Integral membrane proteins (IMPs) play an important role in many cellular events and are involved in numerous pathological processes. Therefore, understanding the structure and function of IMPs is a crucial prerequisite to enable successful targeting of these proteins with low molecular weight (LMW) ligands early on in the discovery process. To optimize IMP purification/crystallization and to identify/characterize LMW ligand-target interactions, robust, reliable, high-throughput, and sensitive biophysical methods are needed. Here, we describe a differential scanning fluorimetry (DSF) screening method using the thiol-reactive BODIPY FL-cystine dye to monitor thermal unfolding of the G-protein-coupled receptor (GPCR), CXCR2. To validate this method, the seven-transmembrane protein CXCR2 was analyzed with a set of well-characterized antagonists. This study showed that the new DSF assay assessed reliably the stability of CXCR2 in a 384-well format. The analysis of 14 ligands with a potency range over 4 log units demonstrated the detection/characterization of LMW ligands binding to the membrane protein target. Furthermore, DSF results cross-validated with the label-free differential static light scattering (DSLS) thermal denaturation method. These results underline the potential of the BODIPY assay format as a general tool to investigate membrane proteins and their interaction partners.
CITATION STYLE
Bergsdorf, C., Fiez-Vandal, C., Sykes, D. A., Bernet, P., Aussenac, S., Charlton, S. J., … Duckely, M. (2016). An Alternative Thiol-Reactive Dye to Analyze Ligand Interactions with the Chemokine Receptor CXCR2 Using a New Thermal Shift Assay Format. Journal of Biomolecular Screening, 21(3), 243–251. https://doi.org/10.1177/1087057115619597
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