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Discover how PEPperPRINT Peptide Microarray products have been used in different fields of research.

Binding epitope for recognition of human TRPM4 channel by monoclonal antibody M4M

Wei, Shunhui; Behn, Julian; Poore, Charlene Priscilla; Low, See Wee; Nilius, Bernd; Fan, Hao; Liao, Ping
Sci Rep.
Nov 2022
Abstract Mouse monoclonal antibody M4M was recently designed to block human TRPM4 channel. The polypeptide for generating M4M is composed of peptide A1 between the transmembrane segment 5 (S5) and the pore, and a second peptide A2 between the pore and the transmembrane segment 6 (S6). Using peptide microarray, a 4-amino acid sequence EPGF within the A2 was identified to be the binding epitope for M4M. Substitution of EPGF with other amino acids greatly reduced binding affinity. Structural analysis of human TRPM4 structure indicates that EPGF is located externally to the channel pore. A1 is close to the EPGF binding epitope in space, albeit separated by a 37-amino acid peptide. Electrophysiological study reveals that M4M could block human TRPM4, but with no effect on rodent TRPM4 which shares a different amino acid sequence ERGS for the binding motif. Our results demonstrate that M4M is a specific inhibitor for human TRPM4.

A heterotypic assembly mechanism regulates CHIP E3 ligase activity

Das, Aniruddha; Thapa, Pankaj; Santiago, Ulises; Shanmugam, Nilesh; Banasiak, Katarzyna; Dąbrowska, Katarzyna; Nolte, Hendrik; Szulc, Natalia A; Gathungu, Rose M; Cysewski, Dominik; Krüger, Marcus; Dadlez, Michał; Nowotny, Marcin; Camacho, Carlos J; Hoppe, Thorsten; Pokrzywa, Wojciech
The EMBO Journal.
Aug 2022
CHIP (C‐terminus of Hsc70‐interacting protein) and its worm ortholog CHN‐1 are E3 ubiquitin ligases that link the chaperone system with the ubiquitin‐proteasome system (UPS). CHN‐1 can cooperate with UFD‐2, another E3 ligase, to accelerate ubiquitin chain formation; however, the basis for the high processivity of this E3s set has remained obscure. Here, we studied the molecular mechanism and function of the CHN‐1–UFD‐2 complex in Caenorhabditis elegans. Our data show that UFD‐2 binding promotes the cooperation between CHN‐1 and ubiquitin‐conjugating E2 enzymes by stabilizing the CHN‐1 U‐box dimer. However, HSP70/HSP‐1 chaperone outcompetes UFD‐2 for CHN‐1 binding, thereby promoting a shift to the autoinhibited CHN‐1 state by acting on a conserved residue in its U‐box domain. The interaction with UFD‐2 enables CHN‐1 to efficiently ubiquitylate and regulate S‐adenosylhomocysteinase (AHCY‐1), a key enzyme in the S‐adenosylmethionine (SAM) regeneration cycle, which is essential for SAM‐dependent methylation. Our results define the molecular mechanism underlying the synergistic cooperation of CHN‐1 and UFD‐2 in substrate ubiquitylation.

Probing peptide sequences on their ability to generate affinity sites in molecularly imprinted polymers

Piletska, Elena V; Guerreiro, Antonio; Mersiyanova, Margarita; Cowen, Todd; Canfarotta, Francesco; Piletsky, Stanislav S.; Karim, Kal; Piletsky, Sergey A.
Langmuir.
Dec 2019
An array of 4000 defined and addressable tripeptides on a polymer-coated glass slide is used to synthesize molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP) nanoparticles. This work is undertaken to systematically probe the impact of the peptide sequence on the ability to generate affinity MIPs. The polymer affinity is assessed by measuring the fluorescence of bound MIP nanoparticles at each peptide spot on the surface after washing the array to remove any low-affinity polymer. The generic composition commonly used in the preparation of MIPs against proteins seems to be equally suitable for imprinting hydrophobic and hydrophilic tripeptides. The amino acids frequently contributing to the formation of high-affinity MIPs include T, F, D, N, Y, W, and P. The amino acids that rarely contribute to the formation of high-affinity interactions with MIPs are G, V, A, L, I, and M. These observations are confirmed by computational modeling. The basic technique proposed here may be applicable in optimizing polymer compositions for the production of high-affinity MIPs or, more specifically, for the selection of appropriate amino acid sequences when peptide epitopes are used instead of whole protein imprinting.

