An abbreviated fractionation protocol for the enrichment of detergent-insoluble protein aggregates from human postmortem brain is described.
In this study, we describe an abbreviated single-step fractionation protocol for the enrichment of detergent-insoluble protein aggregates from human postmortem brain. The ionic detergent N-lauryl-sarcosine (sarkosyl) effectively solubilizes natively folded proteins in brain tissue allowing the enrichment of detergent-insoluble protein aggregates from a wide range of neurodegenerative proteinopathies, such as Alzheimer's disease (AD), Parkinson's disease and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, and prion diseases. Human control and AD postmortem brain tissues were homogenized and sedimented by ultracentrifugation in the presence of sarkosyl to enrich detergent-insoluble protein aggregates including pathologic phosphorylated tau, the core component of neurofibrillary tangles in AD. Western blotting demonstrated the differential solubility of aggregated phosphorylated-tau and the detergent-soluble protein, Early Endosome Antigen 1 (EEA1) in control and AD brain. Proteomic analysis also revealed enrichment of β-amyloid (Aβ), tau, snRNP70 (U1-70K), and apolipoprotein E (APOE) in the sarkosyl-insoluble fractions of AD brain compared to those of control, consistent with previous tissue fractionation strategies. Thus, this simple enrichment protocol is ideal for a wide range of experimental applications ranging from Western blotting and functional protein co-aggregation assays to mass spectrometry-based proteomics.
Neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's disease (AD), Parkinson's disease (PD), Huntington's disease (HD), amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), and the closely related prion diseases are proteinopathies characterized by the gradual accumulation of detergent-insoluble protein aggregates in the brain with accompanying cognitive decline.1,2 This shared pathological feature is thought to play a central role in the etiology and pathophysiology of these neurodegenerative diseases.2 These aggregates typically consist of polymeric amyloid fibers, which are composed of repeating units of misfolded protein exhibiting cross β-structure.1,2,3,4 Biochemically, amyloid aggregates are highly resistant to chemical or thermal denaturation and solubilization,3 which presents unique challenges to their purification, analysis and study via traditional biochemical techniques.2,5,6,7,8,9,10,11 Unsurprisingly, the detergent-insoluble protein fraction has been the focus of much research into the pathophysiology of neurodegenerative diseases involving the accumulation of misfolded proteins.6,12,13,14
Biochemical fractionation techniques have often been utilized to enrich the detergent-insoluble fraction from postmortem brain homogenates.6,12,13,14 One of the most common methods involves the sequential extraction of tissue homogenates with buffers and detergents of increasing stringency, followed by ultracentrifugation to partition the soluble and insoluble fractions. A commonly used sequential fractionation protocol6,14 involves the homogenization of frozen tissue samples in a detergent-free low salt (LS) buffer and the resultant insoluble pellets are then sequentially extracted with buffers containing high salt, non-ionic detergents, high sucrose, ionic detergents and finally chaotropes like urea.6,14 An obvious drawback of such a sequential fractionation protocols is the substantial time and labor commitment required to complete them. Including homogenization and ultracentrifugation, a typical five-step fractionation protocol can take several hours or even days to complete. 4,6,7,10,15,16,17,18 Additionally, as many pathologic protein aggregates remain insoluble in all but the harshest conditions19,20 most of the generated fractions are of limited value. Thus, the less-stringent fractionation steps utilizing high salt concentrations and non-ionic detergents are largely redundant.
Previous studies have shown that the ionic detergent N-lauryl-sarcosine (sarkosyl) is an excellent candidate for a simplified single-step detergent fractionation protocol.5,6,12,13,14,21,22,23 As a denaturing detergent, sarkosyl is stringent enough to solubilize the vast majority of natively folded proteins in brain without solubilizing misfolded protein aggregates composed of beta-amyloid (Aβ),6,11 phosphorylated tau (pTau),6 TAR DNA-binding protein 43 (TDP-43),14 alpha-synuclein,12,13 scrapie,23 or U1 small nuclear ribonucleoproteins (U1 snRNPs) such as U1-70K.5,21,22As sarkosyl is less stringent than the ubiquitous anionic detergent sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS), it preserves less robust oligomeric forms of misfolded protein aggregates that cannot withstand SDS treatment.9
Previously, we described an abbreviated detergent-fractionation protocol that achieved results comparable to the more laborious sequential fractionation methodologies.5 By omitting the less stringent fractionation steps, we were able to develop a facile single-step fractionation protocol for the enrichment of detergent-insoluble protein aggregates from postmortem human brain.5 This detailed protocol described herein is well suited for a wide range of experimental applications ranging from Western blotting and mass spectrometry-based proteomics to functional protein misfolding and aggregation seeding assays.5,6,21
Ethics Statement: All brain tissues were obtained from the Emory Alzheimer's Disease Research Center (ADRC) Brain Bank. Human postmortem tissues were acquired under proper Institutional Review Board (IRB) protocols.
