Quantification and visualization of glutathione S-transferase omega 1 in cells using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) and fluorescence microscopy

Anal Bioanal Chem. 2015 Mar;407(9):2373-81. doi: 10.1007/s00216-014-8234-5. Epub 2014 Nov 20.

Abstract

We report a novel activity-based and Cu-free click chemistry (CC) mediated methodology for glutathione S-transferase omega 1 (GSTO1) quantification using species-unspecific isotope dilution inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (SUID ICP-MS), in which dibenzylcyclooctyne-modified 2-chloroacetamide (DBCO-ChAcA) was designed and synthesized, meanwhile, as a navigator towards GSTO1 for subsequent N3-DOTA-Eu-tagging via Cu-free CC. Using (153)Eu-SUID ICP-MS coupled with size exclusion chromatography (SEC), the LOD (3σ) of GSTO1 reached 6.9 fmol with an RSD of 2.4% at the 0.1 μM level (n = 5) considering the recovery of GSTO1 on the SEC was 96.5 ± 2.4%. The GSTO1 contents in the cells of human hepatocellular carcinoma C7721 and breast carcinoma MCF-7 as well as normal hepatic C7701 without or with cis-platin administration were quantified to be from 1.2 μg/10,000 cells (n = 3, RSD = 4.5%) corresponding to 1.2 × 10(-2) ng per cell to 4.76 μg/10,000 cells (n = 3, RSD = 2.9%) corresponding to 4.76 × 10(-2) ng per cell. For a comparative study, DBCO-ChAcA-fluor 488-based fluorescence microscopy could not alone visualize GSTO1 in the cells but could together with those from the small SH-containing molecules such as GSH and that from extra N3-fluor 488 in the cells. This activity-based CC-mediated tagging/labeling strategy provided an opportunity for ICP-MS-based targeted protein quantification, and is very much expected to find its applications in biological mechanism study and the subsequent drug design.

Publication types

  • Evaluation Study
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Cell Line, Tumor
  • Cells / chemistry*
  • Cells / enzymology*
  • Click Chemistry
  • Enzyme Assays / methods*
  • Glutathione Transferase / chemistry*
  • Humans
  • Mass Spectrometry / methods*
  • Microscopy, Fluorescence / methods*

Substances

  • GSTO1 protein, human
  • Glutathione Transferase