Diagnostic Profiling of the Human Public IgM Repertoire With Scalable Mimotope Libraries

Pashov, Anastas; Shivarov, Velizar; Hadzhieva, Maya; Kostov, Victor; Ferdinandov, Dilyan; Heintz, Karen-Marie; Pashova, Shina; Todorova, Milena; Vassilev, Tchavdar; Kieber-Emmons, Thomas; Meza-Zepeda, Leonardo A.; Hovig, Eivind
Front. Immunol..
Dec 2019
Specific antibody reactivities are routinely used as biomarkers, but the antibody repertoire reactivity (igome) profiles are still neglected. Here, we propose rationally designed peptide arrays as efficient probes for these system level biomarkers. Most IgM antibodies are characterized by few somatic mutations, polyspecificity, and physiological autoreactivity with housekeeping function. Previously, probing this repertoire with a set of immunodominant self-proteins provided a coarse analysis of the respective repertoire profiles. In contrast, here, we describe the generation of a peptide mimotope library that reflects the common IgM repertoire of 10,000 healthy donors. In addition, an appropriately sized subset of this quasi-complete mimotope library was further designed as a potential diagnostic tool. A 7-mer random peptide phage display library was panned on pooled human IgM. Next-generation sequencing of the selected phage yielded 224,087 sequences, which clustered in 790 sequence clusters. A set of 594 mimotopes, representative of the most significant sequence clusters, was shown to probe symmetrically the space of IgM reactivities in patients’ sera. This set of mimotopes can be easily scaled including a greater proportion of the mimotope library. The trade-off between the array size and the resolution can be explored while preserving the symmetric sampling of the mimotope sequence and reactivity spaces. BLAST search of the non-redundant protein database with the mimotopes sequences yielded significantly more immunoglobulin J region hits than random peptides, indicating a considerable idiotypic connectivity of the targeted igome. The proof of principle predictors for random diagnoses was represented by profiles of mimotopes. The number of potential reactivity profiles that can be extracted from this library is estimated at more than 1070. Thus, a quasi-complete IgM mimotope library and a scalable representative subset thereof are found to address very efficiently the dynamic diversity of the human public IgM repertoire, providing informationally dense and structurally interpretable IgM reactivity profiles.

A Low‐Cost Laser‐Based Nano‐3D Polymer Printer for Rapid Surface Patterning and Chemical Synthesis of Peptide and Glycan Microarrays

Eickelmann, Stephan; Tsouka, Alexandra; Heidepriem, Jasmin; Paris, Grigori; Zhang, Junfang; Molinari, Valerio; Mende, Marco; Loeffler, Felix F.
Adv. Mater. Technol..
Nov 2019
A low-cost laser-based printing setup is presented, which allows for the spot-wise patterning of surfaces with defined polymer nanolayers. These nanolayer spots serve as a “solid solvent,” embedding different chemicals, chemical building blocks, materials, or precursors and can be stacked on top of each other. By melting the spot pattern, the polymer-embedded molecules are released for chemical reaction. This enables researchers to quickly pattern a surface with different molecules and materials, mixing them directly on the surface for high-throughput chemical synthesis to generate and screen diverse microarray libraries. In contrast to expensive ink-jet or contact printing, this approach does not require premixing of inks, which enables in situ combinatorial mixing. Easy access and versatility of this patterning approach are shown by generating microarrays of various biomolecules, such as glycans for the first time, to screen interactions of antibodies and lectins. In addition, a layer-by-layer solid-phase synthesis of peptides directly on the microarray is presented. Amino acid–containing nanolayers are repeatedly laser-transferred and reacted with the functionalized acceptor surface in defined patterns. This simple system enables a reproducible array production, down to spot-to-spot distances of 100 µm, and offers a flexible and cheap alternative to expensive spotting robot technology.

Miniaturized and Automated Synthesis of Biomolecules—Overview and Perspectives

Mattes, Daniela S.; Jung, Nicole; Weber, Laura K.; Bräse, Stefan; Breitling, Frank
Adv. Mater..
Jun 2019
Chemical synthesis is performed by reacting different chemical building blocks with defined stoichiometry, while meeting additional conditions, such as temperature and reaction time. Such a procedure is especially suited for automation and miniaturization. Life sciences lead the way to synthesizing millions of different oligonucleotides in extremely miniaturized reaction sites, e.g., pinpointing active genes in whole genomes, while chemistry advances different types of automation. Recent progress in matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization mass spectrometry (MALDI-MS) imaging could match miniaturized chemical synthesis with a powerful analytical tool to validate the outcome of many different synthesis pathways beyond applications in the life sciences. Thereby, due to the radical miniaturization of chemical synthesis, thousands of molecules can be synthesized. This in turn should allow ambitious research, e.g., finding novel synthesis routes or directly screening for photocatalysts. Herein, different technologies are discussed that might be involved in this endeavor. A special emphasis is given to the obstacles that need to be tackled when depositing tiny amounts of materials to many different extremely miniaturized reaction sites.