1. Homogenization and Fractionation
2. Immunoblotting
The abbreviated single-step sarkosyl-fractionation protocol was used to enrich detergent-insoluble protein aggregates from control and AD postmortem brain (Figure 1). Proteins from TH-S, S1, S2 and P2 fractions were resolved by SDS-PAGE, fixed for 15 min in Coomassie blue fixative buffer followed by gentle staining with Coomassie Brilliant Blue G-250 staining buffer. The resuspension step is optional since there were undetectable levels of protein in the S2 fraction (see 1.1.14). Western blot analysis (Figure 2A and B) clearly demonstrates that in AD brain, the pathologic high molecular-weight phosphorylated tau aggregates were sarkosyl-insoluble, and very little pTau remained in the sarkosyl-soluble fractions.5,6,7,8,10,22 Conversely, the majority of pTau in control brain partitioned into the sarkosyl-soluble fraction.5,6,10 In contrast, EEA1 primarily partitions into the S1 fraction in both control and AD brain (Figure 2C). Here, EEA1 acts as a general marker for most native, non-pathologic proteins that are inherently sarkosyl-soluble5. Notably, there is slightly less signal for EEA1 in the soluble fraction (S1) compared to the TH-S fraction, indicating that a minor pool of EEA1 is likely sarkosyl-insoluble, yet below the limit of detection by western blot with this particular antibody. It is equally possible that the slight decrease in signal strength of EEA1 in the soluble fraction (S1) is due to non-specific binding of EEA1 to the ultracentrifuge tubes could also explain the slight deviation from expected results.
To benchmark the efficacy of the abbreviated single-step fractionation protocol (Figure 3A) against the more traditional multi-step sequential fractionation methodology (Figure 3B), the relative levels of sarkosyl-insoluble amyloid precursor protein (APP), tau (MAPT), small nuclear ribonucleoprotein U1-70K (snRNP70) and apolipoprotein E (APOE) were compared by label-free mass spectrometry (MS) based proteomics across pooled control (Ctl), mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and AD cases from previous studies7,18 (Figure 3). Measurements of detergent-insoluble APP effectively represents the Aβ peptide, as all fully tryptic APP peptides quantified mapped to the Aβ region of the full length 695 residue APP protein7. With both methods, the sarkosyl-insoluble levels of all four pathologic proteins trended upwards in MCI and AD cases relative to controls, consistent with the strong correlation of cognitive decline and pathological burden. Overall, enrichment of these proteins in the detergent-insoluble fractions (P2) were remarkably consistent using both the single-step18 and multi-step fractionation protocols7.
There are, however, slight differences between the two methodologies that may prove advantageous or deleterious depending on the exact nature and goals of an individual experiment. The comparative proteomic data summarized in Figure 3 may inform which protocol to use depending on specific experimental parameters and applications. As one might expect, there is a general trade-off between sample enrichment and purity, with the simplified fractionation protocol affording more enriched samples with less protein loss than the multi-step method.
For example, control insoluble fractions prepared using the simplified protocol (Figure 3A) exhibit slightly higher background levels of disease-relevant proteins than those prepared via the multi-step approach. Conversely, the single-step fractionation technique may be advantageous for low-abundance proteins as the overall sample losses are significantly reduced. For example, the relative enrichment of sarkosyl-insoluble APOE in MCI cases is significantly higher in the insoluble fractions prepared via the abbreviated protocol (Figure 3A).
