Simultaneous enrichment and separation of neutral and sialyl glycopeptides of SARS-CoV-2 spike protein enabled by dual-functionalized Ti-IMAC material

• Published in: Analytical and bioanalytical chemistry Vol. 413; no. 29; pp. 7295 - 7303
• Main Authors: Huang, Junfeng, Wang, Danqing, Shipman, Richard David, Zhu, Zexin, Liu, Yuan, Li, Lingjun
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Berlin/Heidelberg Springer Berlin Heidelberg 01.12.2021; Springer; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: ACE2; Affinity chromatography; Analytical Characterization of Viruses; Analytical Chemistry; Angiotensin; Angiotensin-converting enzyme 2; Antibiotics; Biochemistry; Characterization and Evaluation of Materials; Chemistry; Chemistry and Materials Science; Chromatography; Coronaviruses; COVID-19; Enrichment; Food Science; Glycopeptides; Glycoproteins; Glycosylation; Identification and classification; Laboratory Medicine; Mannose; Methods; Monitoring/Environmental Analysis; Pandemics; Peptides; Peptidyl-dipeptidase A; Properties; Proteins; Research Paper; Separation; Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2; Spike protein; Titanium; Viral diseases; United States; O-Linked glycosylation; SARS-CoV-2 spike protein; Mannose-6-phosphate (M6P) glycosylation; Posttranslational modifications; IMAC; Neutral and sialyl glycopeptide separation
• ISSN: 1618-2642; 1618-2650
• DOI: 10.1007/s00216-021-03433-1

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) presents a serious threat to human health all over the world. The development of effective vaccines has been focusing on the spike (S) glycoprotein, which mediates viral invasion to human cells through its interaction with the angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) receptor. In this work, we perform analytical characterization of N- and O-linked glycosylation of the SARS-CoV-2 S glycoprotein. We explore the novel use of dual-functionalized titanium (IV)-immobilized metal affinity chromatography (Ti-IMAC) material for simultaneous enrichment and separation of neutral and sialyl glycopeptides of a recombinant SARS-CoV-2 S glycoprotein from HEK293 cells. This strategy helps eliminate signal suppression from neutral glycopeptides for the detection of sialyl glycopeptides and improves the glycoform coverage of the S protein. We profiled 19 of its 22 potential N-glycosylated sites with 398 unique glycoforms using the dual-functional Ti-IMAC approach, which exhibited improvement of coverage by 1.6-fold compared to the conventional hydrophilic interaction chromatography (HILIC) glycopeptide enrichment method. We also identified O-linked glycosylation site that was not found using the conventional HILIC approach. In addition, we reported on the identification of mannose-6-phosphate (M6P) glycosylation, which substantially expands the current knowledge of the spike protein’s glycosylation landscape and enables future investigation into the influence of M6P glycosylation of the spike protein on its cell entry. Graphical abstract