Profiling Protein Prenylation Using a Quantitative Chemical Proteomics Approach

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Profiling Protein Prenylation Using a Quantitative Chemical Proteomics Approach Profiling Protein Prenylation Using a Quantitative Chemical Proteomics Approach A thesis submitted to Imperial College London in candidature for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy of Imperial College Elisabeth Maria Storck Saha Department of Chemistry Imperial College London Exhibition Road London SW7 2AZ September 2016 Declaration of Originality I hereby declare that this thesis is my own work and reports the results of my own original research. Information or results originating from the work of others or in collaboration with others has been acknowledged in the text and references. Elisabeth Storck Saha September 2016 Copyright Declaration The copyright of this thesis rests with the author and is made available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives licence. Researchers are free to copy, distribute or transmit the thesis on the condition that they attribute it, that they do not use it for commercial purposes and that they do not alter, transform or build upon it. For any reuse or redistribution, researchers must make clear to others the licence terms of this work. 2 Abstract Prenylation, the attachment of a farnesyl or geranylgeranyl isoprenoid to a C-terminal cysteine, is a post-translational modification which modulates localisation and function of key proteins such as members of the RAS superfamily, nuclear lamins and heterotrimeric G-proteins. In humans, three enzymes catalyse the prenylation reaction: farnesyl transferase, geranylgeranyl transferase type 1 and RAB geranylgeranyl transferase. Substantial effort has gone into developing therapeutics that disrupt prenylation as a means of targeting RAS-driven cancers, yet these approaches have failed to deliver in clinical trials. This is largely due to the fact that the dynamics of prenylation in response to prenyl transferase inhibitors is more complex than originally envisaged and includes changes in prenylation state and altered substrate recognition by the different transferase enzymes. Emerging research shows that prenylation also plays a role in cardiovascular and neurodegenerative diseases, Hutchinson-Gilford progeria syndrome (HGPS), choroideremia and viral infections. Advances in the study of protein prenylation are hampered by the lack of inherent handles that allow for isolation and identification of the prenylated proteome. Novel approaches for profiling the prenylated proteome, its dynamics, and effects of varied inhibitors of the prenyl transferases are imperative for explaining past failures and to direct future studies. This thesis presents a novel set of isoprenoid analogues that can selectively label prenylated proteins in cells. The application of these probes in combination with quantitative proteomic techniques enabled the description of the complex dynamics between different isoprenoid substrates and transferases in response to prenyl transferase inhibitors, and to validate several novel prenylated substrates. We describe attempts to profile prenylation in cells derived from HGPS patients, and explore potential targets of farnesyl transferase inhibition in pulmonary arterial cells. We envisage that the robust methodology presented herein will be widely applicable to the study of prenylation in the context of both health and disease. 3 Dedication This thesis is dedicated to my mother, Karin, and mother-in-law, Chhaya, without whose incredible support this thesis would not have seen the light of day. 4 Acknowledgements First and foremost I would like to thank my supervisors, Professor Ed Tate and Dr Beata Wojciak-Stothard. Ed – thanks for your unrelenting support and enthusiasm throughout the years I have spent in your lab. I will be forever grateful to you for taking me in as a stray back in 2009 and mentoring me though my undergraduate, masters and PhD years. Thanks for continually providing exciting project opportunities and for inspiring great science. Beata – it’s been an absolutely pleasure to work with you and your group. Thanks for teaching me the ropes in the biology lab and for your support and advice throughout this project. Many thanks go to Dr Julia Morales-Sanfrutos and Dr Remi Serwa whose ideas and technical help have been vital in carrying this project forward. Thanks are also due Professor Riki Eggert for her incredible support during the final stages of thesis writing. Thanks to Dr Goska Broncel and Dr Megan Wright for providing capture reagents. Thanks to Dr Andrew Bottrill at Leicester University proteomics facility for processing and analysing proteomics samples during the early stages of this project. Thanks to Dr Lisa Haigh at Imperial College mass spectrometry service for analysing small molecules and proteomics samples. Thanks to Drs Remi