@article{BrunkhorstKanaanTrautmannSchreiberetal.2021, author = {Brunkhorst-Kanaan, Nathalie and Trautmann, Sandra and Schreiber, Yannick and Thomas, Dominique and Kittel-Schneider, Sarah and Gurke, Robert and Geisslinger, Gerd and Reif, Andreas and Tegeder, Irmgard}, title = {Sphingolipid and endocannabinoid profiles in adult attention deficit hyperactivity disorder}, series = {Biomedicines}, volume = {9}, journal = {Biomedicines}, number = {9}, issn = {2227-9059}, doi = {10.3390/biomedicines9091173}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-246080}, year = {2021}, abstract = {Genes encoding endocannabinoid and sphingolipid metabolism pathways were suggested to contribute to the genetic risk towards attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). The present pilot study assessed plasma concentrations of candidate endocannabinoids, sphingolipids and ceramides in individuals with adult ADHD in comparison with healthy controls and patients with affective disorders. Targeted lipid analyses of 23 different lipid species were performed in 71 mental disorder patients and 98 healthy controls (HC). The patients were diagnosed with adult ADHD (n = 12), affective disorder (major depression, MD n = 16 or bipolar disorder, BD n = 6) or adult ADHD with comorbid affective disorders (n = 37). Canonical discriminant analysis and CHAID analyses were used to identify major components that predicted the diagnostic group. ADHD patients had increased plasma concentrations of sphingosine-1-phosphate (S1P d18:1) and sphinganine-1-phosphate (S1P d18:0). In addition, the endocannabinoids, anandamide (AEA) and arachidonoylglycerol were increased. MD/BD patients had increased long chain ceramides, most prominently Cer22:0, but low endocannabinoids in contrast to ADHD patients. Patients with ADHD and comorbid affective disorders displayed increased S1P d18:1 and increased Cer22:0, but the individual lipid levels were lower than in the non-comorbid disorders. Sphingolipid profiles differ between patients suffering from ADHD and affective disorders, with overlapping patterns in comorbid patients. The S1P d18:1 to Cer22:0 ratio may constitute a diagnostic or prognostic tool.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Dodt2021, author = {Dodt, Katharina Anna}, title = {Monitoring enzyme activity by using mass-encoded peptides and multiplexed detection}, doi = {10.25972/OPUS-22937}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-229377}, school = {Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg}, year = {2021}, abstract = {Cell culture models are helpful tools to study inflammatory diseases, like rheumatoid arthritis (RA), osteoarthritis (OA), arteriosclerosis or asthma, which are linked to increased matrix metalloproteinase (MMP) activity. Such cell culture models often focus on the secretion of cytokines and growth factors or the direct effects of disease on tissue destruction. Even though the crucial role of MMPs in inflammatory diseases is known, the results of MMP studies are contradictious and the use of MMPs as biomarkers is inconsistent. MMPs play an important role in disease pathology, as they are involved in elastin degradation in the walls of alveoli in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), tumor angiogenesis and metastasis and in cartilage and bone degradation in arthropathies. In RA and OA MMPs are secreted by osteocytes, synoviocytes, and by infiltrating immune cells in response to the increased concentration of inflammatory mediators, like growth factors and cytokines. MMPs are zinc and calcium-dependent proteinases and play an important role in physiological and pathological extracellular matrix (ECM) turn over. Their substrate specificity gives them the ability to degrade all major ECM components, like aggrecan, elastin, gelatin, fibronectin and all types of collagen even the triple helix of collagen monomers. The ECM consists of two large three-dimensional cross-linked macromolecule classes: one are fibrous proteins, like collagen and elastin fibers that are responsible for ECM's structure, tensile strength, resiliency, reversible extensibility, and deformability and the second class is comprised of proteoglycans composed of glycosaminoglycan (GAG) chains covalently attached to protein cores that are multifunctionally involved in signaling pathways and cell interactions. ECM is present within all tissues and organs and changes in ECM structure contribute to pathogenesis, e.g. wounded and fibrotic tissue, COPD or tumours. This thesis primarily focuses on the development of a diagnostic peptide system, that enables to gain information on MMP activity from ECM by deploying the isobaric