Rational antibody design for undruggable targets using kinetically controlled biomolecular probes.

Several important drug targets, e.g., ion channels and G protein-coupled receptors, are extremely difficult to approach with current antibody technologies.

Probing structure and function of ion channels using limited proteolysis and microfluidics.

Even though gain, loss, or modulation of ion channel function is implicated in many diseases, both rare and common, the development of new pharmaceuticals targeting this class has been disappointing, where it has been a major problem to obtain correlated structural and functional information. Here, we present a microfluidic method in which the ion channel TRPV1, contained in proteoliposomes or in excised patches, was exposed to limited trypsin proteolysis. Cleaved-off peptides were identified by MS, and electrophysiological properties were recorded by patch clamp.

Effect of cholesterol depletion on the pore dilation of TRPV1.

The TRPV1 ion channel is expressed in nociceptors, where pharmacological modulation of its function may offer a means of alleviating pain and neurogenic inflammation processes in the human body. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of cholesterol depletion of the cell on ion-permeability of the TRPV1 ion channel. The ion-permeability properties of TRPV1 were assessed using whole-cell patch-clamp and YO-PRO uptake rate studies on a Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cell line expressing this ion channel.

Microfluidic flow cell for sequential digestion of immobilized proteoliposomes.

We have developed a microfluidic flow cell where stepwise enzymatic digestion is performed on immobilized proteoliposomes and the resulting cleaved peptides are analyzed with liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS). The flow cell channels consist of two parallel gold surfaces mounted face to face with a thin spacer and feature an inlet and an outlet port. Proteoliposomes (50-150 nm in diameter) obtained from red blood cells (RBC), or Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells, were immobilized on the inside of the flow cell channel, thus forming a stationary phase of proteoliposomes.