Although both approaches are more than adequate to observe any significant increase in disease-relevant or pathologic misfolded protein aggregates, the more numerous and extensive fractionation and wash steps of the multi-step approach may generate a cleaner and more specific proteomic signature. Nevertheless, our data verify that the single-step fractionation method is consistent with published findings that pathologic aggregates such as tau neurofibrillary tangles (NFTs), Aβ plaques and scrapie prions (PrSc) are insoluble in sarkosyl, while their natively folded counterparts remain soluble.5,6,7,8,10,11,23,26
By calculating the relative amounts of protein that partition into the detergent-insoluble fractions of control (n=3) and AD (n=3) brain (Table 2), only ~ 10% of the total protein pool is sarkosyl-insoluble. When 5 mg total protein of brain homogenate (TH-S) is fractionated, 10.4% and 11.3% of the proteome partitions into the detergent-insoluble fraction in control and AD cases, respectively. Although the total amount of sarkosyl-insoluble protein enriched in AD brain is slightly higher than control, no significant differences were observed across the two groups (p=0.703). This indicates that protein misfolding and aggregation is not widespread in AD brain, but rather limited to a narrow and specific subset of proteins such as tau, Aβ and U1 snRNPs.7,21,22
Figure 1: Sarkosyl fractionation scheme. (A) A postmortem human brain was homogenized in low salt buffer, after which sarkosyl and NaCl were added to final concentrations of 1% w/v and 0.5 M, respectively and incubated for 15 min on ice. After sonication, the homogenates were fractionated by ultracentrifugation at 180,000 x g for 30 min affording the sarkosyl-soluble supernatant (S1) and the sarkosyl-insoluble pellet (P1). The P1 pellet was (OPTIONALLY) washed with sark-buffer and re-sedimented by ultracentrifugation to afford the final sarkosyl-insoluble pellet (P2). This P2 fraction was solubilized in urea buffer for 30 min at room temperature, followed by 3 x 5 s sonication with a clean microtip probe. (B) Proteins (20 µg) from TH-S, S1, S2 (10 µL) and P2 fractions were resolved by SDS-PAGE, fixed for 15 min in Coomassie blue fixative buffer followed by gentle staining with Coomassie Brilliant Blue G-250 staining buffer overnight at room temperature. Please click here to view a larger version of this figure.
Figure 2: Enrichment of phosphorylated-tau in the detergent insoluble fraction of AD brain. (A and B) Protein (40 μg) of the total (TH-S), soluble (S1) and insoluble (P2) fractions were blotted with an antibody against tau phosphorylated at threonine 231 (pT231) or AT8 (pSer202, pThr205) to demonstrate the enrichment of pathologic phospho-tau species in the insoluble fraction (P2) of AD brain. In AD brain, high molecular weight aggregated tau exclusively partitions into the detergent-insoluble (P2) fraction. (C) EEA1 served as a soluble protein marker and relative loading control for the total (TH-S) and soluble (S1) fractions of control and AD brain. Please click here to view a larger version of this figure.
Figure 3: Proteomic analysis of pathologic AD proteins using a single-step or multi-step fractionation protocol. Relative levels of the representative sarkosyl-insoluble proteins APP (Aβ), tau, snRNP70 (U1-70K) and APOE across different diseases among pooled control, MCI and AD cases using either the single step (A) or multi-step (B) sarkosyl fractionation approach. For both datasets, protein level was estimated by peptide spectral matches (PSMs) of these identified proteins, and normalized to set the maximum to 100. PSMs from Control, MCI, and AD cases (n=5 each) were used for the single-set dataset. For the multi-step approach, PSMs from two replicate pools of control, MCI and AD cases (n=5 each) were analyzed. Error bars indicate the values of mean ± S.E.M. Please click here to view a larger version of this figure.
