The identification of peptides presented by human leukocyte antigen (HLA) class I is tremendously important for the understanding of antigen presentation mechanisms under healthy or diseased conditions. Currently, mass spectrometry-based methods represent the best methodology for the identification of HLA class I-associated peptides. However, the HLA class I peptide repertoire remains largely unexplored because the variable nature of endogenous peptides represents difficulties in conventional peptide fragmentation technology. Here, we substantially enhanced (about threefold) the identification success rate of peptides presented by HLA class I using combined electron-transfer/higher-energy collision dissociation (EThcD), reporting over 12,000 high-confident (false discovery rate <1%) peptides from a single human B-cell line. The direct importance of such an unprecedented large dataset is highlighted by the discovery of unique features in antigen presentation. The observation that a substantial part of proteins is sampled across different HLA alleles, and the common occurrence of HLA class I nested sets, suggest that the constraints of HLA class I to comprehensively present the health states of cells are not as tight as previously thought. Our dataset contains a substantial set of peptides bearing a variety of posttranslational modifications presented with marked allele-specific differences. We propose that EThcD should become the method of choice in analyzing HLA class I-presented peptides.human leukocyte antigen class I | electron-transfer dissociation | major histocompatibility complex | phosphorylation | binding motif C lass I molecules of the human leukocyte antigen (HLA) complex present short peptides, typically 8-11 aa in length at the cell surface, for scrutiny by the immune system (1). These peptide fragments are generated in the cytoplasm by proteasomal degradation of source proteins, translocated into the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) and subjected to N-terminal trimming to a size that is suitable for loading onto the HLA (2). Loading is governed by physicochemical binding motifs typical for each HLA class I allele (3). Depending on the motif required for the HLA class I allele(s) expressed, an ER-residing peptide may become presented or not. Recognition of specific HLA class I peptide complexes by CD8 T lymphocytes on pathogen infected or cancerous cells leads to the activation of a cytotoxic response and the clearance of the diseased cell. The identification of these HLA class I-associated peptides has important consequences for understanding the biology of cells, vaccine design, and tumor immunotherapy (4, 5).Today mass spectrometry (MS) is the core technology for the analysis of HLA class I-presented peptides. These peptides are typically enriched from cell lysates through the affinity purification of HLA class I peptide complexes, released from the HLA by acid elution, and separated by liquid chromatography (LC) before introduction into the mass spectrometer. Identification is commonly accomplished by...

No abstract

Streptococcus pneumoniae undergoes spontaneous phase variation resulting in opaque and transparent colony forms. Differences in colony opacity correlate with differences in virulence: the transparent variants are more capable of colonizing the nasopharynx, whereas the opaque variants show increased virulence during systemic infections. To gain insight into the pathogenesis of pneumococcal disease at the molecular level, protein expression patterns of the phenotypic variants of two pneumococcal strains were compared by highresolution two-dimensional protein electrophoresis. In comparison with transparent variants, the opaque variants reduced the expression of two proteins and overexpressed one protein. The proteins were identified by mass spectrometric analysis. The protein overexpressed in the opaque phenotype revealed significant homology to elongation factor Ts of Helicobacter pylori. One of the two proteins that were underexpressed in the opaque variants revealed significant homology to the proteinase maturation protein PrtM of Lactocobacillus paracasei, a member of the family of peptidyl-prolyl cis/trans isomerases. A consensus lipoprotein signal sequence suggests that the putative proteinase maturation protein A, designated PpmA, is located at the surface of the pneumococcus and may play a role in the maturation of surface or secreted proteins. The second underexpressed protein was identified as pyruvate oxidase, SpxB. The lower SpxB expression in opaque variants most probably explains the reduced production of hydrogen peroxide, a reaction product of SpxB, in this variant. Since a spxB-defective pneumococcal mutant has decreased ability to colonize the nasopharynx (B. Spellerberg,

A positional proteomics strategy for global N-proteome analysis is presented based on phospho tagging (PTAG) of internal peptides followed by depletion by titanium dioxide (TiO 2 ) affinity chromatography. Therefore, N-terminal and lysine amino groups are initially completely dimethylated with formaldehyde at the protein level, after which the proteins are digested and the newly formed internal peptides modified with the PTAG reagent glyceraldhyde-3-phosphate in nearly perfect yields (> 99%). The resulting phosphopeptides are depleted through binding onto TiO 2 , keeping exclusively a set of N-acetylated and/or N-dimethylated terminal peptides for analysis by liquid chromatography-tandem MS. Analysis of peptides derivatized with differentially labeled isotopic analogs of the PTAG reagent revealed a high depletion efficiency (> 95%). The method enabled identification of 753 unique N-terminal peptides (428 proteins) in N. meningitidis and 928 unique N-terminal peptides (572 proteins) in S. cerevisiae. These included verified neo-N termini from subcellular-relocalized membrane and mitochondrial proteins. The presented PTAG approach is therefore a novel, versatile, and robust method for mass spectrometry-based