Interaction of the Warsaw breakage syndrome DNA helicase DDX11 with the replication fork-protection factor Timeless promotes sister chromatid cohesion

Cortone, Giuseppe; Zheng, Ge; Pensieri, Pasquale; Chiappetta, Viviana; Tatè, Rosarita; Malacaria, Eva; Pichierri, Pietro; Yu, Hongtao; Pisani, Francesca M.
PLoS Genet.
Oct 2018
Establishment of sister chromatid cohesion is coupled to DNA replication, but the underlying molecular mechanisms are incompletely understood. DDX11 (also named ChlR1) is a super-family 2 Fe-S cluster-containing DNA helicase implicated in Warsaw breakage syndrome (WABS). Herein, we examined the role of DDX11 in cohesion establishment in human cells. We demonstrated that DDX11 interacts with Timeless, a component of the replication fork-protection complex, through a conserved peptide motif. The DDX11-Timeless interaction is critical for sister chromatid cohesion in interphase and mitosis. Immunofluorescence studies further revealed that cohesin association with chromatin requires DDX11. Finally, we demonstrated that DDX11 localises at nascent DNA by SIRF analysis. Moreover, we found that DDX11 promotes cohesin binding to the DNA replication forks in concert with Timeless and that recombinant purified cohesin interacts with DDX11 in vitro. Collectively, our results establish a critical role for the DDX11-Timeless interaction in coordinating DNA replication with sister chromatid cohesion, and have important implications for understanding the molecular basis of WABS.

Combinatorial Synthesis of Macromolecular Arrays by Microchannel Cantilever Spotting (µCS)

Atwater, Jordyn; Mattes, Daniela S.; Streit, Bettina; von Bojničić-Kninski, Clemens; Loeffler, Felix F.; Breitling, Frank; Fuchs, Harald; Hirtz, Michael
Adv. Mater..
Aug 2018
Surface-bound microarrays of multiple oligo- and macromolecules (e.g., peptides, DNA) offer versatile options in biomedical applications like drug screening, DNA analysis, or medical diagnostics. Combinatorial syntheses of these molecules in situ can save significant resources in regard to processing time and material use. Furthermore, high feature densities are needed to enable high-throughput and low sample volumes as generally regarded in combinatorial chemistry. Here, a scanning-probe-lithography-based approach for the combinatorial in situ synthesis of macromolecules is presented in microarray format. Feature sizes below 40 µm allow for the creation of high-density arrays with feature densities of 62 500 features per cm2. To demonstrate feasibility of this approach for biomedical applications, a multiplexed array of functional protein tags (HA- and FLAG-tag) is synthesized, and selective binding of respective epitope recognizing antibodies is shown. This approach uses only small amounts of base chemicals for synthesis and can be further parallelized, therefore, opening up a route to flexible, highly dense, and cost-effective microarrays.

Reductionist Approach in Peptide-Based Nanotechnology

Gazit, Ehud
Annu. Rev. Biochem..
Jun 2018
The formation of ordered nanostructures by molecular self-assembly of proteins and peptides represents one of the principal directions in nanotechnology. Indeed, polyamides provide superior features as materials with diverse physical properties. A reductionist approach allowed the identification of extremely short peptide sequences, as short as dipeptides, which could form well-ordered amyloid-like β-sheet-rich assemblies comparable to supramolecular structures made of much larger proteins. Some of the peptide assemblies show remarkable mechanical, optical, and electrical characteristics. Another direction of reductionism utilized a natural noncoded amino acid, α-aminoisobutryic acid, to form short superhelical assemblies. The use of this exceptional helix inducer motif allowed the fabrication of single heptad repeats used in various biointerfaces, including their use as surfactants and DNA-binding agents. Two additional directions of the reductionist approach include the use of peptide nucleic acids (PNAs) and coassembly techniques. The diversified accomplishments of the reductionist approach, as well as the exciting future advances it bears, are discussed.

A Trifunctional Linker for Purified 3D Assembled Peptide Structure Arrays

Mattes, Daniela S.; Rentschler, Simone; Foertsch, Tobias C.; Münch, Stephan W.; Loeffler, Felix F.; Nesterov-Mueller, Alexander; Bräse, Stefan; Breitling, Frank
Small Methods.
Feb 2018
Microarrays are an important tool in modern research that allow the rapid screening of many different interactions simultaneously. Peptide arrays, which bear different peptides arranged in separate spots, permit high-throughput screening to investigate linear and cyclic binding sites. To study conformational or discontinuous binding sites, protein arrays are the major choice. However, the tremendous costs for the generation of high-density protein arrays of high purity restrict progress in protein research. Therefore, peptide-based arrays, which can mimic assembled peptide structures, have an enormous potential. Here, a method is presented to create such structures in the array format as an alternative to protein arrays. A trifunctional linker is developed with an azide, a protected alkyne, and a carboxyl group, which can react with two or three different peptides. Due to the spatial proximity, the peptides interact and can form an assembled peptide structure. As a proof of concept, assembled peptide structures are demonstrated on beads and on a polymer surface and the approach can be validated via matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization spectrometry. Furthermore, a multistep transfer of peptide arrays is shown, generating purified assembled peptide structure arrays in high density.

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