10% w/v sarkosyl solution: 10 g N-lauryl-sarcosine sodium salt per 100 ml of ddH2O (stir at RT overnight) |
Low Salt (LS) buffer: 50 mM HEPES pH 7.0, 250 mM sucrose, 1 mM EDTA |
Sarkosyl (sark) buffer: LS buffer + 1% (w/v) sarkosyl + 0.5 M NaCl |
Urea buffer (store at -20 °C): 50 mM Tris-HCl pH 8.5, 8M urea, 2% SDS |
4X SDS loading buffer: 200 mM Tris-HCl pH 6.8, 40% glycerol, 8% sodium dodecyl suflate (SDS), 0.4% bromophenol blue (BPB), and 20 mM TCEP pH 7.0 in ddH2O |
Coomassie fixative buffer: 40% Methanol, 10% acetic acid in ddH2O |
Coomassie Brilliant Blue G-250 staining buffer: 25% Methanol, 5% acetic acid, 0.1% coomassie blue G-250 in ddH2O |
Coomassie destain buffer: 25% methanol, 5% acetic acid in ddH2O |
1X Tris buffered saline (TBS): 50 mM Tris-HCl pH 7.45, 150 mM NaCl in ddH2O |
1X Tris buffered saline with Tween 20 (TBS/T): 50 mM Tris-HCl pH 7.45, 150 mM NaCl, 0.1% Tween 20 in ddH2O |
1X Blocking buffer (BB): 50 mM Tris-HCl pH 7.45, 150 mM NaCl, 1% proprietary protein (see materials list), 750 mM Methylchloroisothiazolinone in ddH2O |
1X Blocking buffer with 0.05% Tween 20 (BB/T): 50 mM Tris-HCl pH 7.45, 150 mM NaCl, 1% proprietary protein (see materials list), 0.05% Tween 20, 750 mM Methylchloroisothiazolinone in ddH2O |
Table 1: Buffers list.
Sample | Volume Sample (µL) | Concentration (µg/µL) | Total Protein (µg) | Average Total Protein (µg) and S.E.M. | % TH-S (5 mg) |
Ctl 1 | 70 | 9.89 | 692.3 | ||
Ctl 2 | 70 | 7.38 | 516.6 | 518.7 (±99.63) | 10.4% |
Ctl 3 | 70 | 4.96 | 347.2 | ||
AD 1 | 70 | 9.77 | 683.9 | ||
AD 2 | 70 | 6.67 | 466.9 | 567.0 (±63.20) | 11.3% |
AD 3 | 70 | 7.86 | 550.2 |
Table 2: Protein amount in sarkosyl-insoluble fractions (P2). On average, the percentage of protein that partitions into the sarkosyl-insoluble fraction of control (n=3) and AD (n=3) brain was 10.4% and 11.3%, respectively. There was no statistically significant difference of the amount of sarkosyl-insoluble proteins from control and AD brain, as evidenced by the by student's t-test (p = 0.703) and standard error of the mean (S.E.M.) values.
Herein we introduce and discuss an abbreviated single-step detergent-fractionation protocol that is applicable to a wide variety of experimental applications ranging from mass spectrometry-based proteomics analysis to functional protein misfolding assays and western blotting.5,6,7,10 This methodology is perhaps most effective when used to study neurodegenerative proteinopathies such as Alzheimer's, ALS, Huntington's disease, prion diseases and the various tauopathies. Compared to original five-step sequential fractionation protocol, this single-step procedure can be completed in a single day and affords very similar results.5,6,7,9,14,22
An important aspect of this protocol is the use of sarkosyl as the fractionation detergent. In contrast with other detergents like Triton X-100 or sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS), sarkosyl appears to be well suited to this task; in terms of stringency and solubilizing strength, it is strong enough to solubilize the majority of natively folded proteins while preserving the detergent-insolubility, structure and function of disease-relevant protein aggregates that are inherently sensitive to SDS.5,9 Additionally, unlike SDS, sarkosyl remains soluble at low temperatures and in high salt conditions.
Another key feature of this protocol is the resuspension of the first sarkosyl-insoluble (P1) pellets following the first round of ultracentrifugation. This wash step allows the initial pellets (P1) to be thoroughly extracted and washed of any residual cross-contaminating soluble or total homogenate proteins, affording a pure and well-defined detergent-insoluble protein fraction. Without the optional pellet (P1) resuspension and wash step, residual soluble proteins may be carried-over into the detergent-insoluble fraction, possibly confounding subsequent results and experiments (i.e. immunoblotting or proteomics analysis).
