1. Protease substrate profiling using bacterial display of self-blocking affinity proteins and flow-cytometric sorting
John Löfblom, Lisa Sandersjöö, Andreas Jonsson Biotechnol J . 2017 Jan;12(1). doi: 10.1002/biot.201600365.
Proteases are involved in fundamental biological processes and are important tools in both biotechnological and biomedical research. An important property of proteases is to discriminate among potential substrates. Here, a new method for substrate profiling of proteases is presented. The substrates are displayed between two anti-idiotypic affinity domains on the Gram-positive bacterium Staphylococcus carnosus. The first domain functions as a reporter tag and has affinity for a labeled reporter protein, whereas the second domain blocks the reporter tag from interacting with the reporter protein. Site-specific proteolysis of the substrate results in release of the blocking domain, enabling the reporter tag to bind the labeled reporter protein. Proteolysis is therefore reflected in reporter binding, which is quantified by flow cytometry. First, the method with tobacco etch virus protease (TEVp) is evaluated and then the substrate preference of matrix metalloprotease-1 (MMP-1) is determined using two libraries of around three million substrates each. Identified substrate peptides contained the previously reported motif (PXXXHy) and on-cell determination of apparent kcat/KMrevealed that the enriched substrate peptides are hydrolyzed six to eight-fold more efficiently than a previously reported substrate peptide. The method thus works as intended and the authors believe it has potential as an efficient tool for substrate profiling.
2. Mass spectrometry-assisted protease substrate screening
Jana Rykl, Michael Linscheid, Hartmut Schlüter, Joachim Thiemann, Sandra Kurzawski, Martin Tepel, Walter Zidek, Johan Gobom Anal Chem . 2007 Feb 1;79(3):1251-5. doi: 10.1021/ac061482l.
Since sequencing of the human genome was completed, more than 500 genes have been annotated as proteases. Exploring the physiological role of each protease requires the identification of their natural substrates. However, the endogenous substrates of many of the human proteases are as yet unknown. Here we describe a new assay that addresses this problem. The assay, which easily can be automated, is based on the incubation of immobilized protein fractions, which may contain the natural substrate, with a defined protease. After concentrating the proteolytically released peptides by reversed-phase chromatography they are analyzed by tandem mass spectrometry and the substrates identified by database searching. The proof of principle in this study is demonstrated by incubating immobilized human plasma proteins with thrombin and by identifying by tandem mass spectrometry the fibrinopeptides, released by the action of thrombin from their natural substrate fibrinogen, in the reaction mixture.
3. Screening for protease substrate by polyvalent phage display
Emily Chen, Radislav Sedlacek Comb Chem High Throughput Screen . 2005 Mar;8(2):197-203. doi: 10.2174/1386207053258541.
Proteases are key regulators of many physiological and pathological processes [1,2], and are recognized as important and tractable drug candidates. Consequently, knowledge of protease substrate recognition and specificity promotes identification of biologically relevant substrates, helps elucidating a protease's biological function, and the design of specific inhibitors. Traditional methods for establishing substrate recognition profiles involve the identification of the scissile bond within a given protein substrate by proteomic methods such as Edman degradation. Then, synthetic peptide variants of this sequence can be screened in an iterative fashion to arrive at more optimized substrates. Even though it can be fruitful, this iterative strategy is biased toward the original substrate sequence and it is also tremendously cumbersome. Furthermore, it is not amenable to high throughput analysis. In 1993, Matthew & Wells presented a method for the use of monovalent "substrate phage" libraries for discovering peptide substrates for proteases, in which more than 10(7) potential substrates can be tested concurrently [3]. A library of fusion proteins was constructed containing randomized substrate sequences placed between a binding domain and the gene III coat protein of the filamentous phage, M13, which displays the fusion protein and packages the gene coding for it inside. Each fusion protein was displayed as a single copy on filamentous phagemid particles (substrate phage). This method allows one to rapidly survey the substrate recognition and specificity of individual or closely related members of proteases. Over the past decade, substrate phage screening has shown terrific utility in rapidly determining protease specificity and characterization of substrate recognition profile of proteases. In some cases, the structural insights of the catalytic domain were obtained from comparison of substrate specificity among closely related family of proteases [4-6]. The number of proteases (from various classes) characterized by this approach testifies to its power. Since the initial development of substrate phage library, different versions of the substrate phage cloning vectors have been constructed to further improve the utility of substrate phage display. This review will provide an overview of the construction of substrate phage display libraries, screening of substrate phage libraries, examples of application, summary and future directions.