mass encoding strategy. The core element of the developed system is an isotopically labelled peptide sequence (mass tag), that is released in response to elevated levels of MMPs and allows multiplexed detection in tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS). The mass reporters possess a modular structure with different functionalities. C-terminal either a transglutaminase (TG) recognition sequence or a high molecular weight polyethylene glycol (PEG) moiety was attached to immobilize the mass reporters covalently or physically at the injection site. The following matrix metalloproteinase substrate sequence (MSS) is incorporated in two different versions with different sensitivity to MMPs. The MSS were applied in pairs for relative quantification consisting of the cleavable version synthesized with natural L-amino acids and the non-cleavable D-amino acid variant. The mass tag was synthesized with isotopically labelled amino acids and is separated from the MSS by a UV light-sensitive molecule. N-terminal the mass tag is followed by a tobacco etch virus protease (TEV) sensitive sequence, that is responsible to separate the mass tag from the affinity tag, which was either the Strep-tag II sequence or biotin and were added for purification purposes. Chapter 1 presents a step-by-step protocol on how to design a mass tag family allowing for multiplexed analysis by LC-MS/MS. The multiplexing is achieved by developing an isobar mass tag family with four family members, which are chromatographically indistinguishable, but due to the mass encoding principles they fragment in distinct y-type ions with a mass difference of 1 or 2 Da each in MS2. Furthermore, it is explained how to covalently attach the mass reporter peptides onto ECM by the activated calcium-catalyzed blood coagulation transglutaminase factor XIII (FXIIIa). The lysine of mass reporter's TG sequence (D-domain of insulin-like growth factor-I (IGF-I)) and a glutamine in fibronectin are covalently crosslinked by FXIIIa and build an isopeptide bond. Elevated levels of MMP release the mass reporters from ECM by recognizing the inter-positioned MSS. The designed mass reporters were able to monitor enzyme activity in an in vitro setting with cell-derived ECM, which was shown in Chapter 2. The modular structured mass reporters were investigated in a proof of concept study. First, the different modules were characterized in terms of their MMP responsiveness and their sensitivity to TEV protease and UV light. Then the FXIIIa-mediated coupling reaction was detailed and the successful coupling on ECM was visualized by an immunosorbent assay or confocal laser scanning microscopy. Finally, the immobilized mass reporters on ECM were incubated with MMP-9 to investigate their multiplexing ability of MMP activity. The cleaved mass reporter fragments were purified in three steps and mass tags were analyzed as mix of all four in LC-MS/MS. Chapter 3 describes the change from an immobilizing system as seen in chapter 1 and 2 to a soluble enzyme activity monitoring system that was applied in an osteoarthritic mouse model. Instead of the immobilizing TG sequence the C-terminal MMS was extended with two amino acids where one holds an azide moiety to perform a strain-promoted azide-alkyne cycloaddition to a high molecular weight dibenzocyclooctyne-polyethylene glycol (DBCO-PEG), which was chosen to retain the mass reporters at the injection site. Furthermore, the N-terminal affinity tag was extended with a 2.5 kDa PEG chain to increase the half-life of the mass reporter peptides after MMP release. The systems biocompatibility was proved but its enzyme monitoring ability in an in vivo setting could not be analyzed as samples degraded during shipping resulting from the Chinese customs blocking transport to Germany. In summary the diagnostic peptide system was developed in two variants. The immobilized version one from chapter 1 and 2 was designed to be covalently attached to ECM by the transglutaminase-mediated cross-linking reaction. In an in vitro setting the functionality of the mass reporter system for the detection of MMP activity was successfully verified. The second variant comprises of a soluble mass reporter system that was tested in an OA mouse model and showed biocompatibility. With these two designed systems this thesis provides a flexible platform based on multiplexed analysis with mass-encoded peptides to characterize cell culture models regarding their MMP activity, to deploy cell-derived ECM as endogenous depot scaffold and to develop a mass tag family that enables simultaneous detection of at least four mass tags.}, subject = {Extrazellul{\"a}re Matrix}, language = {en} }