In vivo cross-linking-based affinity purification and mass spectrometry for targeting intracellular protein-protein interactions

Comprehensive interactome analysis of targeted proteins is important to understand how proteins work together in regulating functions. Commonly, affinity purification followed by mass spectrometry (AP-MS) has been recognized as the most often used technique for studying protein-protein interactions (PPIs). However, some proteins with weak interactions, which are responsible for key roles in regulation, are easily broken during cell lysis and purification through an AP approach. Herein, we have developed an approach termed in vivo cross-linking-based affinity purification and mass spectrometry (ICAP-MS). By this method, in vivo cross-linking was introduced to covalently fix intracellular PPIs in their functional states to assure all PPIs could be integrally maintained during cell disruption. In addition, the chemically cleavable crosslinkers which were employed enabled unbinding of PPIs for in-depth identification of components within the interactome and biological analysis, while allowing binding of PPIs for cross-linking-mass spectrometry (CXMS)-based direct interaction determination. Multi-level information on targeted PPIs network can be obtained by ICAP-MS, including composition of interacting proteins, as well as direct interacting partners and binding sites. As a proof of concept, the interactome of MAPK3 from 293A cells was profiled with 6.15-fold improvement in identification than by conventional AP-MS. Meanwhile, 184 cross-link site pairs of these PPIs were experimentally identified by CXMS. Furthermore, ICAP-MS was applied in the temporal profiling of MAPK3 interactions under activation by cAMP-mediated pathway. The regulatory manner of MAPK pathways was presented through the quantitative changes of MAPK3 and its interacting proteins at different time points after activation. Therefore, all reported results demonstrated that the ICAP-MS approach may provide comprehensive information on interactome of targeted protein for functional exploration.