In this report, we describe how surface plasmon resonance is used to detect toxin entry into the host cytosol. This highly sensitive method can provide quantitative data on the amount of cytosolic toxin, and it can be applied to a range of toxins.
AB toxins consist of an enzymatic A subunit and a cell-binding B subunit1. These toxins are secreted into the extracellular milieu, but they act upon targets within the eukaryotic cytosol. Some AB toxins travel by vesicle carriers from the cell surface to the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) before entering the cytosol2-4. In the ER, the catalytic A chain dissociates from the rest of the toxin and moves through a protein-conducting channel to reach its cytosolic target5. The translocated, cytosolic A chain is difficult to detect because toxin trafficking to the ER is an extremely inefficient process: most internalized toxin is routed to the lysosomes for degradation, so only a small fraction of surface-bound toxin reaches the Golgi apparatus and ER6-12.
To monitor toxin translocation from the ER to the cytosol in cultured cells, we combined a subcellular fractionation protocol with the highly sensitive detection method of surface plasmon resonance (SPR)13-15. The plasma membrane of toxin-treated cells is selectively permeabilized with digitonin, allowing collection of a cytosolic fraction which is subsequently perfused over an SPR sensor coated with an anti-toxin A chain antibody. The antibody-coated sensor can capture and detect pg/mL quantities of cytosolic toxin. With this protocol, it is possible to follow the kinetics of toxin entry into the cytosol and to characterize inhibitory effects on the translocation event. The concentration of cytosolic toxin can also be calculated from a standard curve generated with known quantities of A chain standards that have been perfused over the sensor. Our method represents a rapid, sensitive, and quantitative detection system that does not require radiolabeling or other modifications to the target toxin.
Comparison to existing methodology
Our SPR-based translocation assay represents a rapid, sensitive, and quantitative method to detect toxin delivery into the host cytosol. The technique does not require radiolabeling or other modifications to the toxin, and it can be applied to any toxin for which an anti-toxin A chain antibody is available. Existing methods to monitor toxin passage into the cytosol also rely upon a subcellular fractionation protocol to partition cell extracts into separate cyt…
The authors have nothing to disclose.
This work was funded by NIH grant R01 AI073783 to K. Teter. We thank Dr. Shane Massey for assistance in the development of the subcellular fractionation protocol and Helen Burress for critical reading of the manuscript.
Name of the reagent | Company | Catalogue number |
Digitonin | Sigma | D141 |
Ethanol | Acros | 61509-0010 |
DMEM | Invitrogen | 11995065 |
Fetal Bovine Serum | Atlanta Biologicals | S11550 |
Ganglioside GM1 | Sigma | G7641 |
CTA | Sigma | C2398 |
PTS1 | List | 182 |
NHS (N-Hydroxysuccinimide) | Pierce | 24500 |
EDC (1-Ethyl-3-(3-dimethylaminopropyl)carbodiimide) | Thermo Scientific | 22981 |
Ethanolamine | Sigma | E0135 |
PBST | Medicago | 09-8903-100 |
Anti-CTA antibody | Santa Cruz Biotech | sc-80747 |
Anti-CTB antibody | Calbiochem | 227040 |
Anti-PTS1 antibody | Santa Cruz Biotech | sc-57639 |
Refractometer | Reichert | SR7000, SR7000DC |
SPR sensor slides | Reichert | 13206060 |
Syringe pump | Cole Palmer | 780200C |