Method for detecting acetylated PD-L1 in cell lysates by immunoprecipitation and western blot analysis

PLoS One. 2022 Jul 18;17(7):e0268887. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0268887. eCollection 2022.

Abstract

Lysine acetylation is an important regulatory post-translational modification (PTM) that occurs sub-stoichiometrically, often representing less than 1% of the target protein. This makes studying endogenous protein acetylation extremely challenging. Recent reports suggest that several post-translational modifications (PTMs), including lysine acetylation, play a major role in the regulation the programmed cell death-ligand 1 (PD-L1), a clinically important protein target. An enrichment step is necessary to enable identification of the acetylated species by either antibody or mass spectrometry-based detection methods. This report describes a robust lab protocol for the enrichment and detection of endogenous acetylated PD-L1 protein. A recently developed acetyl lysine affinity matrix was utilized to enrich >90% of acetylated PD-L1 species, from a variety of cell lines, spanning a fourteen-fold range of target protein levels. Western blot analysis, using a highly sensitive PD-L1 antibody and optimized transfer times, was used to determine that the endogenous level of acetylated PD-L1 is in the range of 0.02-0.07% of total PD-L1. As validation, we demonstrate that acetylation levels increase to 0.11-0.17% of total PD-L1 after a 4h treatment with the histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitor trichostatin A (TSA). The method described here is simple to perform in any lab equipped with tissue culture and western blot equipment.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Acetylation
  • B7-H1 Antigen* / metabolism
  • Blotting, Western
  • Histone Deacetylase Inhibitors / pharmacology
  • Immunoprecipitation
  • Lysine* / metabolism
  • Protein Processing, Post-Translational
  • Proteins / metabolism

Substances

  • B7-H1 Antigen
  • Histone Deacetylase Inhibitors
  • Proteins
  • Lysine

Grants and funding

The project was funded by Cytoskeleton Inc. Cytoskeleton Inc. also provided support in the form of salaries to authors KM and AD. FM-D is an intern at Cytoskeleton Inc. and has no ownership interests. The specific roles of these authors are articulated in the ‘author contributions’ section. The funder had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. No additional external funding received for this study.