Rich Thomas C, Britain Andrea L, Stedman Tiffany, Leavesley Silas J
Department of Pharmacology, University of South Alabama, Mobile, USA.
Methods Mol Biol. 2013;1020:73-88. doi: 10.1007/978-1-62703-459-3_5.
In recent years a variety of fluorescent probes for measurement of cGMP signals have been developed (Nikolaev et al., Nat. Methods 3:23-25, 2006; Honda et al., Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 98:2437-42, 2001; Nausch et al., Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 105:365-70, 2008). The probes are comprised of known cGMP binding sites-e.g., from phosphodiesterase type 5 (PDE5) or protein kinase G (PKG)-attached to fluorescent proteins. Binding of cGMP triggers conformational changes that alter the emitted fluorescence. In the case of Förster resonance energy transfer (FRET)-based probes, binding of cGMP alters the distance between the donor and acceptor fluorophores and thus alters FRET. However, FRET-based probes inherently have low signal-to-noise ratios, limiting the utility of these probes. Here we describe the use of hyperspectral imaging and analysis approaches to increase the signal-to-noise ratio of FRET-based cGMP measurements. These approaches are appropriate for monitoring changes in cGMP signals either in cell populations using a spectrofluorimeter or in single cells using spectral microscope systems with appropriate spectral filtering capabilities.
近年来,已经开发出了多种用于测量环鸟苷酸(cGMP)信号的荧光探针(Nikolaev等人,《自然方法》3:23 - 25,2006年;本田等人,《美国国家科学院院刊》98:2437 - 42,2001年;瑙施等人,《美国国家科学院院刊》105:365 - 70,2008年)。这些探针由已知的cGMP结合位点组成,例如来自5型磷酸二酯酶(PDE5)或蛋白激酶G(PKG),并与荧光蛋白相连。cGMP的结合会引发构象变化,从而改变发射的荧光。对于基于荧光共振能量转移(FRET)的探针,cGMP的结合会改变供体和受体荧光团之间的距离,进而改变FRET。然而,基于FRET的探针固有地具有低信噪比,限制了这些探针的实用性。在此,我们描述了使用高光谱成像和分析方法来提高基于FRET的cGMP测量的信噪比。这些方法适用于使用荧光分光光度计在细胞群体中或使用具有适当光谱滤波能力的光谱显微镜系统在单细胞中监测cGMP信号的变化。