Serwa, Goska Broncel, James Clulow and Tom Charlton for running LC-MS/MS samples. Thanks to Drs Will Heal, Victor Goncalves and Jennie Hutton for advice and support in the synthesis lab. Thanks to Dr Lucie Duluc for providing cell samples. Thanks to Dr Paulina Ciepla for conducting labelling studies in Zebrafish. Thanks to Dr Anna Barnard, Dr Jennie Hutton, Dr Julia Morales-Sanfrutos, Dr Charlotte Sutherell and Scott Lovell for proofreading this thesis. Thanks to the lunch-club crowd who kept me sane during my PhD – Julia, Jenny, Jennie, Gee, Yunyun, Megan, Manue, Goska and Soo Mei. Thanks to all member of the Tate and Wojciak- Stothard lab for making my time in the lab so much fun. Thanks to my husband Suj for his support and encouragement throughout my PhD years and for putting up with my grumpiness during the writing of this thesis. Thanks to my family, especially my mother Karin and mother-in-law Chhaya without whose incredible help with child-minding and cooking this thesis would never have been completed. Finally, no thanks go to my daughter Indira as her arrival in no way facilitated the progress of this PhD! However, she did make it all the more worthwhile, taught me just how much one can achieve with very little sleep and certainly filled my life with more love and fun than I could ever have imagined! 5 Acknowledgement of collaboration Dr Julia Morales-Sanfrutos provided YnMyr-tagged HeLa lysate (Chapter 3), conducted studies to identify YnF-modified peptides in EA.hy926 cells (Chapter 3), prepared Tipifarnib- treated YnF-labelled samples in EA.hy926 cells (Chapter 4) and processed HGPS lysates for proteomics analysis (Chapter 5). Dr Remigiusz Serwa provided prenyl probes (Chapter 2). Dr Lisa Haigh (Imperial College mass spectrometry service) performed mass spectrometry analysis of small molecules and proteomics samples (Chapters 2-5). Dr Megan Wright provided capture reagent AzTB and YnTB (Chapters 2-5) and Dr Goska Broncel provided capture reagent AzRTB (Chapter 3). Dr Andrew Bottrill (University of Leicester, UK) analysed LC-MS/MS samples in initial proteomics studies (Chapter 3). Professor Herbert Waldmann (Max Planck Institute of Molecular Physiology, Dortmund, Germany) provided RABGGTase inhibitor Bon-15 (Chapter 4). Dr Lucie Duluc provided Tipifarnib-treated HPASMC and HPAEC lysates (Chapter 5). Dr Paulina Ciepla conducted labelling studies in zebrafish (Chapter 5). 6 Contents Publications & Presentations Arising From This Thesis ....................................................... 11 Abbreviations ...................................................................................................................... 13 Chapter 1: Introduction .................................................................................................... 16 1.1. Protein Prenylation................................................................................................ 16 1.2. The Prenyl Transferases ....................................................................................... 21 1.2.1. FTase and GGTase-1 .................................................................................... 21 1.2.2. RABGGTase .................................................................................................. 26 1.3. The Role of Prenylation in Disease ....................................................................... 28 1.3.1. Cancer ........................................................................................................... 29 1.3.2. Hutchinson-Gilford Progeria Syndrome .......................................................... 30 1.3.3. Cardiovascular Disease ................................................................................. 32 1.3.4. Choroideremia ............................................................................................... 34 1.3.5. Hepatitis Delta and Hepatitis C Viral Infection ................................................ 34 1.3.6. Other Diseases .............................................................................................. 35 1.4. Chemical Proteomics ............................................................................................ 36 1.4.1. Prenylation Probes ........................................................................................ 37 1.4.2. Mass Spectrometry for Proteomics ................................................................ 42 1.4.3. Quantitative Proteomics ................................................................................. 44 1.5. Project Objectives ................................................................................................. 48 Chapter 2: Novel Probes for Profiling Protein Prenylation ................................................ 50 2.1. Introduction ..........................................................................................................
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