The insoluble and high molecular weight nature of pathologic misfolded protein aggregates (i.e. tau, phospho-tau and Aβ species) present unique challenges toward their isolation and analysis via traditional biochemical techniques.5,6,7,8,9,12,17,21,26 Unlike soluble proteins, insoluble aggregates such as amyloids (Aβ) and hyperphosphorylated tau neurofibrillary tangles (NFTs) cannot be readily purified from postmortem tissue by traditional methods such as immunoprecipitation or fast protein liquid chromatography (FPLC).3,5,6,7,11,12,23,27 Thus, the abbreviated sarkosyl-fractionation protocol is one of the only techniques that allows for the facile enrichment and isolation of detergent-insoluble protein aggregates from postmortem brain within a comparatively short time-frame.5,6,8,13,15,17,21,27
While additional steps can be employed to isolate a pure, homogenous sample of aggregated protein, the sarkosyl fractionation protocol allows for the facile enrichment of detergent-insoluble protein aggregates with comparatively little time commitment.5,6 In support of this hypothesis, proteomic studies of the sarkosyl-insoluble proteome confirm that the vast majority of known pathologic aggregation-prone proteins partition into the sarkosyl-insoluble fraction-in both traditional multi-step6,11,21 as well as our novel single-step fractionation approach.5,7,9,10
The authors have nothing to disclose.
The authors thank Drs. Jim Lah and Allan Levey, Emory Department of Neurology, for helpful comments and suggestions. This work was partly funded by the Accelerating Medicine Partnership grant (U01AG046161-02), the Emory Alzheimer's Disease Research Center (P50AG025688) and a National Institute on Aging grant (R01AG053960-01) to N.T.S. This research was also supported in part by the Neuropathology Core of the Emory Neuroscience NINDS Core Facilities grant, P30NS055077.
Protease and phosphatase inhibitor cocktail, EDTA-free (100X) | Thermo Fisher | 78441 | protease & phosphatase inhibitor cocktail |
Sonic Dismembrator System (ultrasonicator) | Fisher Scientific | FB505110 | microtip ultrasonicator |
Optimax TLX Ultracentrifuge | Beckman Coulter | 361545 | refrigerated ultracentrifuge |
TLA120.1 rotor | Beckman Coulter | 362224 | ultracentrifuge rotor |
500 ul (8x34mm) polycarbonate tubes, thickwall | Beckman Coulter | 343776 | ultracentrifuge tubes for TLA120.1 rotor |
4X SDS sample buffer | Home-made | N/A | SDS-PAGE |
TCEP solution, neutral pH | Thermo Fisher | 77720 | reducing agent |
(TBS) blocking buffer | Thermo Fisher | 37542 | blocking buffer |
(TBS) blocking buffer + 0.05% Tween 20 | Thermo Fisher | 37543 | blocking buffer and antibody diluent |
4-12% Bolt Bis-Tris Plus gels, 10-well | Thermo Fisher | NW04120BOX | precast SDS-PAGE gels |
MES SDS Running Buffer (20X) | Thermo Fisher | B0002 | SDS-PAGE running buffer |
N-Lauroylsarcosine sodium salt (sarkosyl) | Sigma Aldrich | L5777-50G | detergent |
1.5 ml polypropylene Pellet Pestle | Kimble Chase | 749521-1500 | homogenization tool |
cordless motor for Pellet Pestle | Kimble Chase | 749540-0000 | homogenization tool |
Anti-Tau-2 (pan tau) antibody | Chemicon | MAB375 | antibodies |
Anti-phospho-threonine 231 Tau antibody | Millipore | MAB5450 | antibodies |
Anti-phospho-seroine 202 and threonine 205 Tau antibody (AT8) | Thermo Fisher | MN1020 | antibodies |
Anti-early endosome antigen 1 (EEA1) antibody | abcam | ab2900 | antibodies |
Alexa Fluor 680 goat anti-mouse IgG (H+L) secondary antibody | Thermo Fisher | A21058 | antibodies |
Alexa Fluor 790 donkey anti-rabbit IgG (H+L) secondary antibody | Thermo Fisher | A11374 | antibodies |
iBlot2 Dry Blotting System | Thermo Fisher | IB21001 | Gel transfer |
iBlot2 Transfer Stacks, Nitrocellulose, mini | Thermo Fisher | IB23002 | Gel transfer |