At present, only vaccines containing outer membrane vesicles (OMV) have successfully stopped Neisseria meningitidis serogroup B epidemics. These vaccines however require detergent-extraction to remove endotoxin, which changes immunogenicity and causes production difficulties. To investigate this in more detail, the protein content of detergent-extracted OMV is compared with two detergent-free alternatives. A novel proteomics strategy has been developed that allows quantitative analysis of many biological replicates despite inherent multiplex restrictions of dimethyl labeling. This enables robust statistical analysis of relative protein abundance. The comparison with detergent-extracted OMV reveales that detergent-free OMV are enriched with membrane (lipo)proteins and contain less cytoplasmic proteins due to a milder purification process. These distinct protein profiles are substantiated with serum blot proteomics, confirming enrichment with immunogenic proteins in both detergent-free alternatives. Therefore, the immunogenic protein content of OMV vaccines depends at least partially on the purification process. This study demonstrates that detergent-free OMV have a preferred composition.

Surface-exposed proteins often play an important role in the interaction between pathogenic bacteria and their host. We isolated a pool of hydrophobic, surface-associated proteins of Streptococcus pneumoniae. The opsonophagocytic activity of hyperimmune serum raised against this protein fraction was high and species specific. Moreover, the opsonophagocytic activity was independent of the capsular type and chromosomal genotype of the pneumococcus. Since the opsonophagocytic activity is presumed to correlate with in vivo protection, these data indicate that the protein fraction has the potential to elicit species-specific immune protection with cross-protection against various pneumococcal strains. Individual proteins in the extract were purified by two-dimensional gel electrophoresis. Antibodies raised against three distinct proteins contributed to the opsonophagocytic activity of the serum. The proteins were identified by mass spectrometry and Nterminal amino acid sequencing. Two proteins were the previously characterized pneumococcal surface protein A and oligopeptide-binding lipoprotein AmiA. The third protein was the recently identified putative proteinase maturation protein A (PpmA), which showed homology to members of the family of peptidyl-prolyl cis/trans isomerases. Immunoelectron microscopy demonstrated that PpmA was associated with the pneumococcal surface. In addition, PpmA was shown to elicit species-specific opsonophagocytic antibodies that were crossreactive with various pneumococcal strains. This antibody cross-reactivity was in line with the limited sequence variation of ppmA. The importance of PpmA in pneumococcal pathogenesis was demonstrated in a mouse pneumonia model. Pneumococcal ppmA-deficient mutants showed reduced virulence. The properties of PpmA reported here indicate its potential for inclusion in multicomponent protein vaccines.Streptococcus pneumoniae is an important human pathogen which causes meningitis, otitis media, sepsis, and pneumonia. The precise molecular mechanisms by which the pneumococcus invades and damages host tissues are not fully understood. For many years, the polysaccharide capsule has been recognized as the major virulence factor and consequently was considered an important vaccine candidate (for reviews see references 5 and 34). The use of a 23-valent vaccine containing capsular polysaccharides from pneumococci commonly causing disease has had limited effect in reducing the morbidity and mortality associated with this organism (1,16,19,41). The current pneumococcal vaccine strategy focuses on the use of conjugates, in which a limited number of capsular polysaccharides are linked to a carrier protein. The proteins in the conjugate vaccines cause a switch in the immune response to polysaccharides from T-cell independent to T-cell dependent. This results in an increase in the antibody response and the generation of memory T lymphocytes. Conjugate vaccines are more immunogenic in young children than polysaccharide vaccines (15,18). Although the results of early trial...

We studied the natural MHC class I display of measles virus (MV) epitopes. Peptide ligands associated with HLA‐A*0201 were purified from a B lymphoblastoid cell line prior to and after infection with MV. Infection‐induced peptides were revealed using microcapillary reversed phase high performance liquid chromatography electrospray ionization / mass spectrometry (μLC‐ESI / MS) by subtraction of the "infected" and "uninfected" ion traces. Three naturally processed viral epitopes derived from different MV proteins were identified through tandem MS sequencing. These peptides were expressed at widely divergent levels of HLA‐peptide complexes, but had similar binding capacities to HLA‐A*0201. The most abundant viral peptide species, identified as residues 84 – 92 (KLWESPQEI) of the MV nonstructural C protein, was expressed at an unprecedented high density (> 105 copies per cell) and was immunogenic in HLA‐A2 / Kb‐transgenic mice. Furthermore, natural mutants of this epitope, occurring in persistent lethal MV strains, were shown to have lost their HLA‐A*0201 binding capacity. Thus, here we report for the first time the direct discovery through μLC‐ESI / MS of a uniquely dominant viral HLA class I ligand, KLWESPQEI, with features eligible for immune selection pressure.

No abstract