imatinib methanesulfonate | LC Laboratories | I-5508 | Dissolve in DMSO, prepare 10 mM stock solution |
neocarzinostatin | Sigma Aldrich | N9162 | Mutagenic/teratogenic, handle with care |
KU55933 | Selleckchem | S1092 | Dissolve in DMSO, prepare 5 mM stock solution |
Starfrost Microscopy Slides | Waldemar Knittel | VA11200 003FKB | |
PAP pen liquid blocker | Sigma Aldrich | Z377821-1EA | |
Cytospin funnel | Q Path Labonord SAS | 003411324 | |
Duolink In Situ Red Starter Kit Goat/Rabbit | Sigma Aldrich | DUO92105 | Available for different species/combinations, also available in FarRED, Orange and Green |
goat-anti-ATM | Bethyl Laboratories | A300-136A | PLA-grade; we succesfully used lot#A300-136A-1 in our studies |
rabbit-anti-phospho-Ser15-p53 | Cell Signaling Technology | 9284 | We succesfully used lot #9284-4 in our studies |
Vectashield antifading mounting medium with DAPI | Vector Labs | H-1200 | |
Vectashield antifading mounting medium | Vector Labs | H-1000 | |
4% paraformaldehyde in PBS | Santa Cruz Biotechnology | sc-281692 | Also available from various other vendors |